A Quick Guide to Personas

Created by Morgan Caputoin collaboration with The Product PathMarch, 2014

Brainstorm

Hypothesize

Validate & Iterate

Communicate

The Persona ProcessYou start with a quick sketch of one archetypal user.

You turn a brainstorming session into a hypothesis thatyou can test.You validate the

persona by meeting real users!

You share the persona with everyone, to facilitate communication about your audience, product & goals.

Always begin by asking,What are we trying to do?

ExpertUser New

User

AverageUser

You are making a persona about a user type

…doing something with your product

Sharing photoswith friends

eSigning acontract

Rentinga movie

The Anatomy of a Persona

Name Title or RoleAgeLocation

Who is this guy?Write a character description• Job, marital status, kids,

hobbies• Discuss tech usage• Expertise, as related to your

productWhat is he doing with your product?• Create task scenarios • Consider what he is trying

to get done/what his goals are, as he uses your product.• What does he hate?

OpportunitiesFill in a sentence like…

Make it easier for him to ________

Help him understand __________

Make him more efficient by______

_______________________________Name

_______________________________Title or Role

_______________________________Age

_______________________________Location

Who is this person?

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________Tech usage

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________Expertise, as related to your product

____________________________________________________________

What is she/he doing with your product?

____________________________________________________________Task scenario(s) and goals

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________What does she/he hate?

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Opportunities

____________________________________________________________“Make it easier for her/him to…”

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________“Help her/him understand…”

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Sketch a quick portrait

Validate and Iterate

• You can validate characteristics from your persona independently For instance, you might discover that you had the user’s age totally wrong, but you caught a ton of great pain points.

• Look for patterns and evolve your personasYou can confirm or eliminate assumptions when you see a valid pattern in three or more users. Iterate to keep updating and validating your personas.

• Transform your brainstorming notes

• Pull out themes and condense your sketch into an interesting story

• Go out and meet real users!

• You need to find the right type of users doing the thing you are studying

Communicate

Practically everyone can use personas

• Use personas to develop empathy - your characters give everyone a story to talk around.

• Open up communication about your audience, your product and your goals.

ProductManager

UXDevelopers

Sales

Marketing