Choose the decision segmentation must support
Segmentation should help a specific choice: who to serve first, which offer to build, how to communicate or where to distribute. Different decisions may require different groupings. Do not expect one set of personas to answer every business question.
Define the population you can actually study. Existing customers, lost prospects and people who never considered the product offer different evidence. State which groups are missing from your current view.
Group by meaningful differences in behavior
Compare the task, urgency, available alternatives, buying authority, expertise and delivery constraints. A useful segment differs in a way that changes the offer or operating approach. A demographic distinction with no decision implication may not help.
Write each segment as a hypothesis with supporting observations and counterexamples. Avoid assuming that all members share every trait. Record overlap and situations in which a person moves between groups.
Use cases to broaden the candidate segments
Cases can reveal overlooked buying situations or users, such as a practitioner who influences a purchase without holding the budget. Extract these possibilities, then check whether they exist in your own market.
Compare how serving a segment changes support, acquisition and delivery. A group with strong interest may still be difficult to reach or serve. Treat commercial attractiveness as a separate question from vivid persona detail.
Validate the difference that changes your action
An illustrative research product might compare people preparing recurring client briefs with occasional readers. Test whether the workflow, frequency and required evidence differ, rather than assuming one group will pay more.
Choose a next action for each segment hypothesis and a rule for revising it. Merge groups that lead to the same practical decision; split them only when evidence reveals a meaningful difference.
Use this worksheet for your decision
Copy this into your notes. Leave unknowns visible instead of filling gaps with guesses.
Decision to support: Population observed and missing: Customer task and urgency: Buying role: Alternatives and constraints: Segment hypothesis: Supporting and contrary observations: Operational implications: Validation and revision rule:Download the text worksheet ↓
Find evidence in the archives
Choose a supporting case and a counterexample with a different outcome. Read their sources and check whether their conditions match yours.
Cases to practice with (read and check the underlying sources):
Bring your question to the cases
Search a company or topic in the app, read the cases and ask follow-up questions to compare approaches.