Master the customerpersona process

Access practical tips, real-life case studies, and expert advice to help you craft effective customer personas with our persona certification.
Enroll now
Built and trusted by experts at
See more
Built and taken by experts at

Course
overview 

Personas have the power to make or break your product marketing efforts. With Persona Certified by your side, you'll learn how to apply this strategy to its fullest potential.

Dive deep into the definition of personas, why they’re so important, and how to use them effectively. Understand the key interview questions to ask to extract valuable insights, master the art of synthesizing the data, and perfect persona reviews.

By the end of this course, you'll be armed with all the tools you need to create, develop, and deliver both buyer and user personas, and take your product marketing strategy to new heights.

Chapters

  • What to expect in this course
  • Your course pack
  • An intro to personas
  • Difference between buyer and user personas
  • Why are personas so important?
  • What are negative personas?
  • Resource library

Chapters

  • Product marketing use cases
  • Product + engineering use cases
  • Sales use cases
  • Marketing use cases
  • Customer Success use cases
  • CEO use cases
  • Coursework: Use cases
  • Exam: Use cases
  • Bonus footage: Using buyer and seller personas to empower your sales team

Chapters

  • Who should be involved in the persona process?
  • How to determine how many personas you need
  • How many interviews do you need to conduct?
  • Getting interviewees on board
  • Jobs-to-be-done theory
  • Jobs-to-be-Done canvas
  • Exam: Persona pre-work
  • Bonus footage #2: Personas with jobs

Chapters

  • Picking the right questions
  • How to conduct your interviews
  • Who should conduct the interviews
  • Coursework: Persona interviews
  • Exam: Persona interview guide
  • B2B persona questions: A master list
  • B2C persona questions: A master list
  • Bonus footage: A practical guide to building and using buyer personas

Chapters

  • Identifying trends
  • Data consolidation template
  • How many personas do you need?
  • Quantified buyer personas
  • Coursework: Data consolidation
  • Exam: Data consolidation
  • Bonus footage: How to develop personas the right way

Chapters

  • A step-by-step guide to building your personas
  • B2B and B2C persona templates
  • Persona template examples
  • Naming your personas
  • Validating your personas
  • Coursework: Persona templates
  • Exam: Persona templates

Chapters

  • Sharing your personas across the org
  • Exam: Communication

Modules

  • Measuring the success of your personas
  • How often should you review your personas?
  • How to review your personas
  • Persona tips
  • Coursework: Reviewing your personas
  • Exam: Reviewing your personas

Modules

Modules

Introduction

Chapters

  • What to expect in this course
  • Your course pack
  • An intro to personas
  • Difference between buyer and user personas
  • Why are personas so important?
  • What are negative personas?
  • Resource library
Persona use cases

Chapters

  • Product marketing use cases
  • Product + engineering use cases
  • Sales use cases
  • Marketing use cases
  • Customer Success use cases
  • CEO use cases
  • Coursework: Use cases
  • Exam: Use cases
  • Bonus footage: Using buyer and seller personas to empower your sales team
The persona pre-work

Chapters

  • Who should be involved in the persona process?
  • How to determine how many personas you need
  • How many interviews do you need to conduct?
  • Getting interviewees on board
  • Jobs-to-be-done theory
  • Jobs-to-be-Done canvas
  • Exam: Persona pre-work
  • Bonus footage #2: Personas with jobs
Persona interview guide

Chapters

  • Picking the right questions
  • How to conduct your interviews
  • Who should conduct the interviews
  • Coursework: Persona interviews
  • Exam: Persona interview guide
  • B2B persona questions: A master list
  • B2C persona questions: A master list
  • Bonus footage: A practical guide to building and using buyer personas
Data consolidation

Chapters

  • Identifying trends
  • Data consolidation template
  • How many personas do you need?
  • Quantified buyer personas
  • Coursework: Data consolidation
  • Exam: Data consolidation
  • Bonus footage: How to develop personas the right way
Persona templates

