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User Personas ​

(Validated 2026-04-04 against research/developer-pm-sentiment-2026.md — all three personas strongly confirmed by survey data and community sentiment.)

Primary: Freelance Dev "Floris" ​

Role: Solo developer or small agency Team size: 1-3

Situation:

  • Building a product alone or with a tiny team
  • Uses GitHub for code, but needs more structure for planning
  • Already using AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) for coding
  • Doesn't want to pay for or configure Jira
  • Needs time tracking for client billing

Needs:

  • Quick issue creation without ceremony
  • Reports inbox to dump feedback and ideas without writing a full issue
  • Board view to see what's in flight
  • MCP integration so they can manage issues from the terminal
  • Built-in time tracking — no Toggl subscription needed

Pain points:

  • Paying for Jira + Toggl is overkill for a small team
  • Switching between coding and project management breaks flow
  • Existing tools are either too simple (GitHub Issues) or too complex (Jira)

Research validation: Strongly confirmed. "Paying for Jira + Toggl is overkill" appears repeatedly in community discussions. Small teams use only 20% of enterprise tool features but pay for 100%. Many have tried Linear, Shortcut, and GitHub Projects and found each lacking — this is the "missing middle ground" segment. (See research/developer-pm-sentiment-2026.md §5)

What they'd say:

  • "I just want to dump tasks somewhere and have them organized"
  • "I don't need sprints or story points, I need a board and a backlog"
  • "Why do I need three subscriptions to track issues and log time?"

Secondary: Tech Lead "Tessa" ​

Role: Leads a team of 5-8 developers Team size: 5-15

Situation:

  • Managing a small team that moves fast
  • Uses Claude Code daily, tracks work in Linear or GitHub
  • Currently on Jira (reluctantly) or Linear
  • Hates context switching between IDE, browser, and PM tool

Needs:

  • Role-based access with teams
  • Sprint/cycle planning without overhead
  • Report triage — review incoming feedback, promote to issues or dismiss
  • MCP integration so the team can manage issues from their AI coding tools
  • GitHub PR and branch linking
  • Time tracking for reporting

Pain points:

  • Jira is slow and the team hates it
  • Too much time in standups discussing status that a board should show
  • Switching between IDE, browser, and PM tool kills flow

Research validation: Strongly confirmed. Context switching is the #1 developer productivity killer: 12-15 major switches/day, 23 min recovery each, $78K/year lost per developer. Atlassian's own DevEx report found developers save 10 hrs/week with AI but lose 10 hrs/week to tool friction — the gains cancel out. JetBrains publicly stated the fix is to "bring tools into the IDE." This is Kendo's strongest validated positioning angle. (See research/developer-pm-sentiment-2026.md §2)

What they'd say:

  • "I want to see at a glance what everyone is working on"
  • "We don't need 90% of Jira's features but we need the 10% to be solid"
  • "Why can't I manage my board from the terminal where I already work?"

Tertiary: CTO "Christiaan" ​

Role: Responsible for team productivity and compliance Team size: 10-20, EU-based company

Situation:

  • Needs GDPR-compliant tooling with EU data residency
  • Wants audit trails for compliance reporting
  • Evaluating alternatives to US-hosted PM tools

Needs:

  • EU hosting with database-per-tenant isolation
  • Hash-chained audit logging for compliance
  • Role-based access control
  • Time tracking for client reporting and invoicing

Pain points:

  • GDPR compliance with US-hosted tools requires extra legal work
  • Audit logging is an enterprise upsell at every competitor
  • Wants one tool that covers PM + time tracking + compliance

Research validation: Validated with growing strength. 54% of EU IT decision-makers prioritize data sovereignty in purchasing. 73% of European business decision-makers weight privacy as significant in vendor selection. 61% of Western European CIOs intend to shift workloads to local/regional providers. GDPR fines up 38% YoY in 2025. NIS2 enforcement (October 2026) will require customers to evaluate vendor compliance. No competitor in Kendo's segment matches EU-hosted + database-per-tenant + audit logs at every tier. Kendo should lead with trust for this persona specifically. (See research/eu-data-sovereignty-demand-2026.md)

What they'd say:

  • "Where is my data stored? Can you prove it?"
  • "I need an audit trail that holds up, not a CSV export"
  • "Why is compliance always the enterprise tier?"