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There’s actually a data-backed way to make personas5 steps to creating a functional persona

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This is dedicated to my designer friends.So you guys can tell whether the persona you were given is sufficient.

Or if you should ask for a revision. (And, yes, this is if you have a waterfall process and

weren’t actually part of the research.)

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First, a primer, for persona first-timers.

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Personas versus Market Segmentation

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Personas Market Segmentation

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Market Segmentation

• Can be quantitative or qualitative-but-based-from-a-quantitative-assessment

• Is a rigorous statistical analysis of customer attributes that occur together in a population

• Studies are some of the biggest projects a market research team could do, because…

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You’ll need

A crapload of data The badest-ass statisticians

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The statisticians take all of the data points and look for patterns that occur together,

then propose different sets of statistically significant trait clusters

for the managers and clients to weigh and choose which best represents the brand.

This is how it’s normally simplistically visualized. Check it out on Google image search.

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These are more examples of how they’re visualized. Usually in market research reports.

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Personas versus Market Segmentation

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Personas are archetypes.Which DOES NOT MEAN that you pull them out of thin air.

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Personas are communication tools.They contain granular information about behavior, up to little nuances that might affect a design or feature (say, for example, eyesight).

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But, yes, usually personas are a mix of a number of similar themes or people. Told with enough detail. (An amalgam. As I like to call it in my brain.)

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So, why are they (personas and market segments) different?

Aren’t they both just ways of communicating groups of people? Usually expressed in cutesy ways (The Soccer Mom, The metrosexual)?

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Different data-gathering styles; different roles.

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Market Segmentation

Uncovers needs of a quantifiably stable subset of people

Used to find the positioning that a product or brand may take to

appeal to that market

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Market Segmentation

Uncovers needs of a quantifiably stable subset of people

Used to find the positioning that a product may take to appeal to that

market

Personas

Also reflects a group of people

Digested to a level where: if your design team sees it, they will be equipped with information they

need to make design decisions

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What does that mean?

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Design is

part-science, part creativity.

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When you design highly interactive products (tools or furniture, websites, apps, services),

you don’t design for your own taste.

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You design for the people who will use them.

You make decisions based on: “How will this best allow my users to do what I want them to do on this?"

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Will its

form specifications

features look flow

actually improve what they’re supposed to improve?

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Which means, you have to be asking little questions along the way, like:

• What • In • What • What

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Little questions that market segmentation studies typically

don’t answer.

They could; they just typically don’t. Or it’s too costly

(for them to answer every minute detail).

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Market Segmentation is a market research method that tells you

what your brand’s slant could be.

And its “target market”.

Commercials, ads, marketing campaigns, usually use it to communicate a lifestyle.

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How does a persona help?

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Well, digital product development happened.

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You think you could use a market segment to design Youtube?

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Digital platforms are used by a broad array of people, regardless of “lifestyle”.

Take, for example, e-mail.

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Same goes for digital products.

Google’s clear single-field design doesn’t work because its users are “hipsters” or “working moms” or “DILFS of Disneyland”.

The design works because it showcases the primary function that the product allows users to do.

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Now, to the process!

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I learned this process primarily from handbooks and materials from Cooper U (Alan Cooper pretty much “branded” and established the use of personas) and

Human Factors International, adapted to how I use the concept in real life.

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1. Ask what your design team

needs to know.

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I hate it when you’re on a project and people are forcing other people

to use useless data.

The way to guard against that — ask. Ask the people who will be using your

deliverable, what they need.

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In other words, apply your user-centered design skills at work,

for crying out loud.

The way to guard against that — ask. Ask the people who will be using your

deliverable, what they need.

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2. Actually get user data.

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I don’t care if it’s Facebook Likes, Facebook comments, Analytics.

Personas are based on the user data surrounding behavior.

Personas should contain behavior and all the data related to changes in behavior.

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"How do I know what data is related to behavior, Anj?"

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"How do I know what data is related to behavior, Anj?"

You don’t. That’s why you find it.

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If we knew the data that caused changes in user behavior,

this wouldn't be called research, it would be called recall.

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On a serious note, draw up your hypotheses. The points you want to test, so you

can plan your research.

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Pro-Tip: Go for maximum data points in the least possible data-gathering time.

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How?

Analytics Contextual Inquiries

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Note: Use your design team’s questions to think

of data points to observe.

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The even fun-ner part! Synthesis.

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3. Find the Patterns driving

different “flows”.

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So, you’ve seen the analytics flow and talked to users…

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List all the attributes that led users down a different journey path from

one another.

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“But, aren’t there templates for these things already?"

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“But, aren’t there templates for these things already

Yes. But, this is based on a workflow,

where they used examples, but didn’t tell people to use the exact same traits.

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Huddle with the others, who also looked at user behavior

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Let’s say, for example, you were designing a social services platform. You could have observed that these affected behavior:

Reading level or educational attainment Type of work (Corporate or non-corporate) Age started working SSS tenure / maturity Smartphone ownership Age group Whether had family member knowledgeable about process

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4. PLOT YOUR USERS

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This presumes you got a good range of users :) The smallest number of in-context interviews I've

tried this on is 6*.

Any lower than that, I won't do a persona.

It's definitely more "comforting" and stable to have more data. But. Timelines. And Return of Investment over time.

(6 in-context interviews would already take up 2-3 working days, for facilitation alone.)

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Your list should look like some sort of bare-bones abacus.  

You can do these with Post-it's, on your computer or just a plain old piece of paper.  

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Choose how you want to define the range of each attribute, as you plot your customers.

Reading level or educational attainment

Type of work (Corporate or non-corporate)

Age started working

SSS tenure / maturity

Smartphone ownership

Age group

Whether had family member knowledgeable about process

“Low” range of spectrum

“High” range of spectrum

A B CD E F

A B E F C D

B EF CA D

BF CA D E

A B E F C D

A BC D F E

C D EA BF

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This presumes you got a good range of users :) The smallest number of in-context interviews I've

tried this on is 6*.

Any lower than that, I won't do a persona.

It's definitely more "comforting" and stable to have more data. But. Timelines. And Return of Investment over time.

(6 in-context interviews would already take up 2-3 working days, for facilitation alone.)

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5. find patterns that make

up the majority

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These give you an inkling of what type of personas to create.

Incredibly polarized factors that result in different userflows really need to be part of your persona.  Traits with a few

outliers can represent secondary personas.

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Now, you get to weigh how many personas you'll create

enough to be useful* to your team. 

*Remember that the purpose of personas is to ground the customer journey map or content

flows on real "human" traits.

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Congratulations!

NOW, you get to put the traits together and create your persona.  

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This is finally the part where you weave together the data to create

a story of what could be a real, tangible character.

(Like the often-used “card” template, with a photo, name, title and details).

5 Steps to Creating a Functional Persona by Angela Obias is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Also, check out these foundational online articles on creating personas: 

The Origin of Personas, Alan Cooper Getting from research to personas, Kim Goodwin

Persona Creation, Daphne Ogle et al.

And practical advice on keeping them “fresh” from A List Apart.