My two cents
Sometimes the best way to define something is to define the opposite.
Start with the two exteremes
That's exactly the advice from Billy Broas, the creator of the Five Light Bulb Framework.
He explains that when it comes to defining and mapping your ideal customer, it's sometimes easier to Think about the customers who are too early in the process and those who are too far away in the journey.
Once you have these two extremes, it's quite easy to find who is really your ideal customer.
The type of informations to add
But you might say, Daniele what do I, put as information in these different blocks?
You can put:
Numbers: like: This person has at least 10 years of experience. Or: this person is part of an organization that has at least a hundred people.
Actions: like: the person has already visited our website.
Mindsets: like: I hate academic knowledge, I prefer to get things done.
Demographic data: like language, age, location. You know, the usual stuff that you have on your identity card.
When to use this mapping method
Obviously this kind of mapping can be done in two ways.
After research: Either it's a summary of research that you have already done.
Before research: Or it's an hypothesis that you're making and that you want to confirm with additional research.
Why this method is valuable
When you have confirmed that this mapping is correct. This will help you to communicate in a much better way and to make the right level of promises.
Because then you can ask yourself, is this promise I'm making something that is attractive for the guy who's too far along, or Is it attractive for the person we really want to serve?
The importance of thinking in opposites
Even if today, you don't have to think about your ideal customer.
This mindset of thinking about the opposite is something that can be valuable in many different contexts.
If you have to work on your positioning instead of defining who are we. You can ask yourself. Who are we not?
If you have to define what are the centerpieces of our experience? Maybe think instead: what's definitely not the experience that we want to create.
So thinking in opposites can be very useful.