persona-builder

name	persona-builder
description	Build buyer personas grounded in real customer interviews — goals, pains, JTBD, information diet, objections. Use on "build personas for <product>", "who is <role> really?", or "tighten my buyer persona".
allowed-tools	["Read","Write","AskUserQuestion"]

Buyer Persona Builder

Personas are only useful if they change decisions. Build them from interview evidence, not archetypes.

Workflow

1. Name the role (e.g., "VP Platform Engineering at 200-800 person SaaS"). Resist building multiple personas before you've validated one.
2. Source evidence. Ask the user for: 5+ customer interviews, sales call recordings/notes, support tickets from this role, public content they've written/read.
3. If they can't supply evidence, do not invent. Either (a) go interview 5 people, or (b) build a hypothesis persona clearly marked as such.
4. Extract patterns, not averages. A pattern appears in ≥ 3/5 interviews.
5. Write the persona to ./personas/<role>.md.

Persona template

# <Role> at <company profile>  ·  Source: <n> interviews + <m> calls

## One-line
A <title> responsible for <scope> who gets promoted/fired on <top 1-2 metrics>.

## Jobs to be done (ranked by frequency × importance)
1. <JTBD> — evidence: "<verbatim quote>"
2. …
3. …

## What they're measured on
- <KPI 1>
- <KPI 2>

## Pains (ranked)
1. <Pain> — frequency: <n>/<m> interviews — verbatim: "<quote>"
2. …

## Current workarounds
- How they solve it today: <tools + process>
- What they dislike about it: …

## Buying behavior
- Who they involve: <roles>
- How they evaluate: <criteria + process>
- How long it takes: <weeks/months>
- What typically kills a deal: <common objection>

## Information diet
- Communities: <Slack groups, subreddits, Discord>
- Newsletters/podcasts: …
- Who they trust: <named peers or thought leaders>
- Who they ignore: <anti-pattern sources>

## Language (use these words, avoid those)
Use: "<their phrase>"
Avoid: "<industry jargon they don't use>"

## Best channels to reach
Warm: <warm-intro patterns that actually work>
Cold: <which cold channel has pulled response>
Don't bother: <channel with 0 response rate>

## Not-this-persona (disqualifiers)
If the prospect <X>, they're a different persona — route to <Y> or disqualify.

Guardrails

• If two "personas" have the same JTBD and buying process, collapse them into one.
• No demographic fluff (hobbies, car, weekend routine) — only include if it changes a GTM decision.
• Mark claims with evidence counts. Unsourced claims should be removed, not softened.
• Refresh every 6 months. Roles drift; tech stacks change; personas decay.