A customer scenario is a narrative description of a hypothetical situation in which a customer interacts with a product or service. It describes the customer's goals, motivations, behaviors, and expectations, as well as the context and environment in which the interaction takes place. Customer scenarios are often used in product design, marketing, and customer experience (CX) research to help teams understand the customer's perspective and design products and services that meet their needs.
There are several benefits of using customer scenarios, including:
A typical customer scenario includes the following elements:
Customer scenarios are best used in a collaborative and iterative design process, where cross-functional teams can work together to understand the customer's perspective and design products and services that meet their needs. Some ways to use customer scenarios include:
The first part of the dialogue is the customer letting you know the problem they’re having and or what they’re trying to achieve from this interaction.
After you’ve heard your customer’s issue now it’s your turn to offer the solution available.
Next, the customer will acknowledge the potential solution and relate it back to their original issue. Will this issue solve the problem that the customer was having?
Now, the agent will explain what the solution they offered does and why it will alleviate their original issue. Here is a great chance to throw in some additional benefits this solution may have that the customer wouldn’t obviously be aware of.
Finally, if the solution you provided will alleviate the customer’s original issue, they will acknowledge the solution and you can consider the problem solved.
To create a customer scenario, start by defining the customer persona, situation or context, task or goal, actions and behaviors, emotional and cognitive states, and pain points and opportunities. Use research and data to inform the scenario and make it as realistic as possible.
The number of customer scenarios you need depends on your project goals and the complexity of the product or service. It's best to start with a few key scenarios that represent the most important customer goals and behaviors and iterate as needed.
Customer scenarios can be used in agile development by incorporating them into user stories or user epics. They can help the team understand the customer's perspective and design features and functionality that meet their needs.
You should update your customer scenarios as needed based on changes in customer needs, market trends, and product or service updates. It's important to regularly review and revise your scenarios to ensure that they remain relevant and effective.
