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Stakeholders vs Users

When talking about segmentation, many candidates confuse Stakeholders and Users. A quick look at a dictionary can help you baseline. Getting nervous about the interview process causes some people to forget the basic meaning of the words.

A user is a stakeholder until you decide which stakeholder you want to focus on for your case. While a user is a stakeholder but not all stakeholders are possible users for a given case prompt.

What’s in a Word

Stakeholders

people with an interest or concern in something, especially a business.

User

noun. a person who uses or operates something, especially a computer or other machine..

Prompt: Self-Driving cars

Example Stakeholders:

  • drivers

  • riders

  • ride hailing services

  • regulators

  • transportation competitors

For FAANGs, you want to focus on Consumers as your users. There are two key reasons for this:

  1. They are consumer focused companies that want to see candidates are the same.

  2. You know what it is like to be a consumer, but to be a professional, you have no idea what niche products are out there. Unless you have a close friend or family member in the space, it is dangerous on top of leaving interviewers wondering if you can be consumer focused.

Example Users:

Drivers: Behavioral

  • Commute

  • Errands

  • Vacation

Drivers: Motivational

  • Love Driving

  • See driving as necessary

  • Hate Driving

Drivers: Mindset

  • Shutting out the world: finally, time for myself

  • Making the best of it: if I am stuck, at least I can watch a movie

  • Can’t get me out fast enough: ugh, stuck in a box

Compound User Segmentation

You can actually use a compound approach when narrowing down users. You can say: I want to think about the repeatitive nature of the task followed by motivation.

So maybe you pick commuting and then dive one layer deeper and talk about Loving vs Hating driving.

Or what you do in the car: Shutting out the world or feeling stuck in a box.

Articles on User Segmentation

User vs. Business Perspective

User Segmentation: Motivation, Mindset & Behavior

Use Case vs. User Persona

Stakeholders vs. Users

IRL User Segmentation

User vs Business Perspective

Prioritizing Users

The Super-Specific Who

Build for the Users, Not the Business

JTBD: Helpful Articles