Personas alive and kicking designing personas for impact - attendee slides

Designing personas for impact
Personas: Alive & Kicking

Identify barriers to persona impact
3 Principles for success
Hands on experience
Workshop overview

Agenda - morning
09:00 - 09:30 Welcome
09:30 - 10:00 The problem with personas
10:00 - 10:30 Principle 1 - Be the voice of the user
10:30 - 10:45 Break
10:45 - 11:15 Activity: State of the nation
11:15 - 12:15 Principle 2 - Be relevant & engaging
12:15 - 12:45 Activity: Sketch persona skeleton
12:45 - 13:45 Lunch

Agenda - afternoon
13:45 - 14:30 Principle 3 - Be credible
14:30 - 15:30 Activity: Triad interviews & affinity mapping
15:30 - 15:45 Break
15:45 - 16:00 Crafting personas
16:00 - 16:30 Activity: Create your personas
16:30 - 16:45 Show & tell
16:45 - 17:00 Wrap-up

Introduction
The problem with personas

Kim Goodwin
Designing for the Digital Age
“Personas are a user archetype you
can use to help drive decisions about
product features”

“Personas summarize user
research findings and bring
that research to life in such
a way that everyone can
make decisions based on
these personas, not based on
themselves.” Steve Mulder
The User Is Always Right

“Personas are user-centred
bullshit.”
Steve Portigal
Interviewing Users

1. Confusing/conflicting voice of the customer
2. Uninspiring and ineffective
3. Based on thin, irrelevant or no data
3 Key problems with personas

1. Be the voice of the user
2. Be relevant and engaging
3. Be credible
Create personas with impact

Principle 1
Be the voice of the user

Voice of the customer
Analytics
Market Segmentation
Personas

“We could get that
data, if we had the
pages coded that way,
but we haven’t and it
will take a lot of time to
do it.”

Market segmentation is a market
research tool used to classify the
customer base into distinct groups

Principle 2
Be relevant and engaging

Thinking about your team or organisation, take 5
minutes to complete the “State of the nation”
sheet in your packs.
Each of us will then share our answers with the
group and discuss what our answers mean with
regards to how we might approach our persona
project.

You probably needed
your personas by now

● We identified that you have different persona end users
● It’s highly likely that your primary persona end users will have different needs /
uses for the personas
● Crucially you need to think about these people early on and utilise them in your
persona project
From our “State of the nation activity”...

The proverbial
“Middle Finger”

Who is the persona sponsor ?
● They represent and take action on behalf of one of the primary stakeholder
groups / disciplines you identified in the “State of the nation” exercise.
● They need not be the most senior person within that discipline.
● They have the respect of the discipline they speak on behalf of.
● They may or may not be the biggest advocate of personas at the start of the
process, but is your job to make sure they are by the end.
● They may not be a person you currently know - reach out to the teams and get
their input.

● NOTE this is not a formality to “tick the box” that you are being collaborative.
● The persona sponsor is not there just to “sign things off” or talk about how well
the project went at the end.
● They have to be engaged to give you constant feedback, direction, advice and
most importantly help you access others member of the groups / teams /
disciplines they represent.
● Consequently they must give you their time. In Google this would probably be
someones 20% time project for several months.
What is the role of the persona sponsor ?

● You need a sponsor for each of your primary persona end user groups where you
envisage that group having a significant need for the persona work.
● Do not build a “grand committee”.
● Build a small autonomous group that can make decisions and allow you to move
quickly.
How many persona sponsors do I need ?

● Mobile Engineering (Senior Engineer)
● Product (Product Manager)
● UX (Designer)
● Marketing (Marketing Lead)
● Operations (Operations Manager)
● Senior Stakeholder (Clubcard Brand Director)
Persona sponsor example

● Software Engineers are used to solving problems, usually through building and
deploying code (be that front-end or back-end).
● Typically Software Engineers think about very practical solutions to problems,
and perhaps the overall UX may not be at the forefront of their mind.
● It’s quite likely that to some extent the Software Engineer is coding and building
software based wholly or partly on their own own needs.
Engineers : How they think

● Software Engineers are most satisfied when they solve a problem or when faced
with a challenge that seems almost impossible.
● Software Engineers in teams can be quite competitive and really thrive off
friendly inter engineer team competition.
Engineers : How they think

