The FinLab Toolkit

HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN | DEFINE

Persona

30+ Min

Personas are one of the most important tools within the world of human centered design. They are fictional ‘characters’ that represent a type of user or stakeholder for whom a solution has to be developed. A Persona is not a single demographic segment of users, but instead an archetype of a certain type of need, behaviour, and motivation, that may represent multiple people across demographic segments. Instead of designing for broad, anonymous segments, Personas help focus on real people and needs.

USE CASES

  • Document critical needs, behaviours and motivations of target users and stakeholders.
  • Humanise target users and stakeholders as representative profiles.

LIMITATIONS

The quality of a Persona is dependent on a team's understanding of user needs, behaviours and motivations. There may be some struggle with regard to prioritising what to build since there is no way of quantifying the number of users represented by a Persona.

UNDERSTANDING THE TOOL

  • The ‘Name’ and ‘Relevant Demographics’ section is to be filled with basic details of the target user, such as age, gender, income, family size, occupation.
  • About’ helps add context to the Persona, humanising the profile as a real individual.
  • Broad Goals’ are key aspirations and motivations that describe the Persona's view on a specific aspect of life that is relevant to design (for example, goals relevant to financials planning and investment in life).
  • Specific Needs/Problems’ are the needs of the Persona, specific to the problem or opportunity being designed for.
  • Specific Behaviours’ are current actions that best describe the way the Persona engages with the problem or opportunity.
  • Specific Motivators’ are the key attitudes that drive the way the Persona engages with the problem or opportunity.
  • Specific Pain Points’ are the key issues and challenges that the Persona wants to avoid while engaging with the problem or opportunity.
  • Quotes’ are specific statements made by respondents during research that best capture the essence of the Persona.

STEP BY STEP

  1. Find patterns: Based on research data, identify patterns emerging with regard to the types of users. These patterns are based on commonalities of needs, behaviours, and motivations.
  2. Define persona: For a chosen type of user, list specific behaviours, motivators, and pain points.
  3. Illustrate persona: Visualise a user type as a single individual that will serve as the representative face and voice of the type. Visuals need not be perfect.
  4. Build more personas: Personas can be created for as many user types as the team feels necessary to consider for design.

HOW TO FOR FACILITATORS

  1. At the start: Make sure teams understand the exercise, and set context for the activity with examples.
  2. During the exercise: Discuss the user types chosen by teams to convert into personas. Help them choose relevant and powerful data points for each section of the tool.
  3. At the close: Have teams walk you through their personas, and discuss learnings from the exercise.

FACILITATORS QUESTION BANK

  • Do you see any big patterns emerging in terms of types of users?
  • What are these types? How will you prioritise what personas to build?
  • Do you have enough information for chosen personas?
  • Do the types have specific enough needs and behaviours?
  • Do the personas have significantly different motivations and pain points?
  • Which do you think is the most important persona to design for?
  • Are there any specific quotes from the research you would like to highlight?
  • Along with the insights, what are the personas telling you? How are personas connected to the insights?