40% of your users aren't who you thought

Today's warm-up: User Persona Validation Challenge (Associate PM · User Research & Empathy)

Fresh interviews reveal 40% of users are using the product differently than your personas say — older demographics, different use cases. The researcher says the personas are outdated but warns that changing them shakes the whole product strategy. Marketing's campaigns are built on the current personas. Design made interface decisions for younger, tech-savvy users. Do you rewrite the personas on this data, validate with more research first, or hold the line? Your roadmap is built on assumptions that just got questioned.