A presentation of how to design and describe your customer and selection of the target market.

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Customer Personas
& Market Validation
Gigi Wang
EIA Innovation Academy
Nice, France
6 June 2016

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Gigi with Mother
Taipei, Taiwan
The Beginning

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Gigi with
Max (23) and
Zac (19)
Now

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 Born in Taiwan, grew up in US. English is my 3rd language
 Stanford University Engineering, UC Berkeley Business
 Started career at 3 Fortune 100’s – Exxon, Pepsi, AT&T
 Transition to entrepreneurship (>6 start-ups)
 Currently:
o Industry Fellow & Faculty, UC
Berkeley SCET
o Managing Partner, MG-Team, innovation &
entrepreneurship consulting company
o Board Member, MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB)
o Advisor to USMarketAccess, Mobility Ventures,
EU Future Enterprise Workgroup, and numerous
start-ups
My Journey

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• Launched 2nd Internet
Service Provider in
Singapore
– 1995, expat wife who didn’t
want to sit by pool, so worked
18 hour days
– From 2 to 100 people in 6
months
– Beat largest competitor
(SingTel) in 12 months
– Innovation in product & Go-to-
Market strategy
– Lots more innovation in problem
solving
– IPO’d on NASDAQ in 1999
Start-up  IPO

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Success AND Failures

7. University of California
Identifying the Customers &
their Personas

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More startups
fail from
a lack of
customers
than from a failure
of product
development

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User
Buyer
Partner
Appeal to Every Customer in the Value Chain
Who is the Customer(s)?

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Slide 10
• Map used in a sales
presentation to state-
owned China Telecom.
• Kicked out of meeting.
• Successful Chevrolet
Nova did not sell in Latin
America.
• “No Va” means “No Go” in
Spanish.
Know the Customer Well

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Cake Mix for Japan?

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• Many startups aren’t clear on who is their
customer
• Often, there are 2-3 different customers
• We often refer to customer segments
• Customer segments is a great, high-level idea, but
making it more personal helps you to
understand them even better
Who Is Your Customer?

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Every Customer Must
Benefit
SMART
Servicing
of Cars

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• There are multiple types of
customer persona’s
Buyer persona
User persona
Investor persona
Partner persona
Employee persona
• The idea of a “persona” can
be employed in many ways
What is a Persona?

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Buyer personas are research-based archetypal
(modeled) representations of
1. Who buyers are,
2. What they are trying to accomplish,
3. What goals drive their behavior,
4. How they think,
5. How they buy, and
6. Where they buy
7. When they buy
8. Why they make buying decisions.
Buyer Persona

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1. Who buyers are, Mother of 2, stays at home, husband
works
2. What they are trying to accomplish, Be good mother,
cook well, clean well
3. What goals drive their behavior, Raise smart kids,
happy husband, approval from family/friends
4. How they think, ?????
5. How they buy, and ?????
6. Where they buy ?????
7. When they buy ?????
8. Why they make buying decisions.
Lack of an oven in home. Don’t like
taste of chocolate in rice.
Ex:JP Housewife Persona

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Beer Purchases in US

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• Buyer personas (sometimes referred to as marketing
personas) are fictional, generalized representations
of your ideal customers.
• Personas help us all -- in marketing, sales, product, and
services -- internalize the ideal customer we're
trying to attract, and relate to our customers as real
humans.
• Having a deep understanding of your buyer
persona(s) is critical to driving content creation,
product development, sales follow up, and really anything
that relates to customer acquisition and retention.
More about Buyer Persona

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Research-Based
• The primary foundation of buyer personas is the
research of buying behaviors.
• Much of the research principles are rooted in the
origins of personas as well as in the social
sciences.
• Buyer research involves the techniques of
–qualitative research
–ethnographic research
–business anthropology
–digital anthropology.
Understanding the
Buyer Persona
Same Approach
Can be Used for
User, Partner, etc

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Cross-
Functional
Team
• Marketing
• R&D
• Quality
Control
• Engineering
• Production
New Product Development
Product Designed for Women by Women

