You’ve already decided on the issue you’ll address with your side project. Now it’s time to check if a sufficiently large group of people are grappling with it to make the entire endeavour worthwhile.
- Describing the ideal customer (creating a buyer persona),
- Determining the size of the target group based on publicly available numerical data,
- Experimentally verify if the target group is interested in your solution.
I only have a little experience creating buyer personas, so I turned to AI for help. Based on a previously established hypothesis (see: customer needs without customers), I constructed the following prompt for GPT:
Act as a marketing manager. Build a buyer persona based on the following issues noticed among my target group.
- Lack of a professional no-code/low-code editor for microcontroller programming.
- Absence of a universal and user-friendly environment for remote microcontroller management.
- No universal building blocks that can be used for prototype construction.
- A need for more educational materials for beginners that would assist in building their robot step-by-step from scratch.
From the generated response, it’s worthwhile extracting this information, which you will use to craft messages for your target group:
- age: 30-40 years;
- education: higher technical education;
- knowledge sources: technological forums, DIY, microcontroller and robotics YouTube channels, newsletters from trusted brands, equipment reviews;
- purchasing behaviours: quality is more important than price; recommendations and mentions in reviewed tutorials are crucial;
- aspirations: constructing their functional electronic device, educating others, gaining recognition in the DIY community, and building a tech start-up.
To describe my target group in one word, they would be makers.
Makers are characterised by their passion for creating, modifying and repairing objects. They combine traditional craft skills with modern technology, such as 3D printing, programming, robotics and electronics. They often participate in workshops, known as maker spaces, collaborating with other enthusiasts and sharing knowledge and skills. The maker movement is associated with the “DIY” (Do It Yourself) ideology and promotes creativity, independent learning and knowledge sharing.
In my next post, I’ll estimate the number of makers worldwide.
And lastly, a question: what other features might characterise makers? I’d love to hear your perspective on this.