Chapters

  • A step-by-step guide to building your personas
  • B2B and B2C persona templates
  • Persona template examples
  • Naming your personas
  • Validating your personas
  • Coursework: Persona templates
  • Exam: Persona templates
Communication

Chapters

  • Sharing your personas across the org
  • Exam: Communication
Reviewing your personas

Modules

  • Measuring the success of your personas
  • How often should you review your personas?
  • How to review your personas
  • Persona tips
  • Coursework: Reviewing your personas
  • Exam: Reviewing your personas

Modules

Modules

Our stats

7+
Hours of content
8
Modules
57
Exam questions
11
Templates
5
Coursework tasks

"It’s essential for product marketing to own persona development - knowing personas and their pain points drives everything from targeted messaging to tailored sales enablement and understanding the voice of the customer. This course is essential for any product marketer creating personas for the first time, as well as for those refreshing and validating existing personas as the course contains a blend of theory, practical advice and best practice tips."

Louise Dunne

Product Marketing Manager

"Product Marketing Alliance's Persona certification is a must-have for ANY marketer. It's nice to say that you want to understand your audience, but having a persona strategy puts it into action."

Pat Timmons

Social Media

"I found the course to be highly instructive. I thought the facilitator/instructor was very knowledgeable, engaging, informative, and clear. Definitely enjoyed the course."

Antonio Diep

Manager Competitive Intelligence

Download
your brochure 

Learn from the collective success and experience of the world’s biggest product marketing community. Not only that, but our certifications are built with the support of PMMs from the largest orgs around such as Adobe, Google, Linkedin, Atlassian, Grammarly, and many more.

If you need help convincing your company to pay for your training, we’ve done the leg work for you.

Pitch the program
5 star ratings from:

Your
instructors 

By the end of the course
‍‍you'll be able to...

Create effective personas

Acquire the skills to construct, develop, and implement personas that drive real business results.

Streamline processes

Steamline your persona process by focusing exclusively on harnessing data that fuel’s your org’s bottom line impact.

Construct use cases

Master the optimal application of personas and provide compelling use cases to your organization’s key stakeholders.

What's
‍‍included  

01
Content

5+ hours of engaging, high-value content built to solidify your understanding of personas and help you develop strategies that work for your business.

02
Footage

2+ hours of exclusive bonus footage, featuring insights from PMMs at global organizations like IBM.

03
Studies

Tons of real-life case studies to help you learn how successful personas have been built, applied, and adapted in a wide range of scenarios.

04
Tasks

5 optional but highly recommended coursework tasks to help you solidify your persona knowledge and apply it to practical scenarios.

05
Exams

Exams at the end of every module are crafted to assess your understanding of the concepts covered and provide you with a robust knowledge of personas.

06
Templates

11 ready-to-use templates, expertly designed to help you streamline the persona development process.

07
Access

Gain lifetime access to all course materials. You can revisit the content any time you like to refresh your knowledge or dive deeper into more complex topics.

08
Certification

Receive your Persona Certification: Earn a Masters certification on successful completion of the exams, and consider yourself a recognized persona pro.

09
AI-Powered

Get personalized and actionable advice to your toughest product marketing questions, backed by Product Marketing Alliance’s entire knowledge base, using PMM-GPT.

Get access to
‍‍these resources...

With every single one of our courses and certifications, you can get your hands on templates, frameworks, and toolkits. All are designed with the cumulative knowledge of our community to help you implement your newfound knowledge the very next day.

B2B question master list

B2C question master list

B2B buyer persona example

B2B buyer persona template

B2B user persona example

B2B user persona template

B2B user persona template

B2C buyer persona example

B2C buyer persona template

Interview invite templates

Data consolidation template...and more!

Sign up to the
pro+ membership

...and get access to 15+ of our courses and more!

Get this certification plus 25 others
with Pro+ membership 

Looking for lifelong L&D support? Discover how our Pro+ memberships stack up against our individual courses to find the best value for your investment.

Pro+ Membership
$167
/month (billed annually)
Annual subscription with access to every course, a yearly Summit, workshops, templates, mentors, members-only events, and more.

