Are you accidentally building for a Franken-Customer?
The B2B Product Challenge:
In B2B product management, defining “the customer” is far more complex than in a straightforward B2C environment. In B2C scenarios, the buyer and the user are typically the same individual, making it easier to identify and cater to a single set of needs. In B2B, however, the picture is fragmented. Multiple stakeholders — users, buyers, executive sponsors, account managers — each bring their own priorities, pain points, and criteria for success. This complexity often tempts product teams to simplify. After all, when faced with a tangled web of competing interests, human instinct is to streamline the challenge into something more manageable.
The Franken-Customer: A Dangerous Simplification
In an effort to cut through the complexity, product managers often merge the various stakeholder groups into a single, generic persona: “the business.” On the surface, this seems like a neat solution: if “the business” is satisfied, then everyone is satisfied. But this approach masks the messy reality. The “business” persona — what we might call the Franken-Customer — is an artificial construct. It’s not the user, the buyer, or any other specific stakeholder. Instead, it’s a blend of all their needs rolled into one vague entity.
The danger is that by catering to “the business,” product teams assume they are addressing everyone’s needs equally. In practice, one stakeholder’s needs often dominate and others are marginalized. This false sense of security leads to suboptimal product decisions because it obscures trade-offs and prevents the team from clearly seeing who really benefits, who’s neglected, and why.
Why the Franken-Customer Emerges
B2B decision-making is inherently complex. The buyers who approve budgets and negotiate contracts may never actually use the product. Meanwhile, the end-users, who rely on the product every day for their workflows, may have little say in the purchasing decision. Without careful segmentation, it’s easy to blur the lines and convince ourselves that satisfying “the business” is a win-win. But that simplification is more about making ourselves feel in control than genuinely serving our customers.
As author Richard P. Rumelt states in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters:
“At the core, strategy is about focus, and most complex organisations don’t focus their resources. Instead, they pursue multiple goals at once, not concentrating enough resources to achieve a breakthrough in any of them.”
Replace “multiple goals” with “multiple personas” and this quote aptly describes the Franken-Customer dilemma. By trying to simultaneously please buyers, users, and everyone in between — without recognizing their distinctions — we dilute our efforts. The result is a product that might appeal broadly at the surface level but fails to meaningfully solve the problems of any one group.
The Problem with Serving “The Business”
When we cling to this vague notion of “the business,” we trade clarity for comfort. Complex trade-offs are never made explicit. Instead, we believe we’re addressing a singular need, even as we sidestep the challenging reality of differing stakeholder demands. This approach:
Clouds Decision-Making: Without clear distinctions, it’s hard to understand the implications of prioritizing one need over another.
Defers Critical Considerations: Without breaking down stakeholder groups, important user or buyer requirements are often overlooked or pushed aside, leading to gaps in product-market fit.
A Better Way Forward: Persona-Driven Segmentation
The key to overcoming the Franken-Customer challenge is to invest the time and effort to segment your stakeholders into distinct personas. Each persona should represent a real stakeholder group with clearly articulated needs, pain points, KPIs, goals, and priorities. Consider:
User Persona: Focused on usability, efficiency, and the ability to get their job done effectively.
Buyer Persona: Centered on ROI, budget constraints, and measurable business outcomes.
Other Stakeholder Personas: Account managers, executive sponsors, and others who have influence, each with their own concerns and success metrics.
By clarifying these personas, you gain the ability to make informed strategic decisions. Now, instead of vaguely stating, “We need to solve this for the business,” you can say:
“We are building Feature X for Persona A, while acknowledging Persona B’s requirements and deferring Personas C, D, and E for now.”
“We are addressing Persona B’s needs first, but we recognize that this creates limitations for Persona C and that we’re not prioritizing Personas D and E at this time.”
Embracing Complexity to Make Better Decisions
Explicitly identifying trade-offs makes the complexity transparent and invites informed discussion. It allows product teams to weigh the consequences of each action before committing to a particular solution. While this doesn’t necessarily make decision-making easier — because complexity never truly disappears — it does ensure that decisions are more effective and more honest. Each trade-off is made with a full understanding of who gains and who loses in the near term, and why.
This clarity fosters trust and alignment both internally and externally. Internally, the product team and business leaders can rally around a strategy that respects stakeholder diversity, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist. Externally, customers and stakeholders feel heard and understood, even if they don’t always get what they want right now.
Why This Matters
B2B product development is a team sport. It involves negotiating the priorities of different groups and respecting the fact that what delights one stakeholder might not matter to another. By moving away from the Franken-Customer mindset and leaning into persona-driven strategies, product teams can:
Deliver tailored solutions that truly resonate with each stakeholder group.
Make informed trade-offs that balance immediate needs with long-term strategic goals.
Build trust and strengthen relationships by demonstrating that every voice is recognized — even when compromises must be made.
In the end, the goal isn’t to build something that vaguely serves “the business.” The goal is to create meaningful value for the real people who use, buy, and depend on your product’s success. Understanding and addressing their unique perspectives, rather than blending them into one homogeneous entity, is the key to delivering a product that genuinely thrives in the complex world of B2B.
