Case Study: Developing User Personas for NASM

Objective:
To capture diverse trainer and instructor perspectives that inform product design, program development, and user experience strategies.

Approach:

• Conducted qualitative research and interviews to build representative personas of fitness professionals with varying backgrounds, motivations, and needs.

• Documented each persona’s bio, skills, needs, motivations, and personality traits to highlight how different user types interact with fitness products and services.

• Focused on both tenured trainers and emerging professionals to ensure balanced insights across experience levels.

Findings:

• Personas revealed distinct motivational drivers: empowerment through fitness (Lily), career stability and loyalty (Lance), performance recognition (Jonathan/Aaron), and lifestyle influence (Rachelle/Mia).

• Highlighted critical needs such as autonomy, consistent clientele, recognition, and flexible scheduling.

• Showed how personality traits (analytical, empathetic, motivational) directly influence program adoption and client engagement.

Outcome & Impact:

• Personas became a strategic design tool, guiding product teams to tailor solutions for different trainer archetypes.

• Helped identify gaps in support for less tenured trainers, ensuring product strategies addressed both expert bias and fresh perspective.

• Provided a foundation for UX storytelling and journey mapping, enabling teams to empathize with users and design more inclusive, effective experiences.