This workshop is a precursor to creating full, research-backed personas, and is aimed to externalize what stakeholders already know about their customers - to share prior knowledge and assumptions through experience working at your company, interacting with users, and data generated by users. The provisional personas developed here are also known as: Proto-Personas, Ad Hoc Personas, Strawman Personas, Skeletal Personas, or Pragmatic Personas.
2. Provisional Personas
These are your current best guesses
as to describing and understanding
who is currently using (or will use)
your product and why.
They are not full, research backed
personas.
3. Why
expose what you know,
and what you don’t about your users
4. Benefits
When you use this process -‐ you will
come across things you just don’t know.
!
For those things that you don’t know and
that do ma;er, you can create a backlog
of research that you need to do.
!
This backlog will help inform and focus
subsequent research.
5. Benefits
ability to test hypothesis and assumpAons you already have
!
target areas that will require more inquiry
!
gives the team a structure for collecAng and organizing
informaAon as it comes up
!
help your team understand personas and why they are
important
!
help your team pracAce and perfect persona creaAon methods
6. It’s recommend that you create provisional personas
whether or not you plan to collect first-‐hand data about
your target users.
9. Purpose
Determine who uses your soGware. What kinds or types of
people are they? How would you divide this crowd into
meaningful groups?
10. Disclaimer
No ma;er how informed or thorough the reasoning, there are
always mulAple ways to create segments.
!
There is no one right
way to segment your users….
but that’s OK.
!
As long as you determine users that are important to you and
your business , you will have succeeded, no ma;er how you
segment your user base.
11. It is more important that a persona be precise than accurate.
That is, it is more important to define the persona in great and
specific detail than that the persona be the precisely correct one.
– Alan Cooper
13. Identification & Segmentation Activities
1. think
of
all
the
people
who
currently
use,
or
could
use
your
so5ware
how are users typically categorized
how do you think they should be categorized
industry and roles are a good place to start
5 min
2. name
each
type
of
user,
and
put
each
kind
of
user
on
its
own
s7cky
note,
then
place
it
on
the
wall
10 min
3. cluster,
group,
and
eliminate
duplicates
as
needed
Discuss whether there are too many or too few categories
consolidate or divide personas as needed
Don’t spend too long debaAng this, as the number of categories will evolve over
the course of this exercise
15. Purpose
How
would
you
describe
they
types
of
people
that
use
your
so4ware?
As
a
team,
what
are
the
common,
average,
or
dominant
characteris<cs
that
are
meaningful
and
make
each
type
of
users
different
than
the
others?
Describe
these
traits
as
discrete
data
points.
43 years old
30% of users
I need to make the quota this month
16. Attribute Profiling Activities
Get
out
four
colors
of
s7cky
notes
Color one: demographics and environment
Color two: responsibiliAes, needs / wants, moAvaAons, and goals
Color three: pain points
Color four: design imperaAves
17. Attribute Profiling Activities
5 min
For each type of user determine
1. color
one:
demographics,
and
environment
Gender
Age
Size of populaAon as a percentage or raw number (best guess)
size of company and/or office (best guess)
fill
out
s7cky
notes
one concept per note
brain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place
s7cky
notes
on
a
wall
or
whiteboard
stand
back,
no7ce
paAerns
and
discuss
as
a
team
5 min
cluster
notes
into
related
groups
(affinity
diagram)
you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon
naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine
if
anything
is
missing
18. Attribute Profiling Activities
5 min
For each type of user determine
2. color
two:
responsibili7es,
needs
/
wants,
mo7va7ons,
and
goals
I have to___
I need to ___
I want to ___
fill
out
s7cky
notes
one concept per note
brain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place
s7cky
notes
on
a
wall
or
whiteboard
stand
back,
no7ce
paAerns
and
discuss
as
a
team
10 min
cluster
notes
into
related
groups
(affinity
diagram)
you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon
naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine
if
anything
is
missing
19. Attribute Profiling Activities
5 min
For each type of user determine
3. color
three:
pain
points
I find __ difficult
I am frustrated by __
I would be able to do a be;er job if ___ was different
___ ruins my day
fill
out
s7cky
notes
one concept per note
brain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place
s7cky
notes
on
a
wall
or
whiteboard
stand
back,
no7ce
paAerns
and
discuss
as
a
team
10 min
cluster
notes
into
related
groups
(affinity
diagram)
you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon
naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine
if
anything
is
missing
20. Attribute Profiling Activities
5 min
For each type of user determine
4. color
four:
design
impera7ves
what does the product have to do in order to make them happy and successful?
