One of my biggest pet peeves. Most “personas” are just beautifully formatted assumptions.
And that’s why your marketing can look good… but still not convert. Because if the persona is wrong, then everything built on top of it is wobbly:
your messaging
your content angles
your offers
your pricing
your sales page
So today, I want to give you a simple, contained method to validate your strategic persona as a practical way to go from vibes to evidence.
Most personas are a hypothesis, which means the job is not “write a better persona”, but “run better tests.”
Step 1: Write 3 assumptions
Grab a note. Write three statements that you currently believe about your audience.
Examples:
“They want to feel confident making marketing decisions.”
“They need a simple framework, not another 47-step strategy.”
“They’re scared of wasting time on tactics that don’t work.”
If you can’t write these in one minute, your persona is probably too broad.
Step 2: Turn each assumption into a question that can prove you wrong
This is the part most people skip. They write questions that confirm what they already believe. We want questions that can expose the truth.
Here are plug-and-play examples you can steal:
Validate the Good
“What would success look like for you in the next 90 days?” (open-ended)
“Which outcome matters most right now?” (multiple choice)
Validate the Not so Good
“What worries you most about trying a new [insert here]?” (multiple choice)
“On a scale of 1–10, how confident do you feel in your [insert here]??” (scale)
“What would need to be true for you to say yes to help?” (open-ended)
Step 3: Get 10 responses
You do not need 1,000 people.
You need direction.
Send it to:
your email list
IG stories
LinkedIn
10 past clients
10 peers who match the audience
Aim for 10 responses first. Then iterate.
Step 4: Analyse like there is no tomorrow
When results come in, you are looking for:
What’s validated? Keep it.
What’s partially true? Adjust it.
What’s contradicted? Change it.
What’s new? Add it.
Then update your persona and your messaging accordingly.
Here’s a tiny example:
Assumption: “They fear wasting money.”
Reality: “They fear wasting time.”
That one shift changes everything.
YOUR HOMEWORK ✍️
Pick one offer you want to sell in the next 30–60 days.
Write 3 assumptions about why someone would buy it
Turn those into 6–9 survey questions.
Send it to 10 humans.
Come back and identify 4 actions steps.
Ready to create your own survey? At the school we are partnering with SurveyMonkey to show you how to validate your next idea in 10 mins or less - spoiler, it took me 6 minutes!
You don’t need a “richer” persona. You need a persona that’s been stress-tested.
Honestly, in a world ripe with assumption, data and real people are what helps you decide what should be your next hell yeah VS a hell no.
What is your next survey going to validate?
Always cheering you on,
Fab
GRAB A COPY OF MY NEW BOOK 📖
Fifteen years of marketing experience condensed into one book. The Customer-Driven Marketing Handbook is about building relationships using marketing as your superpower. But also a book about being human in your marketing, regardless of the tools, trends or changes that this crazy world throws at us.