A few weeks ago, MailChimp’s DesignLab posted images of our User Personas to their blog. As Jason explained there, we wanted to find out who really uses MailChimp. It was a question posed to us by data analyst Allison last year. We could broadly generalize about our users (savvy, self-reliant, techie, motivated), but we realized that we couldn’t rattle off the four or five archetypical MailChimp users.
What we needed was a clear idea of our current users, so we could better empathize with them, and in turn design for and delight them—especially with a massive redesign on the horizon. To reconcile who we think uses MailChimp with who really uses MailChimp, fellow researcherSteph and I embarked on a long-term study of our customers to learn who they are; what, why, and how often they send; what kinds of issues they face; where they work; and what kind of people they are. This helps us understand how MailChimp fits into their day-to-day lives, which in turn empowers us to design smarter.
So, how’d we do it?
wsOUTLOOK 