Technical writing/Project management/User Goals

What are goals?

Simply put, goals are the things you want to achieve in both your professional and personal life.

Why are goals useful knowledge?

By knowing what things a user or business persona wants to achieve it is possible to work out the abstract motivations behind those goals. The more abstract the goal, the closer to the core motivation of the persona in question. In many cases a person's goal is simply not to look stupid in front of his peers.

Consider the goals of an elderly person when using a mobile device or television.

Now consider the goals of a teen using a mobile device or television.

We can use this information in our writing to present the material our audience needs in such a way that their goals are fulfilled. We aim to help both the elderly mobile user, and the teen. We can only do this by understanding and explaining how to reach their goals.