25+ courses (incl. updates and future releases)

Complimentary access to 1x PMM Summit every year

Live workshops every month

Exclusive content 

100+ templates and frameworks

500+ hours of OnDemand video content

PMM mentors

Members-only events and community

PMM learning paths and toolkits

Ungated access to industry reports

Subscribe to Pro+
Individual certification
$500
One off payment
One-off payment and lifetime access to this accredited course.

Lifetime access to all course content

Access to all future course updates

Official certification if you pass the exams

Course‍
benefits

Access the best tools to shape game-changing personas.

Gain a deeper understanding of your customer’s needs and wants.

Elevate your product, marketing, sales, and customer-focused initiatives to new levels.

Why choose
courses from PMA?  

Whether you’re tuning in live or want unlimited access to all member benefits, select the plan that’s best for you...

Old way

Stodgy, outdated training
All theory, no action
Limited learnings from 1x expert
vs

New way

Interactive learning at your own pace
Practical, actionable, case study-led lessons
Community-led learning derived from the masses

Course‍
benefits

Master PMM: Get to grips with real-life product marketing scenarios.

Drive success: Step confidently into your role with the knowledge and frameworks you need to shine.

Stand out: Make an impression on potential employers with a globally recognized qualification.

Why choose
courses from PMA?

Whether you’re tuning in live or want unlimited access to all member benefits, select the plan that’s best for you...

PMA Certified Courses
Access to every session, live, and OnDemand plus all of these awesome perks:

Exclusive content, framework and templates

250+ hours of video content

PMM summits OnDemand

300+ PMM slide decks

Access to PMM mentors

PMM learning paths

PMM learning paths

Peer advisory councils

40% discount on in-person PMA summits

Discount on PMM certification

Enroll now
Other Product Marketing Courses
Access to every session, live, and OnDemand plus all of these awesome perks:

Access to all presentations - live broadcast only

Ask your questions to industry leaders

Be part of the product marketing community and network with peers. Limited to live broadcast only

Get your team on
the same page...

Fill key knowledge gaps and get everyone speaking the same language by getting your whole team certified. Book in a call to discuss group rates.

Trusted by teams including:

Accelerate your learning with our product marketing AI coach.

Ask questions and get advice instantly- the ultimate AI sidekick for ambitious product marketers looking to fast-track their growth with community-backed insights.

FAQS

What will I learn from the Persona Certified course?

In this course, you will learn everything about the persona process. This includes understanding different types of personas (user, buyer, brand, etc.), how many personas your company should have, what having personas means for your company, and how to create or build a persona. You will also learn how to streamline the persona process by focusing on extracting and mining data that drives bottom-line impact, and how to rally everyone in your organization around your personas.

What is included when I enroll in the Persona Certified course?

When you enroll in this course, you will get access to over 5 hours of course content, 2 hours of bonus footage featuring Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) from organizations like IBM, real-life case studies, optional coursework tasks, marked exams at the end of every module, 11 templates for you to use, and lifetime access to all content. If you pass all the exams, you will receive an official persona certification​.

Who’s this Persona Certified course for?

This course is for any marketer who’s looking to master personas. It aims to provide you with a step-by-step guide to every single element of the persona process so that you’re fully equipped to go and deliver personas in your organization.

How long will the Persona Certified course take to complete?

The course is on-demand, so you can take as much time as you like to complete it. There are over 5 hours of content to go through, along with exams at the end of each module. 

There are also over 2 hours of bonus footage and 5 coursework tasks. Although these elements aren’t mandatory, we still recommend you take a look at them to further consolidate your knowledge and put your learnings into practice.

What happens once I’ve completed the persona training course?

Once you’ve aced all the exams, you’ll receive your official persona certification. As a bonus, we provide you with lifetime access to all the course materials. Whether you want to revisit specific modules, reuse a template, or refresh your understanding of a particular coursework task, all the course content remains at your fingertips, ready to support you in the persona process.

Will I be able to ask questions?

