Summary
A story about how to quantify and use survey data to create audience clusters that are statistically representative of the people that use your online product or service. Edgar joins the dots between multiple research/pattern finding/storytelling techniques, such as proto-personas, affinity mapping, survey creation, quantification of qualitative data, organic clustering of audiences, user interviews, journey maps, and business modeling canvas. It makes research tangible and actionable: instead of being an end-point that provides stakeholders with insights, it takes stakeholders through an inclusive and structured process they can be part of.
Key Insights
-
•
Research often fails when stakeholders are not involved or don't trust the data sources and methodologies.
-
•
Treating research as a product, with stakeholders as users, drastically increases engagement and usability.
-
•
Using proto-persona workshops with cross-department stakeholders helps generate unbiased, relevant survey questions.
-
•
Clustering survey data via Python and correlation matrices can reveal meaningful user segments with statistical significance.
-
•
Statistical validity (e.g., 95% confidence at 5% margin) is critical for stakeholder buy-in in large user bases.
-
•
Behavioral and demographic clusters need to be augmented with emotional attributes to create actionable personas.
-
•
Affinity mapping large qualitative datasets reduces noise and distills coherent narratives and pain points.
-
•
Mapping pain points to measurable hypotheses enables prioritization based on user impact and implementation effort.
-
•
Divergent and convergent workshops using tools like the business model canvas help explore and refine value proposition delivery.
-
•
Iterative, lean research with frequent stakeholder feedback helps identify and minimize bias effectively.
Notable Quotes
"Research should be done the same way products are built, with stakeholders as your users."
"If you frame the research in terms your stakeholders understand, they will become research-hungry."
"We don’t make big deliverables because they create friction; instead, we create shared understanding through conversations."
"Proto-persona sessions helped us avoid departmental bias and uncover the questions stakeholders really cared about."
"We used a 0.8 correlation threshold to tightly cluster similar survey responses, balancing cluster count and inclusion."
"Clusters alone aren’t personas; we turned clusters into interview screeners and then emotional personas."
"We wrote hypotheses as we believe this pain point matters, here’s how we test it, and how success looks."
"Different stakeholders tackle the delivery problem differently, which gave us necessary divergent thinking."
"Biases surface as you iterate, so lean approaches help you find and fix them quicker."
"Marital status mattered because some people buy cars for their spouses or kids, not just themselves."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Focus groups promote diversity and inclusivity by bringing different perspectives together in a room."
Taiye Akin-AkinyosoyeAmplifying voices and enhancing user research through group interviews
March 12, 2025
"The culture here is not competitive; people openly share their work, ask for feedback, and genuinely help each other grow."
Caitlyn Hampton Monica Lee Jina YoonCompass 101: Growing Your Career In A Startup World
June 11, 2021
"Design is a poorly designed word. It’s tough because it’s noun and verb and everything in between."
John MaedaMaking Sense of Enterprise UX
June 9, 2016
"The key to managing a design team is to not just ignore problems but keep talking about them, even if there’s no quick fix."
Shipra Kayan Tess DixonHow Tess Dixon Facilitates Team Engagement and Collaboration at Condé Nast Using Miro
October 1, 2021
"If Charlie has been tampered with, Alice needs a clear way to be alerted that she shouldn't trust it."
Heidi TrostWhen AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
August 7, 2025
"Systemic deceptive design is harder to regulate because manipulation happens across time and user context."
Harry Brignull Mark Leiser Robert StribleyBeyond Clicks and Tricks: Why deceptive design has grown into a regulatory faultline
January 16, 2026
"We have these four pillars—purpose, people, process, and progress—that ground our thinking about UX research's future."
Taylor KlassmanShaping the Next Era of UX Research: Collaborative Forum
March 11, 2025
"We decided to make it an opt-in program and that accelerated early wins and self-selected positive outcomes."
Phil GilbertA Consistent Culture of Design
May 14, 2015
"I give every team I work with an 80/20 rule: 80% of your UI can be standard components, and 20% must be custom designed."
Dan Mall“Ask Me Anything” with Dan Mall, Author of Upcoming Rosenfeld Title, Design that Scales
October 2, 2023
