A brief overview of product personas as part of a larger proto-persona-building workshop using Lean UX techniques.

1. Personas: getting to no
Kelley Howell
UX Research Manager

2. Illustration adapted from Frankie B Washington @ www.frankiebwashington.com
BS Personas borrowed from Jill Christ @ Lynda.com and Stephanie Carter at Bolt Peters

3. (bs) useless personas
• Lives: NYC, not far from Times
Square
• Job: runs a small business with his
father; plays bass for the
Himalyans, usually at The New
Amsterdam
• Marital Status: actively looking for
a life partner; prefers dark-haired
Flamenco dancers
• Goal: wants to be a big (big) star
• Believes: being famous will cure
what ails him
• Anxieties: wishes he were a little
more funky
Marty Jones
“When I look at the
television, I want to
see me staring right
back at me”

4. personas: a history
• 1975 – Alan Cooper
• 1983 – Plan*It, Super-
Project, and “Kathy”

5. creative non-fiction as design tool
• While compiling code, he organized his design
thoughts
• Talked to himself about his user, ‘Kathy’
• Tool for thinking through design problems
• Used to prioritize features based on frequency
of use
• Today we use user story mapping

6. • engineers: if we build it to do everything, we
will make everyone happy and win
• “user” becomes an abstraction that’s
stretched to meet needs of the technology
• Bring people back in with goal-directed
personas
• Get rid of the useless bs
from technology-driven users to goal-
directed personas

7. personas as SW design tool
• Ground design decisions in the activities and
goals of archetypal users
• SW is not an abstract bundle of features
• SW is a tool for people to accomplish their
goals
• personas as common language for
communicating across teams: management,
marketing, engineering, product, design, sales,
etc.

8. Personas
Must say NO to features
They are also:
• Empirical, based on evidence
• Defined in terms of goals, actions
• Speak to the bigger context (see Kathy Sierra)

9. Next up
• User Story Mapping
• Mapping Workshop