Research into your users’ personas can provide deep insights into their needs and validate your product design. This research doesn’t have to take months; it can often be done in two weeks, during sprint 0. Unfortunately, many companies using agile methods don’t invest in personas and a UX strategy because they think they have no time or believe they already know enough about their users. We typically spend months to years developing a software product. Don’t we owe it to our users and ourselves to devote some time to researching and understanding them? Nellie LeMonier describes persona research methods and techniques for conducting quick guerrilla research. She discusses how to ensure your research results are shared throughout the software team so that everyone has a common understanding of what your users care about and what they need. Nellie uses case studies to illustrate the benefits and consequences for projects conducted both with and without persona research. Join Nellie to get a UX strategy for your project!

1.
BT10
Session
6/6/2013 3:45 PM
"A UX Strategy for Persona Research"
Presented by:
Nellie LeMonier
Perforce Software, Inc.
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888‐268‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

2. Nellie LeMonier
Perforce Software, Inc.
A user experience researcher and designer since 1998, Nellie LeMonier began her career at
Accenture working with clients in diverse industries—from high-tech emerging e-commerce
companies to replacement systems for low-tech welfare programs. Currently at Perforce
Software, Nellie passionately designs user experiences that align with customers’ mental
models. When not doing things UX, Nellie participates on the board of directors of the Breast
Cancer Emergency Fund (bcef.org), a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that
provides quick and compassionate financial assistance to people undergoing breast cancer
treatment.

3. A UX Strategy for
Persona R
P
Research
h
Nellie LeMonier
Perforce Software
UX Design
Nellie LeMonier
UX Research & Design
Perforce Software
Alameda, California
@nellielemonier
nellielemonier@gmail.com

4. What is User Experience
(UX)?
Interaction
Design
Visual
Design
User
Research
UX or UI
Engineering & UX
Agile & UX
Lean UX

5. Why this talk?
Research is important
important…
Do not develop a product
without research.
Persona Origins
Personas: Alan Cooper for Software
Development (~1995)
D
l
t ( 1995)
Customer Prints: by Angus Jenkinson
for C t
f Customer S
Segmentation /
t ti
Marketing (~1993)

6. Why Personas?
The Benefits
Shared d
Sh d understanding
d
Coherent story
Reduce conjecture
Build empathy
f
h “right”
Define the “ h ” requirement
Save Development Effort ($)
What is a Persona?
Personification of the roles
Role, professional background
Identity and personality
Technical expertise
Goals & cares

7. A Persona Example

8. Business Domain
Personas are specific
p
Library of personas (when appropriate)
Personas are part of an ecosystem

9. When are Personas
Created?
Early
Before you start
As you go
How are Personas created?
Hypothesis
Stakeholder
Review
Refine
Hypothesis
Research
Analysis

10. Research is important…
Do not develop a product
without research.
Hypothesis
Stakeholder
Review
Refine
Hypothesis
Research
Analysis

11. Research
Stakeholder
Review
How are Personas Researched?
Contextual inquiry or User observation
Surveys
Phone interviews
Market research
Domain research

12. Without research…
What could possibly go
wrong?
Case Study:
Content Management System
(CMS)
Developers came up with the personas
No research was done to create these

13. CMS Case Study
Larry
Moe
Curly
End User
Sys Admin
Content Manager
These were made up
What was RIGHT with Larry, Moe
and Curly?
Comic relief
United the team
Gave
conversation
Ga e them a common con ersation
Tasks for personas were defined

14. What was WRONG with Larry, Moe
and Curly ?
No motivating factors defined
No domain expertise defined
Did not reduce conjecture
Curly couldn’t type
CMS Personas – Take 2
1. Larry, Moe and Curly were retired (RIP)
2. Research domain: internal interviews (1 day)
(
y)
3. Research specific roles through interviews
(1 week)
1. Synthesize new Personas (1 week)

15. CMS Personas – Take 2
Aaron
Front End Developer
Maya
Ed
Content Editor
Site Administrator
Take 2
Conclusions
1.
2.
3.
4.
Clear motivations
Tasks are defined
Expertise known
Unifies product
team

16. What was WRONG (PART 2) with
Larry, Moe and Curly ?
1 of the users didn’t exist
1 marketing persona wasn’t defined
(How can we sell to these guys?)
No consensus with stakeholders
Case Study: Git Fusion Research
Developer & UX came up with
Personas
Research done into domain

17. Case Study: Git Fusion Research
Requirements driven by market need
Pressure from lost sales
Internal users of competition
Domain was somewhat known
Case Study: Git Fusion
Step 1: Persona Hypothesis
Evan
System Administrator
Vera
P4V Developer
Greg
Git Developer
Rick
Release Engineer
Tom
Dev Manager

18. Case Study: Git Fusion
Step 2: Research
Research Pl with G l
R
h Plan ith Goals
Survey via Twitter, Forums, and Sales Team
Phone Interviews
Site Visits
Remote Screen Sharing
g
Case Study: Fusion
Step 2.5 Share Research
Doing research is cool, but sharing it
is even cooler…