● Be careful not to lose Software Engineers by framing your personas in the
abstract too much.
● Ensure the personas talk and visualise problems the persona has with the
software, and have these problems prioritised.
● Ensure the persona makes references to challenges they face and the long-term
needs they have as this will stimulate the Software Engineer to start thinking
about solving a challenging problem.
● Software Engineers not surprisingly are often very very data driven, so
triangulation with quant data can really help validate the persona in the eyes of
the Software Engineer.
Engineers : Persona needs

● Obviously they think about user needs, and how the work they do can make a
difference to the end user.
● Often will think in terms of journeys and flows, where they are trying to
understand the context of a problem and the many possibilities there can be.
● Will be thinking about what can be fixed on a product, but also in an ideal world
what the product could be and how amazing it could be given the time and
resources.
● It’s definitely true that UX’ers can sometimes think far more broadly about a
problem or challenge, but this may require time and not be immediate.
UX’ers : How they think

● For UX’ers the persona needs to inspire them to design a better experience based
on that solution.
● Your personas need to call out key differences, otherwise UX’ers may struggle to
tell any differences apart.
● Think about detailing persona journeys, overlaid with user needs on your
personas.
UX’ers : What they might need from personas

● It’s often not about giving very succinct prioritised lists, it’s more about the
persona being an asset that can guide the UX’er in their design work, be that a
very specific design challenge or a broader design question.
● Is often more interested in a deep understanding of a behavior rather than
knowing how many people might exhibit it.
UX’ers : What they might need from personas

● Product Managers (PM’s) like to think about the “Big Picture”, but also how that
breaks down into day to day activities.
● PM’s can be very numbers focused, and will make decisions based on the
evidence around them, but also trust their own judgement.
● PM’s may be thinking about and balancing many problems or activities at a time,
and will look to constantly prioritize.
● For many PM’s its about delivering, as delivery is often the key performance
metric.
● Can be quite unpredictable, and the difference between PM’s in the same
organisation can be substantial.
Product Managers : How they think

● Ensure your personas link back to the product or product area. Again like with
Software Engineers do not be too abstract with your personas.
● Call out how your different personas may need different things from the
software, and the reasons why.
● Ensure the PM can easily digest the persona, and that each persona as 2-3 core
pieces of information in order not to drown the PM.
● Show priorities where possible, and what could have the biggest impact on the
user.
● Information on pain points and insights that can be turned into user stories.
Product Manager : Persona needs

Product Manager : Example assets

● Will often think of users in terms of “buckets” and “lifecycles” and campaigns.
● Marketing will often think about the user but not in the same way as a UX’er will.
For marketing it’s often about demographics and various subpopulations that
they look to monitor and report on.
● Marketer’s can both be creative and deep thinking when it comes to
understanding the user.
● Marketers generally love their data, particularly survey data as it’s quantifiable
and repeatable.
Marketing : How they think

● Where possible show where your persona may link to or be part of a marketing
segment.
● Show how the persona might respond to marketing messages and campaigns,
and that will help the marketer better understand how to communicate and talk
with the customer.
● If you mention demographic data make sure that doesn’t over power the
persona.
● If you can show how the persona may evolve over time, and how their needs may
change and alter depending on how long they are a customer.
Marketing : Persona needs

● Often they have their focus on the much bigger picture in the team /
organisation.
● They will think in terms of their vision, and consider anything they believe will get
them to that vision.
● Less time is spent about the day-to-day and more about realising goals and
ensuring others are aligned and understand that vision.
● Will be overloaded with information, and unlikely to retain everything they are
told.
Senior Stakeholders : How they think

● How the needs and behaviors of the persona map to their vision
● A clear succinct view of who the customer is.
● The critical challenges the persona faces and linking that clearly to where
opportunities lie.
● A language about the user that they can share and articulate to others.
● Quick facts they can remember and take with them as they talk to others in the
business.
Senior stakeholders : Persona needs

Senior stakeholders : Example assets
User Needs
Efficiently find personal content
Be able to easily collaborate on documents
Be able to keep a log of outstanding activities

● Train your stakeholders to moderate
● Train your stakeholders to note take
● Make sure your stakeholders attend interviews with you
● Publish mini vignettes on your progress! Drip feed them “pearls of wisdom” to
feed their interest.
Get your stakeholders involved in the research

● These interviews can be very insightful if your persona End Users have spent time
with customers previously and have knowledge about the product.
But be careful?
● Their view will be heavily based on what they have remembered about their
users, and if they are a user of the product, their view of their users may infact be
a projection of themselves.
● You need to challenge everything that your stakeholder says about the user, in
order that you can start to see the difference between a genuinely useful piece of
insight vs a projection of their self.
The stakeholder interview

