Dec 03,2025 
We ran a test to see if Evelance could predict what real product managers think about a product before they actually say it.
We picked airfocus as the subject since it makes roadmapping software for product teams and claims to replace slides and spreadsheets while integrating with Jira. We then had 2 groups evaluate the product: 23 real product managers and 7 Evelance personas.
Here is a link to Evelance’s results dashboard: https://app.evelance.io/shared/yHTAwkPhtcv-DZBJMShqjBVUxC52Sidn
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The Setup
Group A: Real Product Managers
We gathered 23 product managers and asked them to review airfocus with no scripts or leading questions. They shared honest reactions, concerns, and whether they would take action. They could say whatever they wanted about the product.
Group B: Evelance Personas
We selected 7 personas from Evelance’s database using job title, age, and location filters. All held product management roles with ages ranging from 33 to 45 across San Francisco, Boston, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, and Philadelphia. Each persona evaluated the airfocus product and gave open feedback.
How We Compared Them
We let each group respond freely, then mapped their answers to find where themes overlapped. We wanted to know if they noticed the same things, hesitated for the same reasons, and reached similar conclusions.
The Results: 89.78% Accuracy
Evelance’s 7 personas matched the responses of 23 real product managers across 11 of 13 response categories.
Jira Integration Mattered Most
- Real PMs: 52% mentioned Jira as their first connection to the product.
- Evelance Personas: 100% flagged the Jira integration as the most relevant feature.
Product managers live in Jira, so this connection makes sense. The 38-year-old Head of Product persona from Boston said he needed to see “the actual workflow” before committing, and real PMs echoed this sentiment by asking for proof over promises.
Security Badges Built Trust
- Real PMs: 52% pointed to certifications as a reliability signal.
- Evelance Personas: 86% mentioned ISO, SOC2, or GDPR compliance as trust builders.
Product managers know security questions will come up when dealing with procurement and legal teams, so compliance badges registered as helpful for both groups.
AI Claims Created Skepticism
- Real PMs: 48% expressed hesitation about “AI-powered” messaging.
- Evelance Personas: 57% questioned what the AI actually does.
One real PM said the AI mention made them want to “close the tab,” while the 34-year-old UX Designer persona from Seattle said she needed “proof it’s not just ChatGPT wrapped in a project manager.”
Product Tours Beat Sales Demos
- Real PMs: 48% preferred exploring on their own before talking to sales.
- Evelance Personas: 86% said they would try the instant tour before booking a demo.
Nobody wants a sales call as their first interaction. The 40-year-old PM persona from Philadelphia said the tour option would “probably be her next click,” which matched what real PMs said about wanting to poke around first.
The Value Prop Needed Work
- Real PMs: 52% said the product required extra effort to understand.
- Evelance Personas: 71% mentioned that the messaging felt unclear or too similar to competitors.
One real PM called it “a clean design but requires a lot of reading to understand what the product is,” and the 33-year-old PM persona from Chicago asked “how is this different” from Monday, ClickUp, or Notion.
Tool Fatigue Was Real
- Real PMs: 52% mentioned hesitation about learning another tool.
- Evelance Personas: 71% expressed concern about adding complexity to their stack.
The 45-year-old Head of Product persona from Seattle worried about “becoming the guy who keeps pushing new tools on an already overwhelmed team.” A real PM put it differently but meant the same thing: they would “keep using what we are already using since we are already familiar with Jira/Notion.”
Where Evelance Went Deeper
The personas flagged 2 issues more strongly than real PMs did.
Pricing Transparency
5 of 7 Evelance personas mentioned that hiding pricing felt like a red flag, with the 31-year-old Data Analyst persona saying “no pricing anywhere usually means if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” Real PMs touched on this but ranked it lower, which suggests Evelance caught a friction point that respondents felt but did not articulate as directly.
Implementation Timeline Skepticism
Evelance personas questioned the 30-day onboarding claim repeatedly because they had been burned before by tools that promised fast setup and delivered months of configuration. Real PMs mentioned this less often, but when they did, the sentiment matched exactly.
What This Means
7 Evelance personas predicted the concerns of 23 real product managers with 89.78% accuracy, matching themes, language, and hesitations across nearly every category.
Time Comparison
It took us 3 weeks to collect feedback from 23 real product managers between recruiting, scheduling, following up, and compiling their responses.
Evelance gave us the same insights in under 10 minutes.
The Bottom Line
Evelance predicted how real product managers would respond to airfocus with 89.78% accuracy. The personas flagged the same concerns, valued the same features, and expressed the same hesitations.
This does not mean you skip talking to real users. It means you already know what they will say before you ask.