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• Buyer Persona?
–University Overseas program,
Government, Individual…
• User Persona?
–University students, aspiring
entrepreneurs
• Partner Persona?
–Enterprises promoting innovation, local government
Persona Exercise

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Sales Process
Buyer Behavior

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Prospect
Qualify
Convince the
Customer
Close
Implementation
Service
Generate
Leads
Pre-Sale Post-Sale
Sales Life-cycle

24. University of California
Customer Segmentation &
Market Validation

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 What is the target market?? Start-ups should
focus only on ONE, perhaps TWO markets max.
 Important Concepts
 Total Addressable Market (TAM)
 Segmented Addressable Market (SAM)
 Share of Market (SOM, % of SAM)
a
TAM for Rice-
cookers:
All the different
organizations that
serve rice in Korea.
Private Households
Restaurants
SAM #2
SAM #1
Identify Target Market (s)

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Customer Segmentation
Identify the target
market segment and
customers and FOCUS
Do not try to address
all segments at the
same time
After you succeed or
fail at one segment, you
can then move on to
another
Cars
Truck
s
Buses
New Vehicle Navigation
System
TAM = all
vehicles
Market Segments

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Ex: Exometry – no
segmentation
Applying optics to improve
small particle flow cytometry
Frank Coumans, Mercedes Tuin, Edwin van der Pol
Academic Medical Center
November 11th, 2013
ACE Venture Lab Bootcamp

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Exometry – with
segmentation
Early diagnosis of blood clots
Frank Coumans, Mercedes Tuin, Edwin van der Pol
Academic Medical Center
November 15th, 2013
ACE Venture Lab Bootcamp

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Quantify, Quantify, Quantify

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 Secondary Research
 NOT direct with customer
 Google searches
 Existing industry reports
 Analysts like Gartner,
Forrester, IDG
 Annual reports
 Industry events
o Program / topics
o Speakers
 Media
o News, industry mags
o Magazines
 Government data bases
Market Research

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http://www.annualreports.com/Company/google-inc
EX: Google Annual Reports

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Market Research Firms

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How Big is Your Business?
 Top down estimation, year 1 (1995):
• TAM: 3m people in SG ÷ 5 people/ household
x $20/month x 12 = $144 million
• SAM: Targeted segment of households with
students 16 – 24 yrs old = 35%  $50
million
• Penetration of SAM of 10% = $5 million
 Bottoms up estimation, year 1 (1995):
• Capacity: Add 5000 accounts per month @
$20/month.
• Total revenues achievable: $7.8 million
IPO 1999 with
Market Cap of
$530 million

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 Secondary Research
 NOT direct with customer
 Google searches
 Existing industry reports
 Analysts like Gartner,
Forrester, IDG
 Annual reports
 Industry events
o Program / topics
o Speakers
 Media
o News, industry mags
o Magazines
 Government data bases
 Primary Research
 Observe Customer Behavior
 Talk directly to customers
o In the street
o Conferences/Events
o Surveys (SurveyMonkey)
 Set up meetings
o Use LinkedIn to connect
o Hire business
development resource
 Custom market research
firm
o They do interviews
o Focus groups
Market Research

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Power of Observation

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Use & Abuse Friends
“Looking to take a US company
international? New manuscript "Built for Global"
is looking for a few readers to provide
input. Small honorarium available. Contact Janet
Gregory if interested.”
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janetg123

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LinkedIn

38. University of California
InMail

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Be Creative
In 2008
• Founders struggling
with customer
acquisition
• Running low on cash Read Article on CEO
Brian Chevsky talk about
early challenges

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Get Out There
 NETWORKING: Meet lots of people, share your story,
discuss your ideas, ask for help, offer help
o Omnisio founder met Google/YouTube acquirers while
networking in San Francisco, bought for $15 million
 Lots of networking events in around the world in every
city

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EX: Smash (SAP start-up)

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Sophia Antipolis – local
community and 1st customers
• > 1300 companies
• 30,000+ jobs

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Thank you
Gigi Wang
Managing Partner, MG-Team
Industry Fellow & BMOE Chair, Sutardja
Center for Entrepreneurship &
Technology
UC Berkeley
gigiwang@Berkeley.edu
+1 925 963 8407