What is it?
● This is effectively your progress board for your persona project, but it serves
more than just a display, it’s plays a crucial part in your project.
● The persona Board is where you meet and discuss the personas with the
Stakeholder Sponsors, as well as conduct part of your analysis.
Why is it effective?
● It lives in a very prominent place, it’s visual, it changes regularly as the persona
project evolves, it’s an active reminder persona creation is in progress and
persona stakeholders can see you working off the Board.
Persona board (wall)

Don’t just print out your persona bigger

What is it?
● This contains the “need to know” elements of your persona and is aimed at your
secondary stakeholders and the much wider organisation.
● This is will raise awareness that a persona project has happened, but you need to
provide a “hook” so those that read the poster can easily find out more or learn
how to use the personas. Think of the poster as a “lure” or a hook.
Where to put them?
● Meeting rooms, communal meeting points, near photocopiers, near daily
standup areas, and the toilets (loo media).
Persona poster

What is it?
● This is where you embed yourself in as many sprints as you can handle and start
to disseminate the insights in the persona or personas into the team.
● This will involve you spending time with each team member ensuring they know
about the personas, as well as supporting with the creating of users stories and
helping the PM prioritise the backlog.
Persona sprint

● It takes the persona and immediately starts transfusing the insights in the
personas into the teams that need to be thinking about and designing for the
Persons.
How do the personas get used?
● The personas are there as a reference point for the team, but ultimately the team
move away from the assets as they begin to learn what is in each persona.
Persona sprint

What is it?
● Resist the temptation to not make a Powerpoint deck for your personas. Instead
think of assets you can use that allow you to take teams through the personas
and the key findings.
● With as Expo or Brown Bag you essentially create an engaging board of the
information you want your stakeholders to know, and then you walk them
through the board as if you are telling a story.
Persona brown bag & expo

● Very useful when in draft stake to walk through with your persona Sponsors and
the teams they represent. They can ask questions and give feedback on the
personas and you will get a more collaborative output rather than organising a
meeting around a board table.
● All personas are displayed, but key parts of the persona are featured in more
details in order that persona End Users can think about what the persona means
for them.
Persona brown bag & expo

What is it?
● As soon as you have your draft personas ready you can hold a persona Sprint.
This is where you gather colleagues from across the team (if not the entire team)
and you get them to focus on a user problem /challenge / opportunity identified
by each persona, and come up with solutions.
Hack day (or week)

● It takes research and makes it actionable through teams working together to
understand the personas, and then actually start prescribing solutions. Engineers
code, UX’ers design and structure - it’s very hands on and allow you to coach and
mentor the team on how to use the personas.
● At every step of the sprint the persona is used as a reference and then as a guide
as the team’s sprint towards solutions and new ideas.
Hack day (or week)

What is it?
● These are mini booklets, cards, stickers that encapsulate the essence of each
persona, so that they can be used by the team as they plan and think about the
personas in their everyday activities e.g. sprint planning, estimating, workshops.
● The toolkit is something that is used by the teams, and hence it gets the teams to
think about the personas and turn that thinking into solutions.
● The toolkit may not contain the full detail on each persona, but it gives enough
information to be useful in the above scenarios.
Hack day (or week)

In your triads, imagine that you need to create a
persona for just one of your persona end user
groups e.g. product, engineering, UX.
Take 10 minutes in your group to think about
and then sketch how you would architect and
display information about your persona to meet
the needs of that persona end user.

1. Use Market Segments
2. Use Analytic Segments
3. Task-Based Segments
Targeted Recruitment

Task-based segments
1. List behaviors
2. Group behaviours
3. Name groups
Approach taken from Indi young’s book Mental Models

Brainstorm all the things people do before,
while and after using your product
List all the ways users might behave
differently
List activities using verb-noun format
List behaviours

Group by behaviour affinity
Think about the people who do the things
Do NOT group by verb affinity
Group behaviours

Assign provisional labels to the groups
Name groups

Qualitative
● Interviews
● Focus groups
● Diary studies
● Call centre logs
● Blogs, websites & review sites
● Metric-based user testing
● Surveys
● Web analytics
● Business Intelligence
Quantitative

Deciding what approach to take will depend on ...
...your research questions
...the data you have available and the resources you have to collect data
...the product / products you are creating personas for
...who your persona end users are (look back to our persona : State of the Nation
sheet)

3 Approaches to data-driven personas
● Built from qual data only
● Built from qual data + validated with quant data
● Segmented by quant data + enriched by qual data

