Personas are an integral part of the user experience design process. They describe our users, their habits, and their goals towards the product being built. Although they put a face and a story to multiple users, some folks wonder whether personas make an adequate bridge between deep user insights and a company’s business goals. As designers, we know there is value in understanding users and designing around their needs. But how can we sell user research when the way we have traditionally built personas do not always consider the business benefit – the “what’s in it for me?” that is so crucial to achieving alignment and buy-in? This presentation considers that question and a way forward.

1. Jesse Emmanuel Rosario
@jemrosario
Building
Contextual Personas
through
Scenario Planning

2. F A C T:
Personas are great!

3. From Freepik
(http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/variety-of-human-avatars_766615.htm)
user
research
Ellen
• 45 years old
• Mother of two
• Proud tech adopter
• Pays for her coffee
exclusively from her
mobile device

4. • Personas became
“laughable caricatures packed full
of stereotypical details based on
nothing more than marketing data”
- Jaime Levy, UX Strategy (2015)
But something happened along the way…

5. #badPersonas
Sam Avery
• 18 years old
• Full-time student, part-time barista
• Favourite artist:
The Strokes, Nina Simone, Sia
• Favourite brands:
Acne Studios, Apple, Blue Bottle Coffee
• Descriptions:
Vintage, Glam, Classic, Hipster (oh yeah!)

6. P R O B L E M
Traditional personas
lack the product
context needed to build
digital products that
users want and
generate business.
How do we solve this?

7. CONTEXTUAL
PERSONAS
Behavioral
Insights
+
Product
Context

8. “Context”
• The conditions that give rise to a product idea.
Problem
Space
Competitive
Landscape
Problem/
Solution Fit

9. “Context”
• GOAL: Understand the “job-to-be-done”
(Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Solution, 2003)
– Pain Point: Situations where customers want some problem solved
– The Thing They’ll Hire: …and they’re looking to hire something that fixes that
problem
Problem
Space
Competitive
Landscape
Problem/
Solution Fit

10. Scenario Planning
A strategic foresight method
that lets you take an educated peek
at some futures your product or service
might play out.
DISCLAIMER:
The scenario planning process outlined in this presentation is adapted
from Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless’ Liberating Structures
(specifically LS # 30: “Critical Uncertainties”).
So how do you tease out that job-to-be-done?

11. IDENTIFYING
TRENDS
Problem space
User Research
Critical Uncertainties
BUILDING
SCENARIOS
Scenario Matrix
IMPLICATIONS
FOR STRATEGY
Consider scenarios’
implications for strategy
SOURCES: OCAD University Strategic Innovation Lab; Where in the Future (by Trevor Haldenby and Gabe Sawhney, 2012)

12. Try It!
How might we get
Toronto Public Library
patrons renewing
their library cards
on time?

13. 1
Find your
critical
uncertainties
(i.e. the two big-ticket and
uncertain factors surrounding
your users)
What is the
most hard-hitting/
crucial factor about
your users that
could affect the
product/service’s
creation?
What is the
most uncertain/
volatile factor
surrounding your
users?
CRITICAL FACTOR UNCERTAIN FACTOR

14. 1
Find your
critical
uncertainties
(i.e. the two big-ticket and
uncertain factors surrounding
your users)
HOW DO WE FIND THAT?
UX RESEARCH
(interviews, contextual
inquiry, analytics
research, surveys,
ethnography, etc.)
IDENTIFY TRENDS
(affinity mapping,
recurring themes,
five whys, etc.)

15. Relationship
with the
Library
(e.g. good, bad,
okay, etc.)
Date
recall
(i.e. ability to
remember dates)
CRITICAL FACTOR UNCERTAIN FACTOR
1
Find your
critical
uncertainties
(i.e. the two big-ticket and
uncertain factors surrounding
your users)

16. 2
Plot these
critical
uncertainties
on a 2×2 matrix
C = Relationship with the Library
U = Date recall
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
POOR
(e.g. forgetful)
STELLAR
(e.g. retentive)
Forget
Me Not!!!
The Eager
Superfan
“Meh…”
The
Breakup
Guy/Girl
(RESULT: A user type that has a specific
backstory, i.e. the “context” that probes
their relationship with your product)

17. 3
Report
your findings.
Continue
research.
C = Relationship with the Library
U = Date recall
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
POOR
(e.g. forgetful)
STELLAR
(e.g. retentive)
Forget
Me Not!!!
The Eager
Superfan
“Meh…”
The
Breakup
Guy/Girl

18. Some common
quesBons, concerns,
objecBons, etc.
(a.k.a. YA RLY…)

19. Nice process, but…
Aren’t traditional
personas enough?
ANSWER:
Half and half. Tradi.onal personas are great with user behaviours, but they always don’t tell you why these
behaviours ma@er to you and your business (at least explicitly). It oGen struggles to make the connec.on
with business strategy, which is key to achieving research/strategy buy-in!
(You’re honestly making my life complicated... *eye roll*)

20. Product Development
today is a
High Stakes Game
PHOTO BY Francois Arias
http://boingboing.net/2012/12/02/dog-dressed-as-two-dogs-holdin.html
Problem-
Solution Fit
(Pain Points +
Job to be Done)
Business
Strategy
(through
Value Innovation)
+

21. If our goal is to build products
that our users and stakeholders
will love, we’ve got to make
Problem-Solution Fit
and Business Strategy
sing in unison.
“Like 2 Peas in a Pod” by Lisa Hunt

23. Four Lessons I Have Learned:
ConnecBng Research to
Strategy
(a.k.a. the leapfrog…)

24. Always do a reality check about
your product and mission whenever you can.
Ask yourself, “What’s the problem we’re
really solving and the job-to-be done?”
every time you’re carried away.
1

25. Align. Align. Align.2

26. Communicate with everyone.
Clarity goes a long way.3
As designers, we’re more of a sherpa than Moses, really…

27. Track success.
Revisit your strategy.4

28. • Contextual Personas =
Behavioral Insights + Product Context.
• Glimpses potential usage scenarios given user goals,
motivations, and product/business context.
• Driven by user research, this time with a view towards the
critical and the uncertain.
• Covers much more ground critical to achieving
problem-solution fit (and product-market fit, eventually).
In Conclusion

29. If you only have to
remember one thing…

31. Building
Contextual Personas
through
Scenario Planning
Jesse Emmanuel Rosario
@jemrosario