Illustration of Québec International’s business lines (Birds) and Typical CAMP accelerator-incubator clients (Personas)

For the past few years, Québec International (QI) has been searching for ways to improve knowledge about its services and clients, both within the organization and outside. This reflection led to the realization of two projects which were finalized over the past year: one for QI’s business lines, and one for LE CAMP, the accelerator and incubator managed by the agency. The first project consisted in illustrating each of the agency’s business lines in the form of personas. To do so, QI partnered with graphic design students from Université Laval to create a family of personas that illustrate its various mandates. The second project was designed to accurately define the typical startup clients of the accelerator and incubator LE CAMP, thus helping match them with the appropriate coaching programs and development phases. LE CAMP’s team benefited from the help of a resident coach throughout the development of this in-house project. For the persona illustration project, the agency wanted to clarify the services offered to the region’s businesses and the general population. Furthermore, the organization wanted to make its services known to better meet the needs of local businesses in the greater Québec City region. For that reason, it was crucial to showcase the agency as a unique gateway for business support services, as well as integrated and multidisciplinary services. Extensive feedback, both from inside and outside the organization, confirmed that the comic strips created as part of the project accelerated the understanding of the scope of services offered by QI. While the accelerator and incubator LE CAMP’s personas were meant to help clients better understand the steps of a coaching journey within the programs offered to startups, this project was meant as an internal tool to help LE CAMP’s team better guide its marketing strategies and communications to its target audiences.

The persona illustration project had two target audiences. On the one hand, QI’s staff, to increase their understanding of the organization’s overall service offering, thus improving customer service and allowing the team to make more effective referrals to other teams based on the specific needs of each business. On the other hand, the initiative also targeted people from the Québec City region’s business community to help them better understand what QI does and how the agency can help them continue to grow and address the challenges in their particular industries. LE CAMP’s personas project was aimed at team members of the incubator and accelerator. However, finer knowledge of client profiles will help guide marketing actions for promoting the programs. The project also allows for a better understanding of the challenges faced by startups and entrepreneurs, which in turn will help the organization meet their needs more effectively. In an attempt to innovate, renew itself, and diversify its media mix, QI thought of a new concept to illustrate its various services and customize the agency’s expertise. The concept chosen for the personas was birds. Why birds? Because they represent the idea of migration, often associated with the term “international,” because the province of Quebec is home to hundreds of bird species, and because these tetrapods came up most often during discussions with the businesses surveyed. Once the QI bird family was created, short comic strips were also developed for each persona, illustrating in four pictures what each line of business has to offer. The QI family is presented in both official languages on the organization’s website. The comic strips were then shared individually over a period of time on social media. Four personas were developed by LE CAMP’s team, each paired with a description sheet explaining who they are, their challenges, their obstacles and their irritants. Each sheet also states the three stages in each persona’s journey and program: awareness, consideration, and decision-making.