Personas by John Vlastelica

©2013 Recrui-ng Toolbox, Inc. www.Recrui-ngToolbox.com Page 1

SourceCon 2013 Atlanta

John Vlastelica Founder, Managing Director Recruiting Toolbox, Inc. Talent 42 Tech Recruiting Conference Recruiting Leadership Lab

Copyright 2013 Recrui-ng Toolbox, Inc. www.Recrui-ngToolbox.com

Get out your iDroid-‐8, and tweet your assess off! @vlastelica #SourceCon #Personas

PERSONAS How to Leverage

Personas

to

Improve the

Credibility &

Effec=veness

of Sourcers

Today’s Focus -‐>

HELPING YOU WIN IN YOUR JOB

Effectiveness and Credibility of Sourcers and Recruiters



Simple Example

WHAT IS A PERSONA?

SOCCER MOM

What’s a Persona? Prac=cally Speaking, they typically show up as a “profile” or narra=ve used by marketers to focus their messages on a specific target market (group of customers) and used by designers to create bePer user interfaces

WHAT IS A PERSONA?

A persona represents a cluster of users who exhibit similar behavioral paOerns in their purchasing

decisions, use of technology or products, customer service preferences, lifestyle choices, and the like. Behaviors, aRtudes, and mo-va-ons are common to a "type" regardless of age, gender, educa-on, and other typical demographics. In fact, personas

vastly span demographics.



WHAT IS A PERSONA?

MY EXPERIENCE WITH PERSONAS

400+ SoTware Engineers to

Hire

New Sourcing Func=on

Decentralized Tech Org

Overwhelming Priori=za=on

Model

Problems I was trying to solve… We don’t have =me for my central sourcing team to par=cipate in every req strategy mee=ng. The market was hot! How can we improve our (early) direct sourcing/screening funnel metrics? lead:return call, call:resume, resume:screen, screen:nterview ra=os Job descrip=ons and job =tles sucked. SUCKED! Selling (3 C’s) company, culture, comp wasn’t enough – had to sell the job/opportunity in a way that really spoke to these hard-‐to-‐recruit people. Req-‐level sourcing didn’t create the right mindset or set us up for success, and high risk of losing candidates because of internal rou=ng issues.



AREN’T WE ALL ALREADY USING PERSONAS? MAYBE, PROBABLY NOT

Personas? Job Descrip-ons

Job Families (Comp)

Req Sourcing Strategy Profiles Campus

Alloca-on Model

Employer Branding Messaging

SAMPLE PERSONAS

5 Flavors of SDEs

Core (Fun

gible) SDE

Profile Algorithm/AI

UI/Front End

High Transac-on Systems

Tools

Test/Quality

Example Core SDE Requirements Computer Science Degree Proficiency in Programming Languages Object Oriented Design Skills SoTware Discipline (lifecycle, development methodologies, build and deployment) Opera=ng Systems and Plahorms



HOW PERSONAS FIT IN

Job Targets

Persona Targets

Engineering Targets

Overall Target Co’s/Schools

Job Match (QIAA)

Persona Match

Engineering Match

Culture/Competency

Match

Selling Candidate

Selling Job/Dept

Selling Persona

Selling Tech

Selling Company

Sourcing Selec=ng Selling

Core

Persona

Job/Req & Candidate

SAMPLE PERSONA

“Alex” – Algorithm and Ar=ficial Intelligence SDE Who is he? Leverages math, sta=s=cs, algorithms to solve big problems Probably Working on…? Machine learning, search, informa=on retrieval, data warehouse What makes him different? Math and stats fana=c. Loves large, complex problems with logical solu=ons. MUST be able to measure it. Target Companies? Companies using terabytes of data (banking, search, database companies, etc) Degrees? CompSci plus with heavy math orienta=on (probably a MS or PhD) Selling points…? We have the 4th largest database in the world. Massively complex algorithms across org, from front end customer data to back end logis=cs.



SAMPLE PERSONA

“Isabel” – UI (User Interface)/Front End SDE Who is she? Driven to create aPrac=ve, yet prac=cal and scalable designs for end-‐users. Very interested in user behavior – why they do what they do. Probably Working on…? Building large scale websites, involved in product design, building tools to measure user behavior on websites What makes her different? Loves making things people will use. Very user centric. Less likely to be mo=vated just by complex engineering problems; needs human element. Probably one of the more “social” engineers. Target Companies? E-‐commerce sites – websites with complex back end. Degrees? CompSci (not just a “web developer”), with a UI specializa=on Selling points…? Learn from usability tests with 50 million+ users. Massive scale. Design is valued; has huge boPom line impact.

PERSONA COMPONENTS

Who

• What’s he working on now?

