Three boutiques sit on the same street, carry the same designer labels, with the same price points, yet deliver entirely different experiences. What’s the difference? It’s not the clothing, it’s how they understand their users’ currency…
The first boutique draws the fashion connoisseurs, the uber elite, where patrons discuss fabric composition, debate construction techniques, and compare wardrobe investments with the confidence of seasoned influencers, they’ve spent years developing this eye for detail and won’t hesitate to leave if standards deceive.
Down the street, you’ll find the careful curator’s shop, where customers study trends days before retreating to their trusted silhouettes and proven styles, they know what risks they can afford to take, both in expression and comfort. At the end of the block sits the accessible outlet, where shoppers request ‘something like last time’ because distinguishing between a bateau neckline and a boat neck feels like a knowledge gap they’re neither prepared nor interested in bridging.
Each boutique sells clothing, yet they cater to entirely different types of ‘wealth’ – not financial, but the currency of experience.
Your platform, like these shops, encounters users carrying different denominations of this currency. The most knowledgeable don’t just navigate complexity…they judge it, measuring each interaction against paradigms they’ve mastered.
The epiphany isn’t about categorising users or just creating personas—it’s about understanding that knowledge, earned through time, becomes the currency users will spend on your platform. While we are correct to craft experiences based on known metrics, we often overlook this crucial currency, inadvertently placing the burden of adaptation on users, rather than meeting them where their wealth permits.
