Customers can be segmented in a variety of different ways. The key is to use an organizational framework that is specific to your business. In most cases, this means building a framework around one of the following scenarios: (1) Use Cases (2) Pain Points (3) Journey Maps or Buying Triggers (4) Jobs To Be Done (5) Life Stages (6) Value Proposition. Once you’ve chosen the scenario that’s best-suited to your business, identify three to five unique, underlying criteria. This is what you’ll use to sort and filter your customers into meaningful groups. Once you’ve sorted your customers into distinct groups, you need to come up with a unique set of characteristics that helps you differentiate one group from another. To make this easier, “best practices” suggest focusing on identifying characteristics that fall into the following categories: (1) Needs and Wants (2) Drives and Motivations (3) Life Stages (4) Achievements and Milestones (5) Lifestyle Choices (6) Household Income Levels (7) ducation Levels (8) Class (9) Location (10) Occupation (11) Distinct Personality Traits — e.g. “innovative,” “frugal,” “social,” “mindful,” “conscientious,” etc. Identifying unique sets of characteristics can mean making assumptions, taking educated guesses and/or working and re-working your choices. It also helps to look for patterns. What qualities do members of each group have in common? Do they the share key demographics? Key psychographics? Are any of these characteristics unique? Can they be used to differentiate members of this group from the others? Once you've identified key demographic and psychographic descriptors for each group, the last thing to do is condense and consolidate this information to create individual buyer personas.