What is a Persona?
Personas are a representation of the existing or intended users of a given product or service. They help create a picture of the attitudes and behaviours of an important audience. Four or five Personas might be all you need to personalise the needs in the market.
Why are they useful?
Using Personas anchors the development of your new services and solutions around the established needs, goals and behaviours of real users. You can use them to consistently bring a team or client back to the ultimate customer. They can be the inspiration and compass for your project.
How to use Personas
Building Personas from scratch can be quick and easy. If you do it with your client team, you all own the outcomes and together you have a common shorthand to discuss requirements. Typically you might start with some known user groups or segments.
Use the data collected from your interviews and observations to enhance your Persona and ensure they are true to life.
Tips
- Follow the Persona tool and it will remind you of the data you need to gather. Their job, age, and demographics are helpful.
- Most important are the relevant goals of the Persona and their behaviours.
- Add a quote to summarise their opinions.
- Give them a name and add a picture to help others imagine this person.
