Segmentation is a decision rule, not a set of portraits
An audience segment earns its place when membership changes a concrete editorial, product, channel, or support decision. Age, job title, attitude, behavior, and situation can all be useful variables, but only when they predict a relevant difference with acceptable error. A fictional name and stock photo do not create evidence. Start by stating the decision—such as which explanation, comparison criteria, or onboarding path to provide—and test whether proposed groups require meaningfully different answers.
Evidence: Government Digital Service; IT University of Copenhagen Research Portal
Jobs to Be Done focuses on progress in circumstances
The Christensen Institute describes Jobs to Be Done as a research method for understanding why people change behavior, with circumstances affecting outcomes. The unit is not a permanent personality type but progress sought in a particular situation. A reader can have different jobs at different times, and different people can share a job despite demographic differences. This lens helps identify triggers, desired progress, anxieties, alternatives, and success. It does not automatically tell the team how large or profitable the group is.
Evidence: Clayton Christensen Institute; Harvard Business Review
User needs must be grounded in research
GOV.UK advises basing user needs on evidence rather than assumptions, focusing on the problem rather than a preferred solution, and considering the full context. This prevents a segment such as 'tech-savvy millennials' from becoming shorthand for unsupported behavior. A useful description might identify apartment residents comparing quiet exercise equipment because impact noise and return logistics constrain the decision. The situation points toward evidence about floor transmission, dimensions, delivery, and remedies; the demographic label alone does not.
Evidence: Government Digital Service
Build the card from a causal sequence
Include situation, trigger, desired progress, current alternative, barrier, anxiety, decision criteria, information need, successful outcome, evidence examples, exclusions, confidence, and the decision changed. Keep observations, participant language, and interpretation distinct. Add the circumstance that activates the job and what a person did recently. If two proposed segments receive the same content, offer, and success measure, merge them until evidence shows an operational difference. Segment boundaries are hypotheses and should include ambiguous cases.
Evidence: Clayton Christensen Institute; IT University of Copenhagen Research Portal
A constructed card shows why context matters
Consider a parent choosing a compact treadmill for a shared apartment. The job is not 'buy fitness equipment'; it may be 'maintain a reliable exercise routine without disturbing a sleeping child or downstairs neighbor.' Current alternatives include outdoor walking, a gym, or no exercise during bad weather. Barriers include noise evidence, storage, delivery, and returns. This educational example is not an observed TenMultigure customer segment. It demonstrates how one situation changes the content criteria and the real competitors.
Evidence: Harvard Business Review; Government Digital Service
Segments can obscure people as easily as they clarify decisions
Any grouping compresses variation and can reinforce stereotypes, exclude edge cases, or become stale. Research sampling, self-report, organizational incentives, and the variable chosen all shape the result. Academic work questioning segmentation's theoretical foundations is a reminder to specify mechanism and boundary rather than treating a familiar business practice as settled science. Review privacy and fairness when sensitive attributes or automated decisions are involved. Do not infer individual needs solely from group membership.
Start with one fork in the editorial experience
Choose a decision where two situations appear to need different proof or next steps. Build provisional cards from recent evidence, design the smallest content variation, and define what would show that the split is unnecessary. Track usefulness within the stated context rather than celebrating the number of personas created. A segment remains valuable only while it predicts a decision-relevant difference; otherwise retire or merge it. This framework cannot guarantee adoption, demand, or equal treatment without further evidence.
Evidence: Government Digital Service; Clayton Christensen Institute
The same reader can move between segments
A person researching for a landlord, buying for personal use, and troubleshooting an existing device may occupy three different decision contexts within a month. Store cards as situation models rather than permanent customer identities. When content recognizes the trigger and desired progress, readers can select the relevant route without being profiled from past behavior. This flexibility is a feature: it reflects changing circumstances and reduces the pressure to assign every individual to one enduring box.
Evidence: Clayton Christensen Institute; Government Digital Service
Sources and further reading
These references informed this article. A source supports a claim; it does not imply endorsement of TenMultigure or any future product reference.
- Our Theories: Jobs To Be DoneClayton Christensen Institute · Accessed August 10, 2026
Provides the primary circumstances-and-behavior-change framing used to define a job without making it a permanent identity.
- Learning about users and their needsGovernment Digital Service · Accessed August 10, 2026
Grounds segment descriptions in researched user needs and full context instead of assumed demographic behavior.
- Know Your Customers' Jobs to Be DoneHarvard Business Review · Accessed August 10, 2026
Supplies the original managerial explanation of why situation and desired progress can reveal non-obvious alternatives.
- Is segmentation a theory? Improving the theoretical basis of a foundational concept in business-to-business marketingIT University of Copenhagen Research Portal · Accessed August 10, 2026
Adds independent theoretical scrutiny that supports explicit mechanisms, boundaries, and caution about treating segments as natural facts.
Reviewed by TenMultigure Editorial Review. See an error or a source that has changed? Tell the editorial team.
Review method: AI-assisted desk research with editorial checks. Reviewed ; next scheduled review . Defined segmentation as a decision-changing hypothesis, added a circumstance-based treadmill card, and addressed merge rules, stereotype risk, ambiguous membership, and retirement.