How can you get everyone in the team to understand your customers - especially if you're not 100% certain yourself? Personas - research-based examples of the people who use your product - can help. Unfortunately in agile contexts traditional persona development often doesn't work well. How do we use personas when our understanding of the product and market is still evolving? What happens when we lack the resources for extended up-front research? How do teams manage changes to existing personas? How should we communicate personas? How do we keep the value of long-term research in an environment of rapid iteration or continuous delivery? We'll show you how to incrementally build models of your customer with the whole team. We'll be demonstrating practical techniques for documenting personas, communicating ongoing research, and integrating it with agile approaches to product vision and strategy.

1. Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
Lean Persona
#AgileInTheCity
2016
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sketchy_(443136151).jpg

2. Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
Lean Persona
#AgileInTheCity
2016
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sketchy_(443136151).jpg

3. Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
Iterative Persona
#AgileInTheCity
2016
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sketchy_(443136151).jpg

4. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cat_on_laptop_-_Just_Browsing.jpg

5. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mr._Maji,_a_long-haired_orange_cat_with_white_muzzle.jpg

6. https://www.flickr.com/photos/2top/8507775261/

7. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hello_Kitty-Bremen.jpg

8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hansthijs/3586762234/

9. http://memegenerator.net/instance/54376410

10. Persona

11. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ltangelini/4683559792/

12. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Thinker_Musee_Rodin.jpg
Analysis
& Synthesis

13. http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-driven-personas

15. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hansthijs/3586762234/

16. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rows_of_Bookshelves.jpg

17. https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltasar89/15668939281

18. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006BVW09G/

19. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ykjc9/4143179870/

20. Problem?

21. Agile
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Extreme_Programming.svg
XP + SCRUM + DSDM + ASD + Crystal + FDD + Pragmatic + etc.

22. Lean Startup
Customer Development + Agile + Lean
buildlearn
measure
productdata
ideas

23. Lean UX
Lean Startup + UX + Design Thinking
makethink
check

24. Whatever ™
You know, for kids!
actionaction
action
thingthing
thing
mighty
circle
o’feedback

25. Persona problems…
• Presented as truth
• Large up-front investment of time, money & people
• Need a fairly good grasp of our market
• Tends to result in set-and-forget persona
• Introducing products changes the world

26. http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/24/personas-are-not-a-document/
Personas are to Persona
Descriptions as Vacations are to
Souvenir Picture Albums
— Jared Spool

27. https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2163462230/
Sam Bossman,
VP of Sales

28. https://www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/3876631361/
Pat Minion,
Sam’s PA

29. Iterative Persona

30. 1. Define

32. http://www.slideshare.net/clevergirl/luxr-oneday-workshop/73

34. From Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez

35. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rbowen/1148435913

36. Apply the truthiness scale…

38. Made up sh*t True

39. Made up sh*t True

40. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cat_skeleton_-Booth_Museum,_Brighton_and_Hove,_East_Sussex,_England-20Oct2011.jpg

41. 2. Refine

42. Add structure…

43. Made up sh*t True

44. TrueStrongWeakGuess

45. Add rules…

46. TrueStrongWeakGuess

47. TrueStrongWeakGuess

48. TrueStrongWeakGuess

49. TrueStrongWeakGuess

50. TrueStrongWeakGuess

51. bit.ly/indipersona

52. http://memegenerator.net/instance2/4853223

54. https://twitter.com/guspower/status/448487628107575296/photo/1

55. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_Fat_Red_Cat.jpg

56. 3. Realign

57. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:International_tidyman.svg

58. http://pixabay.com/en/viewpoint-gazebo-lookout-point-99199/

59. http://pixabay.com/en/sign-signs-traffic-road-street-39400/

60. http://pixabay.com/en/traffic-sign-road-sign-shield-6664/

61. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

62. Communicates risk and
confidence, not truth

63. Lets you get people started
quickly & cheaply

64. Whole team approach
eases adoption

65. Embraces change

66. Organisation still has to buy in

67. Folk forget refine & realign

68. http://memegenerator.net/instance/54379154

70. Made up sh*t True

71. TrueStrongWeakGuess

72. http://pixabay.com/en/traffic-sign-road-sign-shield-6664/

73. Traditional Lean / Agile
research phases ⟶ research cadences
solo & silo work ⟶ whole team work
deliver truth ⟶ show risk & process

74. DO LESS
TOGETHER
MORE OFTEN
to do
MORE
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
quietstars.com

75. Want more?
The latest Agile & Lean UX News
bit.ly/leanuxnews
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
quietstars.com
“A treasure chest of recent lean &
agile material” — @davidpetersimon
“One of our favorite useful
newsletters” — @LadiesThatUXNYC
“It’s one of the best newsletters out
there” — @LadiesThatUXATL
“I get it you should too” — @tonytphd
“You should subscribe” — @brownpf