Recruiting for Personas: Asking Physicians to Describe Their Peers
Most interviews ask physicians about themselves. This one also asked them about their colleagues.
A device company planning several launches wanted to map the customer journey in the venous market. The aim was to build clear persona segments of physicians, based on factors such as willingness to adopt new technology, loyalty to existing devices and potential to grow procedural volume.
The brief called for 45-minute Zoom interviews with US interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons and interventional cardiologists.
The discussion guide was built around an unusual angle. Early in each interview, physicians were asked to sort their colleagues into types, top of mind, based on training, conferences and day-to-day work. Only then did the conversation turn to their own background, attitudes to their profession, educational channels and venous stenting practice.
Screening data played an active role. Moderators reminded physicians of the answers they had given to qualify, then probed the reasons for their choices.
The session closed with physicians summarizing their categories of colleagues again, giving a second, more considered view after the full discussion.
For the client, the payoff was segmentation built partly from physicians' own language. That helps sales and marketing teams prioritize time and tailor messages to the physicians each persona describes.
