Beyond Personas

The “average user” doesn’t exist.

In air travel, you see the full spectrum: business travellers, families, people with disabilities, solo adventurers. Economy through first class. Frequent flyers chasing status. Layer them together and you can build personas forever.

Personalisation matters. Edge cases matter. But in a major transformation, sometimes the work is knowing when to switch it off.

At Qantas, we learned to start with the core jobs-to-be-done. Nail the fundamentals that serve the majority. Once the foundation was solid, then we could open the aperture—layer in edge cases, tailor for segments, and build out personalised experiences.

Good design isn’t about the “average” user. It’s about knowing when to zoom out, when to zoom in, and how to hold the tension between the two.

Real users are messy.
Good design lets them be.