18A - Create a Customer Avatar

Meet Ydelis - 39 year old mother of 5

• Considers herself a woman of faith
• Close to her family
• Puerto-Rican family background
• Married
• Works from home as a home designer
• Loves to shop, but mostly looking for a bargain
• One of her children is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Two are adopted
• Another is diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder
• In her very infrequent "free time" Ydelis likes to take jogs around the neighborhood, read books and grocery shop (it's therapeutic for her).
• Loves to spend time with her kids and their dogs
• Owns two schnauzers named Kiko and Mino
• Is happy with her life but sometimes feels overwhelmed by the amount of things she has going on

While typing this out, I couldn't help but notice how much of myself I was putting into this avatar. Sure, she is a completely made up individual and I snatched that stock photo of a mother reading to her children from Google, but a lot of the hobbies and likes/dislikes I molded her into, came from my own persona and background. Ydelis and I share a lot of things in common. Although I am not 42 and not yet a mother, I do love spending time with children (and doggos), reading books, and grocery shopping. We both share Hispanic backgrounds and consider ourselves women of faith. I think, without putting a thought into it, often when we create a product/service and picture our customers, we often picture someone like ourselves with a similar need in that product/service. After all, the idea for the venture, began with ourselves, so it doesn't at all surprise me that one of the customers, might just be someone like us.