Using Personas to Guide DAM Results: How Life Time Pumped Up Their UX and CX

1. TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BRAND
CONTENT AND
PUMP UP YOUR CX
Using Personas
to Guide DAM Results

2. AGENDA
01
Content challenges and CX
02
Why DAM?
03
Persona-first approach: Research
04
Persona-first approach: Examples
05
Takeaways
06
Q&A

3. SECTION 1
Content
challenges
and CX

4. IT TAKES A
COORDINATED
EFFORT
to build engaging
customer journeys and
empower customers to
make confident
purchasing decisions

5. CHALLENGES THAT
GET IN THE WAY
– Content assets are
scattered across
multiple systems
and file shares
– Materials are
inconsistent,
outdated, or off brand
– Lack of
understanding by
marketing and creative
teams of content use
– Inefficient processes
slow go-to-market
timelines
– Too much manual
intervention is required
in creative workflows
– Lack of content provided
in a timely manner to
sales channels
– Content use violations
present a risk to the
business

6. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Widen, March 2021
© 2021 Forrester. Reproduction Prohibited.
BOTH STRATEGIC
AND TECHNOLOGY
CHALLENGES
Strategic challenges
Base: 259 Manager+ digital marketing/ecommerce decision makers in NA and EMEA
Note: Only top 5 shown for each question.
68%
67%
63%
58%
51%
71%
65%
59%
57%
53%
Organization/collaboration silos
Lack of coordination among business units
Syndication/right content in right channel
Difficulty with targeting/personalization
Lack of relevant/accurate product details
to inform purchase decisions
Content silos
Lack of integration among platforms
Lack of analytics
Difficulty managing data/poor data quality
Lack of technical resources
Marketing technology challenges

7. A streamlined internal approach to
content creation is critical to build
thoughtful, connected customer
experiences.
– DAM system
– Organize resources in a
persona-first approach
– Empower teams to build
brand-compliant experiences

8. SECTION 2
Why DAM?

9. DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT (DAM) is the practice of
administering, organizing, and distributing media files. DAM
software enables brands to develop a library of photos, videos,
graphics, PDFs, templates, and other digital content that is
searchable and ready to deploy.
DAM

10. DAM IN
MARTECH
ECOSYSTEM

11. CONTENT
LIFECYCLE
CORE DAM
CONTROL
ACCESS
with roles and
permissions
ROUTE
for review,
comment,
and approval
ANALYZE
Assets with
performance
insights
ARCHIVE
to preserve
content and
data for life
PUBLISH
assets to the
web, email,
and social
UPLOAD
for distribution
across your
organization
SHARE
on CMS, CRM,
marketing
automation,
+ creative
tools
TRANSFORM
to other
formats
on the fly
CURATE
collections
for events and
campaigns
CATEGORIZE
to search,
filter, and
find assets
TAG
METADATA
using rights
and security

12. SECTION 3
Persona-first
approach: Research

13. USER PERSONAS HELP US BREAK
DOWN SILOS
– Talk to other teams about their needs
– Design experiences to support them
– Work in connected tools

14. STEPS TO INVESTIGATING PERSONAS LIKE A UX RESEARCHER

15. STEP 1
Figure out what you want to learn
– What are their top priorities for the year?
– What does success look like?
– What content do they need access to?
– How are they using the content?
– What are their barriers?

16. STEP 2
Define your research pool
– Who do you need to learn from?
Roles/Regions
– Define limits: more people = more
time sifting through data, so keep
it manageable

17. STEP 3
Pick your research direction
(part 1)
SURVEYS
Send a list of questions to users to
learn trends from their responses.
Online surveys are quick and easy to
create and distribute. Check out
Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or
Typeform.
USEFUL FOR:
– When you want specific
questions answered
– When you need feedback
quickly
– When you know your
audience fairly well

18. STEP 3
Pick your research direction
(part 2)
INTERVIEWS
Talk face-to-face or on a video call with
users to understand how they work
with the DAM system and what can be
improved. With these conversations,
you’ll often gain valuable context far
beyond what you set out to learn.
USEFUL FOR:
– When you want to better
understand individuals’
attitudes, goals, workflows,
and pain points
– When you need inspiration for
new opportunities or
positioning for your site

19. STEP 3
Pick your research direction
(part 3)
CARD SORT
Ask users to sort topics written on
cards to better understand how they
think about and group content. This
exercise can help improve labels for
categories or navigation and improve
organizational structure overall.
USEFUL FOR:
– When you would like to
reorganize your site’s content
to improve findability
– When you’re adding new
users or content and you want
to understand how they best
fit into the site’s current
structure

