Each crypto company, whether it is a payment provider, crypto wallet operator, crypto exchange, or even a crypto iGaming platform, needs to understand its ecosystem and business goals. This makes it necessary to understand the user journey of each segment of the targeted audience.

Companies focused on financial growth and competitiveness must be able to correctly profile their current customer base, understand their motivations and goals (why they use the product and whether it is possible to upscale them), and identify their pain points. Naturally, when creating user personas, it is essential to rely on data analytics. So, let’s take a closer look at who they are and how to create effective user personas.

1. What Is a User Persona?

A user persona is a fictitious or semi-fictitious person imagined to be using your product. The main task is not to view your product through the prism of your technologies and features (the company’s perspective), but to see it from different angles as if certain users perceived and evaluated your product. These personas are essentially clusters of ideal users, based on analysis of current user databases and market analysis (including competitor analysis).

Properly created user personas help crypto businesses stay connected to their customers, understand their needs, goals, and behaviors, and guide them in decision-making. They also assist in developing the business further in a highly competitive environment such as crypto. Additionally, user personas help identify the potential for developing customer-oriented products, features, and overall business strategies.

2. The Essentials of Creating Crypto User Personas

Most crypto companies are product-based. To develop their products and remain competitive, they must understand their users' expectations, address any negative experiences, and determine which features to include in their product roadmap. Additionally, they need strategies to maintain retention rates at a high level and satisfy key user needs. Properly composed and defined user personas help crypto companies build better products.

In different companies, various departments are involved in creating user personas; sometimes it is the UX team, Product, and sometimes Growth. Regardless of who compiles the user personas, one must always rely on four key ‘How to’ points:

1. How to correctly use data analytics and cluster properly users by different attributes and metrics.
2. How to properly connect with customers and reach as many different user clusters as possible.
3. How to correctly pose product questions to users and determine whether to ask them through surveys or individual interviews.
4. And finally, how to correctly interpret the data and divide users into user personas.

All questions for users can be divided into two broad categories: the actions of customers with cryptocurrency in different situations and the goals they are pursuing/achieving.

After you gather product data (answers to questions) from your users, you can divide them into user personas into the following segments:

• When did you first become acquainted with cryptocurrencies? What motivated you to use cryptocurrencies?
• When did you get your first crypto wallet? What motivated you to use cryptocurrencies?
• What cryptocurrencies do you prefer to use?
• What do you use cryptocurrency for? Wealth preservation, protection, etc.?
• What platforms and Web3 sites do you use? What do you like about them? What specific features do you like? What would you like to change on our platform? What features would you like to see?
• What frustrates you most when using our product?

User Profiling Segments

After you gather product data (answers to questions) from your users, you can divide them into user personas into the following segments:

• Demographics. Age, region and country of residence, city, gender, profession, education, and income.
• Product behavioral patterns: Frequency of interaction with cryptocurrencies/crypto services/your crypto product.
• Motivation: What can your cryptocurrency product help them solve in the medium and long term?
• Use case (global goals): What global problem does this user persona solve using your website?
• Pain points: What shortcomings does your user persona highlight on your platform that prevent him from solving a global problem?
• The user persona type: Usually the label for the user personas.

4. Examples of Potential Crypto User Personas for Crypto Exchanges or P2P Marketplaces

Type A: The Professional Trader

• Demographics: 26 - 40 years old, male, lives in big cities or urban areas, works in tech professions (software developers, project managers, engineers, financial analytics), has higher education and a high income.
• Behavioral patterns: Engages with cryptocurrencies on an hourly basis, and interacts with your crypto platform daily or even hourly.
• Motivation: Seeking significant financial benefits and constant income, aiming to become a crypto whale.
• Use cases: Invests in cryptocurrencies, participates in ICOs, has an interest in new cryptocurrencies for investment and trading purposes, interest in wealth preservation.
• Pain points: Needs fast and automated cryptocurrency transactions, wants featured offers to promote their sell offers, and requires uninterrupted API operations.

Type B: Crypto Hustler

• Demographics: 24 - 38 years old, male, live in urban areas, a young professional and digital tech enthusiast working in creative professions, has higher or professional education, and enjoys a high or upper-middle income.
• Behavioral patterns: Engages with cryptocurrencies weekly, and interacts with your crypto platform on a weekly basis.
• Motivation: Believes in crypto, trades, or HODLs frequently but doesn’t rely on crypto as a main revenue stream, and seeks to diversify their portfolio.
• Use cases: Interested in new booming tokens for HODLing, enjoys different NFT collections, explores earning opportunities with crypto, like learning about new developments in the crypto space.
• Pain points: Looks for new crypto opportunities based on the variety of features and good UX/UI design, seeks ways to capitalize on crypto, and is less loyal to your crypto platform.

Type C: Crypto Newbie

• Demographics: 18-25 years old, male, lives in suburban areas, college student or young professional, has professional education, and enjoys a low to medium income.
• Behavioral patterns: Purchases small amounts of key cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, USDT), and seeks stable long-term investments.
• Motivation: Eager to learn more about cryptocurrency and partial wealth preservation opportunities.
• Use cases: interested in “traditional” cryptocurrencies for investment purposes, uses crypto exchange primarily for HODLing.
• Pain points: Lack of experience, concerns about cryptocurrency market volatility, and confusion over crypto platform functionality.

There can be dozens of such user personas – it all depends on how effectively you can ask clear questions to accurately profile them and segment them properly.

Conclusion

User personas are crucial for designing features and functionality that best meet the needs and preferences of your diverse users. Additionally, user persona segments can be effectively used for targeted marketing campaigns aimed at both customer retention and acquisition.

Moreover, your customer experience (CX) can be optimized to benefit users by adopting a tailored support approach. This includes developing a knowledge base and support articles specific to each user persona, addressing their unique challenges, and providing the best support.

Don’t forget to regularly update your user personas database. The crypto market is dynamic, and users may shift from one persona to another based on their evolving needs and challenges. As new products and features are developed, users may seek different solutions from your platform.