• What drives him?

• How is he different from other engineers?

• Typical Job Titles

• Sample Resumes/Profiles

• Ques-ons you can ask to know you’re talking to one?

Source

• Target Companies? Why?

• Target Schools? Why?

• SIGS/Conferences/Communi-es

• Key Technologies/Interests

• Dream Team Target Candidates

• Past Hires/Source of Hire

Sell

• Why we’d be an aOrac-ve employer?

• Magnet People • Magnet Projects • White Papers/Selling Resources

• Typical Compensa-on Issues?

• Persona’s Concerns/FAQs

Screen/IV

• Screening Ques-ons

• Typical Interview Team

• Green Flags/Red Flags

• Interview:Offer Ra-os

• Candidate Experience Best Prac-ces

Route

• Internal Consumers (Departments/HMs)

• Priori-za-on/Alloca-on Scheme

• Rules of Engagement



SO WHAT? PERSONA BENEFITS

Discussion: How do you think Personas could help you improve the credibility and effec-veness of your sourcers/sourcing efforts?


Speed Quality

Cost




Credibly Source Credibly Sell Smarter

Screening Target

Companies Target Schools

Speaking/Conferences

Website Content

Targeted Employee Referrals

Smarter Rou-ng

Pipelining (MRT/Dist

Lists)

Target Interviewers

Interview Guides

Research Priori-za-on

Website Content

Produc-vity (templates)

Campus Prep/Plan

Event Recruitment Prep/Plan

(Healthy?) Compe--on

More Accurate WFP

Easier Candidate Self Iden-fica-on

Faster Intake Mee-ngs

Fewer Lost Candidates

BeOer Sourcing Metrics

Broader and Narrower Focus

What else?

CREATING PERSONAS

Why are you doing this?

Which Category? Why?

Sponsors and Stakeholders?

Plan the Work

Discovery

Focus Groups and 1:1 Interviews

Persona Development

Valida-on

Persona Finalized

Deployment



You have to really get inside your persona’s head, and go way beyond HM intake mee=ng. (Focus Groups)

CREATING PERSONAS

THINK LIKE VS THINK ABOUT

FOCUS GROUPS…

Round 1: Go Wide

Round 2: Go Deep

Round 3: Differen-ate

Round 4: Validate

Round 1: Iden=fy Persona Groupings with Hiring Execs/Managers Round 2: Dive Deep into each Persona Group w/ High Performers (Shadow them if you can in 1:1 natural habitat, plus in focus group) Round 3: Understand Differences between Groups (1-‐2 High Performers from Each Persona Group in same room, s=cky notes by category) Round 4: Validate each Persona Group w/ High Performers and Consumers/HMs (is this the droid we’re looking for?)



WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU TO FOCUS GROUPS

High Performers

Resumes

Project Overviews

Interview Ques-ons and Answers

Hiring Managers

Resumes

Selling Points

Project Overviews

Interview Ques-ons

You/Facilitator

Resumes

List of Openings and Job Descrip-ons

Compe-tor Messaging

Candidate Feedback

WHERE TO START? NOT ALL REQS ARE CREATED EQUAL

Job 5 Job 6

Job 1 Job 2

Job 7 Job 8

Job 3 Job 4

Volume

Priority/Impact/Value

High

Low

High Low

Perfect for Persona Investment



See if someone in marke=ng or user experience can help you.

GETTING PERSONAS BUILT

PART NER SHIPS

WAS THIS HELPFUL/INTERESTING? MY GOAL: DIDN’T SUCK, BUILD ON EXISTING THINKING AROUND PROFILES, KEEP IT PRACTICAL, VALIDATE FOR THOSE OF YOU ALREADY DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS

LEARN MORE: hOp://uxmag.com/ar-cles/personas-‐the-‐founda-on-‐of-‐a-‐great-‐user-‐experience Book by Tamara Adlin: The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design



RECRUIT BETTER Thank you so much!

Want soft copy of persona grid with differentiator categories? http://recruitingtoolbox.com/SourceCon Password = Osmond (Download by 3/1)

All Content Copyright 2013 Recrui-ng Toolbox, Inc.

John Vlastelica Managing Director

Recrui-ng Toolbox, Inc. 425.557.2100

[email protected] www.recrui-ngtoolbox.com

Let’s Connect! www.linkedin.com/in/johnvlastelica

www.recrui-ngtoolbox.com/blog twiOer.com/vlastelica

Conferences 2013

ERE (San Diego), Smart Resourcing (London), Staffing Management (Chicago), Australasian Talent (Sydney),

iRecruit (Amsterdam), Talent42 (SeaOle)

Business

Personas by John Vlastelica