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Tiered personas are layered profiles of user types, grouped based on how critical they are to your app’s success — such as primary users, secondary users, and fringe users.
Why It Matters
- Helps prioritise feature design and development based on key user groups
- Ensures your app serves the most valuable or frequent users first
- Guides better content, UX, and onboarding flows for different audiences
- Prevents over-customising for users who don’t drive business value
- Supports scalable product decisions as your user base grows
Use This Term When...
- Defining who your app is built for and why
- Prioritising features in the MVP or roadmap
- Planning user flows or marketing strategies
- Managing stakeholder expectations for different user groups
- Aligning product decisions with customer segmentation
Real-World Example
In one of our projects, we developed tiered personas to reflect the different user types based on engagement levels and value to the business. This helped tailor features, messaging, and onboarding flows to meet the specific needs of each segment.
Founder Insight
Not all users are equal. Trying to please everyone can dilute your product. Focus first on your core personas — the people who use (and pay for) your app the most.
Key Metrics / Concepts
- Primary Persona – Core target user your app must serve
- Secondary Persona – Occasional users or those with unique needs
- Fringe Persona – Least frequent users, often edge cases
- Conversion Potential – Likelihood each tier contributes to growth
- Retention Relevance – Impact each persona has on user stickiness
Tools & Technologies
- Figma – Used to visualise personas and user journeys
- Notion – Great for storing and updating persona profiles
- UXPressia – Helps create detailed, tiered persona frameworks
- Miro – Ideal for team workshops to build persona tiers collaboratively
What’s Next / Future Trends
Tiered personas are being refined through real-time analytics and AI-based segmentation, allowing apps to dynamically adapt to users' behaviour over time. Expect smarter tiering based on lifetime value and engagement trends.
Related Terms
Personas – General user profiles in app design
Proto-personas – Early assumptions before real research
User Segmentation – Grouping users based on shared traits
UX Design – Informed by persona insights
Audience Targeting – Marketing aligned with user tiers
Helpful Videos / Articles / Pages
Blog: User Persona/Customer Segment
Blog: How To Do Customer Research to Build a Successful Website
Call to Action
Not sure who your core users are? We’ll help you build tiered personas that guide better app decisions from day one.