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PH1 core capbility
YEARS EXPERIENCE
9 to 10 years
TYPICAL CLIENT
VP Product, Head of Design, CMO, Director of CX
NECESSARY TIMELINE
2 to 3 months
Our POV
Most personas are demographic fiction: a stock photo, an age, a job title and a list of goals nobody validated. They get printed, pinned up and ignored, because they never told anyone what to build.
A mental model is more useful and harder to fake. It describes how a person categorises the problem, what they believe the options are, and what they think your product is for. Adoption problems are usually mental model problems — the product is organised around how the company thinks, and the customer is looking for something else.
What We Do
Research the model, not the demographics. Interviews and card-sort exercises that surface how customers group the problem space and what vocabulary they use for it.
Build segments that predict behaviour. Segments defined by what people do and believe rather than who they are, validated against your own data where it exists.
Map the mismatch. Where your product’s structure, naming and flow diverge from the customer’s model, which is where the friction and the support tickets come from.
What We'll Deliver
Mental model map showing how customers categorise the problem
Behavioural segments with the evidence that distinguishes them
Vocabulary audit: the words customers use against the words you use
Mismatch analysis between your product structure and their model
Implications for naming, navigation, onboarding and messaging
Personas your team will actually use, grounded in the research
When This is Essential
Customers consistently misunderstand what the product is for
Onboarding completion is low and the cause is not usability
Naming and navigation are contested and the debate is circular
Marketing language and product language have drifted apart
A new segment is being targeted and nobody knows how they think
Combine With These Services
Customer & User Interviews — the sessions the models are built from
Customer Journey Mapping — place the models against the journey
UX Audits & Accessibility — check the interface against the model
Part of Customer Research.
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Submissions