Built on qual data only
+ve
● Common and useful for teams working in fast-paced agile environments
● Quickly delivers a view of the customer
● Predominantly uses interviews (but may be supplemented with other qual
methods) for data gathering
● Allows the team to make UX and design decisions in the sprint about the users.
-ve
● You may not identify a major behaviour / motivation / need that exists, or be able
to help stakeholders prioritise between personas because you don’t know what
might be the most prevalent/important behaviours / motivations

Built from qual data + validated by quant data
+ve
● Great because the personas start with a blank canvas which is then populated
through qualitative insights, which will be deep and meaningful.
● The quant stage can then be used to measure the prevalence of the certain qual
findings, which reassures stakeholders
-ve
● Takes time and is best done in phases

Segmented by quant data + enriched by qual data
+ve
● Analytics can reveal patterns of behaviours with your products
● Market segmentation helps us pinpoint the most important customers that need
supporting from a business perspective
● We all know stakeholders often love a bit of Quant!
-ve
● Analytics shows an incomplete picture and assumptions are made which may
lead us down the wrong path
● for personas it may be more appropriate to take a behaviours first approach
rather than start from the position of demographics and spend

Triangulate
“Triangulation is a means of checking the integrity of the inferences one draws. It can
involve the use of multiple data sources, multiple investigators, multiple theoretical
perspectives, and/or multiple methods.” (p. 298) He continues: “The strategy of
triangulation is often wedded to the assumption that data from different sources or
methods must necessarily converge or be aggregated to reveal the truth.” (p. 298)
Schwandt, Thomas, A. 2001, Dictionary of Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks,
California.

In-depth
contextual
interviews

Research plan & interview guide
● The research plan outlines the goals, the questions the research will answer and
the methods
● The interview guide contains the themes you’ll explore with the participants
● You involve and collaborate with your persona end users on both of these!

Qualitative Data : The Interview (Key Points)
Leave your views behind!

Build empathy! You are not a robot

Make sure you do the listening!

Ok so we need you to collect some data.
In your triads, interview each other about your
needs / reasons / and experiences of using the
UXPA conference website. Write down the key
points from each interview. Take 10 minutes per
interview
Take it in turns so that everyone is interviewed.

Affinity mapping
Cluster behaviours in a workshop using post its
with stakeholders

Speaks to a Few Contacts Speaks to Many Contacts
Define key dimensions

Speaks to a Few Contacts
Tech Cautious
Makes Infrequent Video Calls
Texts Infrequently
Separates Work & Home Life
Speaks to Many Contacts
Tech Savvy
Makes Frequent Video Calls
texts Frequently
Blends Work & Home Life

Speaks to a Few Contacts
Tech Cautious
Makes Infrequent Video Calls
Texts Infrequently
Separates Work & Home Life
Speaks to Many Contacts
Tech Savvy
Makes Frequent Video Calls
texts Frequently
Blends Work & Home Life
Behaviour mapping

Speaks to a Few Contacts Speaks to Many Contacts
Tech SavvyTech Cautious
Makes Infrequent Video Calls Makes Frequent Video Calls
Texts Infrequently texts Frequently
Separates Work & Home Life Blends Work & Home Life
Find commonalities

Working in your triads, use the data that you
collected in your interviews to define your
dimensions.
Use the paper provided to write your dimensions
on and then plot the response from each
interview.

Anatomy of a persona
1 - Profile
2 - Personality
3 - Referents & Influences
4 - Archetype & Quote
5 - Technology Expertise
6 - UX Goals
7 - Used Devices & Platforms
8 - Domain Details
9 - Must Do / Never Do
10 - Brand Relationship
http://www.ux-lady.com/introduction-to-user-personas/

Working in your triads, now start to draft your
persona, thinking carefully about who your
primary persona end user might be.
At this stage it’s a draft (your first version) so don’
t get too stressed about it, just get ideas down on
paper and iterate.

Recap
Personas are loved or hated
If personas are to be impactful they must:
1. Be the voice of the user
2. Be relevant and engaging
3. Be credible
For personas to be successful you must plan for impact

Wrap-Up
Unanswered questions?
Share just 1 thing you will take away with you

Thank You!
Bryn Williams
bryn.williams@me.com
Craig Spencer
craigwspencer@googlemail.com

Resources
What else is out there?

Personas alive and kicking designing personas for impact - attendee slides

Personas alive and kicking designing personas for impact - attendee slides

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