Be as specific as possible.
fill
out
s7cky
notes
one concept per note
brain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place
s7cky
notes
on
a
wall
or
whiteboard
stand
back,
no7ce
paAerns
and
discuss
as
a
team
10 min
cluster
notes
into
related
groups
(affinity
diagram)
you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon
naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine
if
anything
is
missing
21. Profiling Activities
5 min
5. for
each
user
type,
consolidate
all
affinity
diagrams
onto
an
piece
of
paper
folded
into
quadrants
leave
blank
for now
demographics
& environment
pain points
responsibilities,
needs / wants,
motivations,
and goals
design imperatives
23. Purpose
How
would
you
describe
they
types
of
people
that
use
your
so4ware?
As
a
team,
what
are
the
common,
average,
or
dominant
characteris<cs
that
are
meaningful
and
make
each
type
of
users
different
than
the
others?
Describe
these
traits
as
a
spectrum.
texts infrequently
texts often
24. Spectrum Profiling Activities
10 min
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
1. choose
5
-‐
10
aAributes
you
think
are
important
or
maAer
more
than
others
General
infrequent
taks
short
tasks
nega<ve
a@tude
knows
nothing
about
tech
rookie
frequent
tasks
long
tasks
posi<ve
a<tude
expert
in
tech
pro
25. Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
1. choose
5
-‐
10
aAributes
you
think
are
important
or
maAer
more
than
others
Specific
relies
on
research
that’s
provided
avoids
jargon
with
client
reluctant
to
new
technology
few
clients
does
own
personal
research
uses
jargon
embraces
new
tech
many
clients
small
accounts
large
accounts
less
experience
more
experience
focused
on
risk
management
focused
on
returns
infrequent
transac<ons
frequent
transac<ons
nego<ates
with
client
does
what
clients
ask
26. Spectrum Profiling Activities
5 min
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
2. share
the
5
-‐
10
aAributes
each
team
member
chose
by
puNng
them
up
on
the
whiteboard
10 min
3. consolidate
the
numerous
spectrums
into
one
set
of
5-‐10
27. Spectrum Profiling Activities
5 min
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
4. each
team
member
places
a
a
uniquely
colored
dot
on
the
spectrums
where
they
think
is
most
appropriate
5 min
5. con7nue
for
all
5-‐10
spectrums
28. Spectrum Profiling Activities
15 min
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
6. stand
back
and
no7ce
paAerns
(if Ame allows)
29. Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
6. stand
back
and
no7ce
paAerns
(if Ame allows)
If there is immediate consensus, minimal discussion will be required.
If, however, there are outliers or a broad distribuAon of opinion, the team
should be encouraged to discuss and debate those issues.
Do pa;erns in the spectrum voAng reveal that perhaps what has been
thought of as one persona should be split into two, or do you just not
understand enough to come to an agreement on what this type of user is like
!
for
more
info:
h;p://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Persona+CreaAon
Designing for the Digital Age: pages 247 -‐ 265
30. Spectrum Profiling Activities
10 min
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
7. consolidate
all
‘vo7ng’
dots
into
one
dot
per
spectrum
If there is immediate consensus, minimal discussion will be required.
If, however, there are outliers or a broad distribuAon of opinion, the team
should be encouraged to discuss and debate those issues.
texts infrequently
texts often
texts infrequently
texts often
31. Spectrum Profiling Activities
10 min
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry)
7. place
the
5
-‐
10
spectrums
on
the
back
of
the
persona
sheet
33. Purpose
At
this
point
you
have
a
bunch
of
user
types,
but
they
are
not
yet
a
provisional
persona.
Personifying
makes
each
user
type
more
a
more
concrete
and
tangible
example
34. Personification Activities
5 min
For
each
type
of
user
determine
name
descripAve label (i.e. impaAent shopper)
strong quote in ‘their own words’
fill
out
s7cky
notes
one concept per note
brain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place
s7cky
notes
on
a
wall
or
whiteboard
stand
back,
no7ce
paAerns
and
discuss
as
a
team
10 min
cluster
notes
into
related
groups
(affinity
diagram)
you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon
naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine
if
anything
is
missing
35. Personification Activities
5 min
1.fill
out
the
personifica7on
aAributes
on
the
front
of
your
persona
sheet
in
the
top
le5
quadrant
name
descriptive label
strong quote
38. Validate & Refine Activities
Have
others
(who
weren’t
in
the
persona
workshop)
review
your
provisional
personas.
People
could
be
Others in your company who frequently interact with end users
Subject Ma;er Experts outside the company
Actual users
Ask
Them
Are these the people you interact with
Is anyone missing?
Are these really all separate people? Have you captured “differences that make a
difference”