Concepts
A critical aspect of the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) role involves learning how to segment customers and users effectively. Segmentation allows for an understanding of different customer needs, enabling the product owner to target specific areas for improvement within the product, ultimately delivering value to the end-user and enhancing their satisfaction significantly.
One of the prevalent approaches used for segmenting customers and users is Behavioral Segmentation. This method identifies and groups users based on their behavior towards the product: their usage, knowledge, attitude, preferences, needs, and responses. In the Scrum context, user segmentation helps to shape the product backlog, schedule sprints, and allocate resources effectively.
Behavioral Segmentation in Detail
Behavioral segmentation looks critically at the way customers interact with a product or service. Here are the main categories that are generally taken into account in behavioral segmentation:
- User Status: This parameter involves dividing users based on their interaction level with the product. They might be non-users, prospects, first-time users, regular users, or even ex-users of the product.
- Usage Rate: Here, customers are grouped by how heavily they use the product. They may be light, medium, or heavy users.
- Loyalty Status: This parameter groups customers based on their loyalty to the product, ranging from not loyal at all to extremely loyal.
- Readiness Stage: This parameter involves dividing customers depending on their readiness to use or buy the product. They might not be aware of the product, be informed and interested, desirous, or intending to buy.
| Segmentation Category | Group examples |
|---|---|
| User Status | Non-users, Prospects, First-time users, Regular users, Ex-users |
| Usage Rate | Light, Medium, Heavy users |
| Loyalty Status | Not loyal, Somewhat loyal, Very loyal |
| Readiness Stage | Unaware, Informed, Interested, Desirous, Intending to buy |
Illustrating Behavioral Segmentation with an Example
Suppose you are a CSPO at a company that offers a project management software. When you analyze your user data, you might find out that you have diverse user groups ranging from students using the product for their university projects, to experienced project managers in multinational corporations.
By digging deeper into these diverse user interactions, you might discover that:
- Students generally are light users, they use the software occasionally for course projects.
- Project managers, on the other hand, can be classified as heavy users who use the software daily to track multiple projects and team members.
Identifying your user segments this way allows you to tailor your product backlog to cater to the needs and behavior of these different user groups. For example, you may then decide to focus on enhancing the software’s simplicity and ease-of-use for the students while enhancing powerful features and cross-team functionalities for the project managers.
To Summarize, Behavioral Segmentation not only helps a CSPO to prioritize and manage the product backlog effectively, but it also provides crucial insights into how the product can be improved, which features to focus on, and where resources should be allocated to deliver the most value to each user group. This becomes a good practice for a CSPO to guide their team to meet the distinct needs of diverse users, thus enhancing overall customer satisfaction.
Answer the Questions in Comment Section
True or False: As a Certified Scrum Product Owner, you do not need to concern yourself with segmenting customers and users.
- Answer: False
Explanation: As a CSPO, understanding your audience through segmentation is vital to develop and prioritize features of a product that meet user needs and create value.
True or False: Behavioral segmentation is one way of segmenting customers and users.
- Answer: True
Explanation: Behavioral segmentation divides users based on their actions, behaviors, or interactions with the product.
What does Behavioral Segmentation involve?
- A) Segmenting based on age
- B) Segmenting based on location
- C) Segmenting based on users’ actions with the product
- D) Segmenting based on users’ income
Answer: C) Segmenting based on users’ actions with the product
Explanation: Behavioral segmentation focuses on understanding and categorizing users based on how they interact with the product.
True or False: Demographic segmentation based on factors like age, gender, and income can be useful in product development.
- Answer: True
Explanation: Demographic segmentation is indeed a useful method in understanding your user base and tailoring product development to meet their specific needs.
Multi-select: What are some ways of segmenting customers and users?
- A) By purchase behavior
- B) By product usage
- C) By demographic
- D) By their favorite color
Answer: A) By purchase behavior, B) By product usage, C) By demographic
Explanation: These are ways to segment users that can help provide insights into their needs and behaviors.
Single Select: Which of the following is the best example of behavioral segmentation?
- A) Dividing users by zip code
- B) Dividing users by their frequency of use
- C) Dividing users by gender
- D) Dividing users by occupation
Answer: B) Dividing users by their frequency of use
Explanation: Frequency of product use is an example of behavioral segmentation.
Single Select: Who would be the most beneficial to involve during the segmentation process for a new feature development?
- A) CEO of the company
- B) The vendors
- C) The product’s users
- D) The security team
Answer: C) The product’s users
Explanation: Involving users provides insights into their needs, behaviors, and preferences, which can help in more effective segmentation.
True or False: Segmenting customers is a one-time activity in Scrum.
- Answer: False
Explanation: Segmenting customers is an ongoing process; as products evolve and user behavior changes, segmentation should be revisited and updated.
Single Select: Why is segmenting customers important for a product owner?
- A) To better understand customer needs
- B) To lower development costs
- C) For improving server capacity
- D) For making quality coffee
Answer: A) To better understand customer needs
Explanation: Segmentation helps to tailor products according to the unique needs and expectations of different users.
Multi-select: What are some benefits of effective customer segmentation?
- A) Higher customer satisfaction
- B) Faster delivery times
- C) Improved product adoption
- D) Increased team collaboration
Answer: A) Higher customer satisfaction, C) Improved product adoption
Explanation: Effective segmentation can lead to products that meet the needs of users more closely, boosting satisfaction and adoption rates.
True or False: All users should fall into only one customer segment.
- Answer: False
Explanation: Users can fall into multiple segments, especially when using multidimensional segmentation approaches.
What is the primary goal of segmenting customers and users?
- A) To determine the company’s revenue
- B) To understand the company’s competition
- C) To identify different needs and behaviors to guide product development
- D) To distribute company news
Answer: C) To identify different needs and behaviors to guide product development
Explanation: The main aim of segmentation is to better understand customer needs, behaviors and preferences to tailor the product accordingly.
Great post on customer segmentation. One approach I use for the CSPO exam is ‘behavioral segmentation’. It helps in understanding user actions and their interactions with the product.
I appreciate your insights on customer segmentation.
Thanks for the detailed post!
For those preparing for the CSPO exam, demographic segmentation can be quite useful as well. It allows us to classify users based on age, gender, income, etc.
Very helpful blog post. Thanks!
One approach that often goes unnoticed is psychographic segmentation. It digs deeper into user beliefs, values, and lifestyle, which can be incredibly insightful for creating meaningful user stories.
This post gives a good start, but more real-world examples would make it even better.
User segmenting is crucial for CSPOs. Anyone tried ‘geographic segmentation’? It can narrow down a lot of locale-specific needs.