User-centric product development is essential to creating solutions that truly meet the needs of the target audience. To achieve this, personas help align the UX team with business needs and direct development efforts to solve real problems.
In this article, you will understand the importance of personas and protopersonas in UX decision-making and receive tips on how to create and use these tools to better understand users and develop more effective products.
What are personas, how do they live, what do they feed on?
Personas are fictional representations of typical users, based on real data and observed behaviors. They are important because they help to understand the habits, mental models and economic contexts of users, guiding design and development decisions so that the final product meets the needs of users.
The persona can be present in development, marketing, communication plans and even service design. Therefore, before you begin, define the scope of action of the persona that will be developed. You need to be able to answer “What is the function of this persona?”
Once the focus of the persona is defined, gather information about the group that will be analyzed. Map qualitative and quantitative research , investigate internal and external sources. The goal is to deepen your knowledge of the group that will serve as the basis for the development of your persona.
Protopersons
Now that you understand what personas are and what they are used for in a product development context, it’s time to take another step and delve into the concept of protopersona .
If personas are fictional representations of a typical user, based on real data and observed behaviors, proto-personas are user hypotheses, created from assumptions and prior knowledge. Let’s understand these differences with examples:
Persona: Maria, 34 years old, English teacher
Real Data: Maria was created based on data collected from interviews and surveys with several English teachers.
Observed Behaviors: Data shows that Maria uses online teaching applications to complement her classes and values visual resources that engage her students.
Needs: She needs tools that help create interactive teaching materials.
Frustrations: Maria feels frustrated with the lack of time to prepare personalized classes for each student.
Objectives: Maria wants to make her classes more dynamic and effective, facilitating student learning.
Protopersona: João, 28 years old, software developer
Assumptions: John was raised on the assumptions that software developers enjoy exploring new technologies and tend to prefer flexible work environments.
Prior Knowledge: John was designed using the prior knowledge that many developers are self-taught and value solving challenging problems.
Needs: It is assumed that John needs tools that help improve his productivity and that he enjoys participating in developer communities.
Frustrations: John is likely frustrated by poorly written documentation and tools that don’t integrate well with other platforms.
Objectives: It is believed that John wants to stay up to date with the latest trends in technology and stand out in his field.
In other words, while personas are built from real, detailed data, proto-personas are based on assumptions and prior knowledge. One advantage is that proto-personas are quick and cheap to create and can be used for initial decisions, but must be validated later with real data.
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Step by step guide to creating personas
To create effective personas, you need to collect data through interviews, experiences, or observations. This information is then organized into a format that describes a day in the life of the persona. This structure helps to humanize the persona and create empathy with the end user.
– Personal Data: Start with the basic elements that define a person: name, age, profession, where they live, what this person’s mini-biography would be like and a representative photo.
– Behavior: Even if it has fictional gaps, a persona is based on data, which makes it realistic and relevant. What do you know about the personality traits of the person being represented – their qualities, dreams, beliefs and values? How do they relate to society, the brands they admire and consume?
– Needs, Frustrations, Fears and Goals: Creating a persona involves an empathetic process of understanding the person as a real person. So, what would be indispensable for this person? What kind of problem does he or she need to solve? What factors affect his or her decisions?
Tip : When creating a persona, don’t focus on every aspect, but rather on the specific domain in which it will be applied. Highlight the personality traits and attitudes that will be most relevant to the context in which it will be applied. And remember that personas represent groups of customer segments and are realistic descriptions of people.
Did you like this article? Tera students have access to the complete and in-depth content in the Personas class , with Nath Yamauti.
This content is part of the Introduction to Product Discovery course , focused on developing skills for Digital Product Leadership .
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