Blueprint
What is the customer profile, and how much should I trust it?
Why it works this way
A customer profile gives each group its own jobs, frustrations and wins, and it is a starting guess you check with real people.
A profile makes the people concrete enough to ask good questions. It is built to be argued with. The two lists of frustrations are separate so that a worry about trusting an agent does not get lost inside a worry about the job.
What we gave up: a profile you can rewrite in place. Your corrections live in what you record from real conversations.
What it is
A customer profile describes one group of people your agent would serve. Discover Agents writes one for each group, from what it read. It has four parts:
- What they are trying to get done.
- What frustrates them today. The pains of doing the job now.
- What worries them about handing it over. Their worries about trusting an agent with the job. These are kept apart from the first list on purpose. A worry about handing over is not a worry about the job, and read as one list they cancel each other out.
- What they would love.
The profile is our description of the group, and nobody has confirmed it. Treat it as a starting guess.
How to use it
- Open a test page. The facts under the test's name include a chip for the group you are talking to, such as "3 · ops leads".
- Press the chip. A pop-up shows the profile for that group.
- Read the profile before your first conversation. Then listen for where it is wrong.
How to correct it
You cannot edit a profile on the board today. The correction is the work the product asks of you anyway. Talk to people in the group, and write down what you actually heard, in your own words. That is the evidence that counts, and it outranks what we wrote. See How do I write down what I learned?.
What it will never do
- Claim the profile is confirmed. It is our description of the group, written from what we read, and nobody has checked it with your customers.
- Count the profile as evidence for your test. Evidence comes from what real people say, do or commit to in your tests.
If something looks off
- No chip, or no profile in the pop-up. That test is not about a particular group, or no profile was written for it.
- The profile does not match your customers. Say so in your findings, and let the conversations change your mind.
- A group's profile is short. Some groups have fewer than four parts. The pop-up shows only what exists.
- An older board. Boards made before profiles were written for every group may show none.