Persona research for Cognizant
Cognizant requested a brand and website pivot from consulting firm Vivaldi, to move into a new and more advanced space in the industry. Simultaneously a company rebrand and new direction was taking place while I considered users and future ideal Cognizant personas.
Role
User Researcher
Services
Customer and stakeholder interviews
Developed personas for the development of the new Cognizant.com
Team
Myself (leading research), brand analyst intern
The Ask
Cognizan't’s goal was to move away from IT services into a more comprehensive space to rival companies like IBM, Deloitte, and Accenture. I led the discovery and research phase, with the goal of better understanding Cognizant’s customers. The research deliverables were then used by the visual and interaction designs to create a refreshed website, with a targeted user experience that reflects Cognizant’s rebrand and new direction.
Research & discovery
Through a series of interviews, we gathered insights about perceptions of Cognizant, user needs, and challenges for B2B vendor selection processes. The interviews clarified that the current path of selecting a tech partner was a drawn-out process; like any B2B buying process, it isn't as simple as visiting a website, selecting something they like, and clicking ‘buy.’
There is an extensive array of decisions, layers, and complexities to hiring a tech partner, and Speaking to customers helped us to understand exactly who is involved in the process, who might visit the websites at different points during the process, and what exactly they're looking for.
Internal and external interviews
I began to group the findings into 8 or 9 key archetypes of website visitors, based on their roles, industries, the reason for visiting the website; persona archetypes ranged from Chief Information Officer to Marketing Associate, across industries, and on a spectrum of that persona's organization’s digital-savviness. After getting feedback from the team, some of these archetypes were merged.
Building persona archetypes
These 8 initial personas were given a bit more structure, using these “LinkedIn Profile” templates to bring them to life. They include typical persona sections like key needs, goals, pain-points, persona’s role, and storyline - but I also added more density in the form of things like: a ‘contrarian’ persona, the specific phases in the buying journey that this persona would have an influence in, the specific actions they take during a search for a tech partner, and more.
Bring the personas to life
Client workshop
Co-creating the personas
Using collaborative virtual platforms, the Vivaldi team hosted a workshop for about 16 key Cognizant stakeholders to share the 8 initial personas. Our goal was to discuss and narrow down the personas to a more targeted and manageable number. We encouraged debate to agree upon three to four key personas to move forward with in terms of relevance to Cognizant’s website refresh. The Vivaldi team would then create targeted journeys for these personas, but still cover a broad enough spectrum to reach the outlying use cases for those visiting the website in the future.
We walked through each of the personas, adding sticky notes with comments and ideas. Then, the group voted and agreed on four key personas (Raj, Frank, Veronica, and Dana) to focus on, with some minor adjustments to be made to each.
Outcomes & next steps
Persona journey maps
I created experience journeys for each persona, which would serve as a platform to discuss the user experience on Cognizant’s website in the broader context of the vendor selection process. These go into greater detail about what role that persona plays across the 7 phases of vendor selection, which include: 1. problem identification, 2. early solution exploration, 3. requirements building, 4. vendor research, 5. validation of selected vendors, 6. consensus creation across teams, and 7. purchase and engagement.
These storylines are meant to encourage the participants of this workshop to think about the experiences of the real people visiting Cognizant’s new website, those really involved in the selection process.
Workshopping part 2
Above is a comprehensive workshop that guided discussions with stakeholders across Brand and Positioning as well as user journeys.
In the lower-left-hand corner of the workshop board are the persona experience maps. On the right, we researched and discussed disruptors, meant to get the stakeholders thinking about what other types of exciting companies, brands, businesses, and experiences the personas are interacting with on a daily basis. These range from ordering food on Grubhub to gaming on platforms like Fortnite. Disruptors shape expectations for all interactions, including Cognizant’s new website, sparking conversation outside of the lane of Cognizant. We discussed "How might Cognizant... do x in a similar way?" to later be clustered into key themes and ideas for the website experience.
This workshop is where my time on the project came to a close, as I handed over my research and personas to the team to move forward.