19. Mental Model
Explanation of someone’s thought
process on how something works
GOAL
MESSAGE
EXPECTATION
USER
“Paul”

20. About “Paul”
Huge Perforce fan boy
& early Perforce Admin
Becoming a Git/GitHub
fan boy
15 years dev
management
Paul: Using GitHub
Connecting through activity feed

21. Paul: Using GitHub
Connecting through activity feed
Review changes of other developers
g
g
Commenting on changes
Paul: Using Perforce
Several barriers to achieve same
functionality
Review Daemon - > P4Web
Code review tool - > set up, not
cohesive experience
P4V -> history view more clicks to
visually diff

22. Paul: Using SourceTree
Why are users choosing these
tools?
Align with mental model of needs
Effectiveness of access
Remove barrier to information
Make development more effective
Effective development means
making more awesome software
faster

23. Case Study: Git Fusion
Step 3: Analysis
Hypothesis is a little wrong
Secondary persona is really primary
Primary persona is really secondary
Other requirements and influencers
Case Study: Git Fusion
Step 4: Refine Hypothesis
Tom
Dev Manager
Evan
System Administrator
Greg
Git Developer

24. Case Study: Fusion
Step 5: Stakeholder Review
Perforce Git Fusion
Product Personas
44

25. Product Persona
Rick
Release Engineering Manager
“The devil is in the details”
•
•
•
Extensive experience delivering solutions that use diverse
technologies
Adept at meeting strict deadlines
Wants to be the hero, failure is not an option
Who he is:
Profession: Director of Release Engineering
Education: Masters in Computer Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2001
Age: 38
Home Life: Married with 3 children. Volunteers with his church 2 weekends a month.
Personality: Dynamic leader who loves thinking on a large scale.
Technical expertise:
Has deep understanding in development and configuration processes and strategies Expert in Gerrit Git
strategies.
Gerrit, Git,
ClearQuest, OracleDB, and mySQL which he’s used to create and automate the ALM processes and his
company.
Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Allow users to re-use code.
Ensure that everything is tested by automation.
Bugs can easily be traced and fixed.
Configure new modules.
Organize who has access to what.
Ensure users can easily follow a workflow strategy.
Understand how product dependencies work.
Product Persona
Evan
Enterprise Version Management System Administrator
“My job is to protect my company’s crown jewels”
•
•
•
Extensive experience in development and source control
First adopter of new technology
The security reliability and performance of the site are his first priorities
security,
Who he is:
Profession: System Admin in IT Department
Education: BS Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois, 1980
Age: 54
Home Life: Single. Rides motorcycles in his spare time. Into gaming.
Personality: Not afraid of new technology, likes a challenge and solving problems but also appreciates
products that just work as their supposed to.
Technical expertise:
Has
H experience administrating P f
i
d i i t ti Perforce, Cl C
ClearCase, and SVN Also has experience coding i P l and
d SVN. Al h
i
di in Perl d
Python.
Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
Easily set up and configure a Git Fusion server.
Create and manage user access to Perforce, GF and Gerritt.
Ensure that systems are backed up, secure, auditable, and highly available.
Full access, when he needs it, to all systems he maintains.
Enforce SOX compliance requirements through systems he maintains.
What he cares about:
•
Wants Perforce up and running, responsive with no down or slow time. Downtime means complaints 46
and idle employees

26. Case Study:Git Fusion
Research Benefits
• Business domain more defined
• Requirements for other products
• Persona accuracy
• Strengthen relationships with users
• Build the product customers want to buy
Survey to UX
Practitioners
Respondent Self-Described Titles
UX Designer
66%
UX Researcher
55%
Project Manager
15%
11%
Product Manager
4%
Developer
9%
UX Manager/Director
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%

27. How Many Projects Used Personas?
How Much Do You Know About
the Business Domain?

28. Why Don’t You Take The
Time to Research?
Enough known
g
Someone else
did the research
Research time
not important
p
Research important,
no time
Other Reasons For No
Research:
Lack of interest from stakeholders
Lack f budget f any research
L k of b d
for
h
Out of scope
Organization does not value research
Does not believe there are changes to
the domain, r
th d
in research was d n years
r h
done
r
ago

29. How Long Did You Spend
Researching Personas?
Share the Personas
Stakeholders – Marketing / Sales
g
Product Management
Product Team
Keep the Personas Alive

30. Why Personas?
The Benefits
Shared d
Sh d understanding
d
Coherent story
Reduce conjecture
Build empathy
f
h “right”
Define the “ h ” requirement
Save development effort
The (OTHER) Benefits
of Research
Build trust with your users
Build a relationship
Usability testers ready
Expand stakeholders
Learn of “Other” opportunities
Other
Make MORE $$$
Make a better product

31. Thank you.
Questions?
@nellielemonier
nellielemonier@gmail.com