Absolutely! We encourage curiosity here. You'll have a unique chance to ask tough questions and get bespoke, actionable responses from our expert, Alison. It's like having a mentor at your fingertips. So, bring on those questions!

How much does the Persona Certified course cost?

$500. With this investment, you'll have a blueprint for becoming a first-rate persona strategist, essential for thriving in a long-term product marketing career. This includes 5+ hours of OnDemand course content, templates to put your theory into action, and coursework to consolidate your learning.

What happens if I don’t pass the course exams?

If you fail the first time around you'll be given the option to retake the exam. If you fail the second attempt, unfortunately, it means you won’t get the certificate. However, all’s not lost – you’ll have still learned lots and you’ll be given access to the course materials for life, so you can brush up on the bits you slipped up on forevermore.

Students like you
‍‍always love...

Segmentation Certified Masters

Fine-tune your focus. Understand your audience. Propel your product. Get segmentation certified.

Customer Advisory Board Certified Masters

Learn how to run and perfect your Customer Advisory Board from an expert in the field, understand your audience and boost your revenue.

Consumer Psychology Certified Masters

Harness the power of behavioral economics with our Consumer Psychology: Masters course. Shape customer interactions and drive growth like never before.

The PMMC
framework

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea.

The PMMC framework

Discovery

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Build business case

Competitor intel

Customer/market feedback

Market requirements

Why/loss analysis

Review and refine

Market research

The PMMC framework

Strategize

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Pricing

Retention and expansion

Objectives

Internal communication

Go-to-market

Use Sales enablement

Acquisition

Barriers

Onboarding

The PMMC framework

Define

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Positioning

Segmentation

Narrative design

User personas

Messaging

Buyer personas

Storytelling

Use cases

The PMMC framework

Get set

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Sales assets

Training

Sales enablement sessions

Marketing

The PMMC framework

Grow

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Case studies

Analysis

Optimization

Customer feedback

Prioritise tickets

The PMMC
framework

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea.

The PMMC framework

Discovery

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Build business case

Competitor intel

Customer/market feedback

Market requirements

Why/loss analysis

Review and refine

Market research

The PMMC framework

Strategize

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Pricing

Retention and expansion

Objectives

Internal communication

Go-to-market

Use Sales enablement

Acquisition

Barriers

Onboarding

The PMMC framework

Define

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Positioning

Segmentation

Narrative design

User personas

Messaging

Buyer personas

Storytelling

Use cases

The PMMC framework

Get set

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Sales assets

Training

Sales enablement sessions

Marketing

The PMMC framework

Grow

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Case studies

Analysis

Optimization

Customer feedback

Prioritise tickets

The PMMC
framework

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea.

The PMMC framework

Discovery

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Build business case

Competitor intel

Customer/market feedback

Market requirements

Why/loss analysis

Review and refine

Market research

The PMMC framework

Strategize

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Pricing

Retention and expansion

Objectives

Internal communication

Go-to-market

Use Sales enablement

Acquisition

Barriers

Onboarding

The PMMC framework

Define

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Positioning

Segmentation

Narrative design

User personas

Messaging

Buyer personas

Storytelling

Use cases

The PMMC framework

Get set

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Sales assets

Training

Sales enablement sessions

Marketing

The PMMC framework

Grow

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Case studies

Analysis

Optimization

Customer feedback

Prioritise tickets

The PMMC
framework

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea.

The PMMC framework

Discovery

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Build business case

Competitor intel

Customer/market feedback

Market requirements

Why/loss analysis

Review and refine

Market research

The PMMC framework

Strategize

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Pricing

Retention and expansion

Objectives

Internal communication

Go-to-market

Use Sales enablement

Acquisition

Barriers

Onboarding

The PMMC framework

Define

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Positioning

Segmentation

Narrative design

User personas

Messaging

Buyer personas

Storytelling

Use cases

The PMMC framework

Get set

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Sales assets

Training

Sales enablement sessions

Marketing

The PMMC framework

Grow

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.

Case studies

Analysis

Optimization

Customer feedback

Prioritise tickets