Even though Portfolio analysis & Market segmentation summary (Dev agency Example) show that most of our clients are startups with similar needs and challenges (aiming to increase the output, bring external expertise that is missing in-house, etc.), we see a few different customer profiles that may become our target ICPs.

ICP #1: Product owners of startups looking to fill in the talent gap

This customer profile chooses to outsource to increase their output, launch their product faster, bring the missing expertise in-house, and focus on the core business operations. They’re not first-time product owners and have outsourced work before.

Client examples: <Client name 1>, <Client name 2>

They usually come for design or design & development services.

They choose <Company name> for excellent portfolio and customer reviews. In terms of portfolio, they appreciate seeing and checking real products developed, where they can click and test it to see if and how it works to make a decision. Their decision-making style is not quite fast, but they do appreciate a fast response when they reach out.

Main pain points:

• The need to launch fast while spending little. They don’t have time and/or money to hire different people in-house. Might need multiple parts — so branding, design and back-end and front-end work — so <Company name> as a one-stop-shop might work perfectly to meet their needs.

<aside> 💡 Note: by spending little, we mean that this group of clients want to save on domestic hiring processes. They consider <Company name> pricing to be reasonable because they’ve outsourced before and know the market pricing for similar services.

</aside>

• Lack of expertise OR culture fit: ICP #1 is pushed away when a vendor does not understand their requirements of what needs to be built. They pay extreme attention to the proposal itself when the project is scoped and quoted. If things are in there that don't make sense, it shows that there's not a full understanding of what needs to be built.
• Language barrier: that's a major one because if the agency doesn't fully understand what it is the client needs, then when you get into developing and building the product, there's problems that come up with the way things are built.
• Time difference: might need extra convincing on how to work out the hours right. We might need to address this pain point saying the most beneficial part of it is creating your briefing at night or before leaving your office. And the team will review that. And if there are no questions, you can have the work done by your next morning, literally.

Buyer journey:

Dribbble / Behance / clutch.co / other design review platforms —> portfolio check —> setting up meetings (appreciate fast response here) —> talking to <Company name> expert designers to get the pricing and the scope of work —> deal

Online surfing behavior for ICP #1:

• newsletters that just get updated on business news and things in the startup world.
• few podcasts (e.g. How I Built This by Guy Raz, My First Million by Sam Parr)
• Reddit, especially entrepreneur subreddits and developer subreddits
• Twitter (following business entrepreneurs)
• LinkedIn