Meeting the CarLotz User Persoans
TL;DR:
Designing the first family of CarLotz’s User Personas enabled our Product and Brand & Marketing teams to identify more specific needs in our Seller and Buyer customer base.
Responsibilities
Customer research moderation
Research synthesis and analysis
Car owners who want to sell their car face a catch-22. They can take the easy path by trading it in at a dealership and be offered way less than what their car is worth. Or they can opt to sell it themselves and stand to make more money, but assume all of the risks inherent in doing business with complete strangers.
CarLotz was founded out of frustration with this lose-lose system. Its differentiating model – used car consignment – aims to put the value back in the hands of both Sellers (who stand to get what their car is worth without the hassle of selling it themselves) and Buyers (who pay below traditional dealership prices).
The consignment model is not a silver bullet. For starters, most Sellers I speak with while leading generative customer research find the concept difficult to understand. Some speculate it might work like other types of consignment sales, like clothes or furniture, but still have questions about how the transaction works for high-ticket used cars.
And while many Sellers say they would be interested in selling privately through CarLotz for the chance to make thousands more than trade-in, they consistently raise the same objection: consigning their car with CarLotz means being without a primary mode of transportation while its listed for sale (30 days, on average).
I spoke with previous buyers and sellers, and anonymously recruited participants through 1-on-1 moderated interviews, focus groups, and unmoderated diary studies to create the first version of CarLotz’s User Personas:
These five personas are differentiated by the key motivators driving used car shoppers and sellers: finding the right car (commonly defined as a combination of features or capabilities), at the right price, and at the right time. Each persona balances these motivators in a unique way. By plotting our personas on a spectrum that represents their primary job to be done (only buying, only selling, or buying and selling), our teams identified the strengths and gaps in our product offerings.
Sellers
Tidying Tim represents CarLotz’s largest share of previous consigners to date. Many Tims I speak with are selling a daughter or son’s first car that’s gone unused for a few years. Others needed to get rid of a vehicle they’ve inherited from another family member. Tim is only interested in selling, so finding the right car is a non-factor. And because Tim’s for-sale car is not their primary method of transportation they can also afford to leave it on consignment at a CarLotz Hub – time is on their side. For Tims, the prospect of getting more money with none of the private-selling hassles often feels like a win-win.
In contrast, the Don’t Look Back Dan personas I speak with commonly express urgency in their need to sell. Some are planning cross-country moves and just can’t afford to take their car with them (I moderated a stretch of user interviews where it seemed like everyone was taking advantage of pandemic-induced work flexibility to pick up roots). Others are looking to capitalize on higher than average trade-in valuations (another side effect of the post-pandemic used car market) to get the most cash out of their depreciating asset. For Dans, the right time is often right now, and the month-long wait for their vehicle to sell through consignment is untenable.
Traders
The primary differentiator between other personas is not always so stark. Both Anticipation Alice and Thinking Ahead Alex plan to replace their current car, however, how each defines the right car for them marks a difference in their searching behaviors.
Many of the Alices I interview, for example, need to trade-in their current car in preparation for an upcoming life transition. Some need to swap the family sedan for an SUV or minivan in less than nine months to accommodate another child car seat, while others are looking for any hybrid that will make the daily commute less taxing on their gas budget. CarLotz’s website prominently includes several “lifestyle-based” browsing entry-points to help Alice find the right car.
And while Alex is also looking for just the right car, they tend to shop with a list of must-have features in mind. I can quickly identify an Alex in a 1:1 research session by the way they describe the very specific vehicle features giving them FOMO. To help Alex find the right car with all the features they want in CarLotz’s inventory, the website’s search filters are regularly fine-tuned to reflect the most in-demand vehicle options.
Buyers
Nelly interviews can quickly become emotional. This persona’s distinguishing characteristics are that some unforeseen event put them on a car shopping journey (I’ve heard many retellings of car accidents that resulted in a total loss, and clunkers that ran their last mile to leave a driver stranded) and a challenging financial situation that’s leaving Nelly feeling without many options. One of the ways we aim to fill Nelly’s finance-based-shopping needs is by giving the Cash and Finance pricing filters marquee placement on the website’s search results page. The capability gives shoppers like Nelly a quick way to answer “can I even afford to shop at CarLotz?”
Finally, while all four of these personas are either shopping for a deal or looking to maximize their trade-in value, no other persona is as strongly motivated by the right price as Nelly in Need.
The five CarLotz Guest Personas (we’re still underway creating our Teammate personas) quickly became a shorthand for describing the specific behaviors, motivations, goals and concerns of the most typical CarLotz customer. They allow the product teams to rationalize decisions based on a persona’s wants & needs, not personal opinions, and encourage problem solving for a specific persona instead of over-designing to account for all possible use cases.
Read more about how I addressed Don’t Look Back Dan’s needs by designing the CarLotz’s Vehicle Value Estimator, in this post.