# Personas: Bounded CRM MVP

These personas are intentionally limited to the bounded CRM MVP. They describe the users this product is built for now, not every future customer segment.

## Target market guardrails (SME teams)
- Small internal teams, typically ~2–50 staff, with no dedicated CRM administrator.
- Users need a simple shared system for companies, contacts, opportunities, tasks, and notes.
- Users are not looking for enterprise customization, deep automation, or integrated communications.

## Persona 1: Owner-operator
### Context
Runs a small sales or account team and often still handles customers directly. Has little tolerance for admin-heavy software.

### Goals
- See active opportunities and stage distribution quickly
- Check whether follow-up work is slipping
- Confirm the team is recording customer context consistently

### Behaviors
- Opens the dashboard at the start or end of the day
- Dips into company, contact, and opportunity records to spot-check activity
- Expects the system to work with minimal setup

### Pain points
- Pipeline status is trapped in conversations and spreadsheets
- Missed follow-ups are discovered too late
- Important customer history depends on who remembers it

### MVP needs
- Clear dashboard counts by stage
- Overdue and upcoming task visibility
- Recent activity across notes, tasks, and stage changes

## Persona 2: Sales rep
### Context
Handles multiple active opportunities and switches context frequently across calls, meetings, and follow-ups.

### Goals
- Find the latest customer context fast
- Update opportunity stage without friction
- Capture the next action before moving to the next task

### Behaviors
- Searches for records during the day
- Updates opportunities after conversations
- Adds short notes and creates follow-up tasks immediately

### Pain points
- Notes are scattered across personal tools
- Follow-ups are easy to miss when interrupted
- Reconstructing context before a call wastes time

### MVP needs
- Fast record lookup
- Simple opportunity editing and stage movement
- Lightweight note and task capture from the relevant record

## Persona 3: Generalist
### Context
Works across sales, onboarding, and ongoing customer contact. Needs one operational view rather than multiple specialized tools.

### Goals
- Keep reliable customer history in one place
- Track commitments and next steps
- Resume context quickly when a customer returns

### Behaviors
- Moves between company, contact, and opportunity views depending on the issue
- Uses tasks to keep work visible across interruptions
- Uses notes as the primary handoff mechanism

### Pain points
- Customer history is fragmented
- Commitments are easy to lose during busy periods
- Work is reactive, so context retrieval must be immediate

### MVP needs
- Linked companies, contacts, opportunities, tasks, and notes
- Overdue task visibility
- Record pages that show the latest context clearly

## Personas intentionally excluded
These are not target users for MVP and should not drive scope:

- marketing teams needing campaigns or lead automation
- finance users needing quotes, billing, or revenue reporting
- support teams needing ticketing, SLAs, or customer portals
- operations admins needing deep customization or workflow automation