20. STEP 4
Set milestones and go!

21. SECTION 4
Persona-first
approach: Examples

23. WHO IS LIFE TIME?
We inspire healthier, happier lives through our omnichannel,
healthy way of life communities that address all aspects of
healthy living, healthy aging and healthy entertainment.
1992
Founding year
100,000
Square feet average
club size
500+
Pools and spas
140+
LifeCafes
1.4M
Members
30,000+
Team members

24. 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Departmental DAM
launch Jan 2017
Enterprise DAM
launch June
2020
DAM rebuild
LIFE TIME DAM HISTORY

25. Gaps, branding,
customization
Resource
availability
and location
Lack of feedback
channels
Problems Life Time experienced
WHY DAM-BASED SALES
ENABLEMENT BECAME A
PRIORITY

26. SOLUTION
Portals to enable
sales teams
– Mini-decks and one-
sheets for pick-and-pull
– Organized by product
and use cases
– Tutorial videos to train
sales users
– Always reflects the latest
version in the DAM site

27. “Implementing the DAM and a team portal was a game-changer.
Not only did we solve for asset organization and visibility needs,
the structure also helped us recognize our sales tool gaps. Plus, we
continuously evolve our portal based on sales team feedback,
strengthening affinity and adoption.”
Teresa Pennington
Sales Management
The sales team

28. Changes in
materials
New resources
needed
Ability to
customize
Updates and
versions
Organization of
portals
FORMAL AND INFORMAL
FEEDBACK
Earn Sales Buy-in

29. THE RESULT
Sales is equipped to
represent Life Time,
communicate effectively, and
empower customers to make
confident purchasing decisions

30. CONTENT CREATORS
PROFILE
ROLE EXAMPLE
—Graphic designers
—Copy writers
—Video editors
PRIORITIES FOR THE YEAR
— Unify brand across all
customer touch points
— Empower teams to
represent the brand
DAM SUCCESS
— People know where to
go to find on brand
materials
— Streamline creative
workflows
PAIN POINTS/NEEDS
— Pull assets for creation
— Upload assets for sharing
— Version control

31. TOP PAIN
Frequently uploading
files that need metadata
– wants it done quickly
SOLUTION
Upload profiles to apply
default metadata
CONTENT
CREATORS
SOLUTION

32. CONTENT BUILDERS
PROFILE
ROLE EXAMPLE
—Marketers
—Business Unit Owners
—Managers
PRIORITIES FOR THE YEAR
— Generate new leads /
Generate new sales
— Develop and manage
regional marketing and
communications
DAM SUCCESS
— Self-serve access to
final assets
— Transform assets on
the fly
— Easy to share
collections of assets
PAIN POINTS/NEEDS
— Pull assets for creation
— Upload assets for sharing
— Differing sub-user groups

33. TOP PAIN
Quick access to lifestyle
photography, brand colors, and
product assets
SOLUTION
Customize the DAM dashboard
with links to collections, common
multi-faceted searches, and
brand guidelines
CONTENT
BUILDERS
SOLUTION

34. THIRD PARTY
PROFILE
ROLE EXAMPLE
— Brand partners/
sponsors
— Media
PRIORITIES FOR THE YEAR
— Tell compelling stories that
attract viewership
DAM SUCCESS
— Access to the few
critical assets related
to the partnership
— Easy to share with
many people
— Reflects the latest
version
PAIN POINTS/NEEDS
— Third-party needs access to
relevant information and
assets for events and
campaigns

35. TOP PAIN
Needs access to relevant
information and assets for an event
SOLUTION
Public portal to promote the event
THIRD PARTY SOLUTION

36. SECTION 5
Best practices,
takeaways

37. YOUR NEXT STEPS
0
1
Align around
organizational
goals
02
Research user
success and needs
03
Be the change and
build out your vision

38. GUIDELINES FOR UX
METHODOLOGIE
S
– Break it into manageable parts
– Implement the change and communicate
– Monitor progress
– Follow up
– Document your process

39. TAKEAWAYS
0
1
Internal approach to
content impacts CX
0
2
Make DAM the hub
03
Personas are useful
design tools
04
Break it into
manageable parts
05
Continue to collect
feedback and iterate

40. SECTION 6
Q&A