Lesson 6: Know who it's for

Two questions anchor every build decision: who is this for (persona) and what revenue is at stake (account).

Personas: the "who"

A persona is a named archetype of a user with goals and pain points: "Keyboard-first Kate, a PM who lives in shortcuts," not "users." Personas force the who is this for? question before you build, which is the cheapest possible guard against building for yourself by accident. Solo founders are their own heaviest user; that's exactly why the discipline matters.

Link feedback to personas and patterns appear: if every export complaint comes from the data-analyst persona, you know who to interview before you spec.

Accounts: the "how much"

In B2B, an account is a customer organization. Ten users at one account is one renewal decision, not ten. Accounts carry the money math:

• ARR: annual recurring revenue; the number you and any investor actually track.
• Health score & churn risk: leading indicators of that ARR walking out the door.

Churn is the silent killer of early SaaS: you can't out-acquire a leaky bucket. Feedback linked to a high-ARR, high-churn-risk account is not the same priority as the same words from a free-tier user, the Golden Thread is how you see the difference.

Do it now

1. On Personas, create or confirm one persona that matches a real user: name, goal, one pain point.
2. Link your Lesson 2 feedback to it.
3. Glance at Accounts: find the ARR and churn-risk columns (hover the ⓘ on either). If you have even two paying customers, add them.