4.2 Create personas
Turn your themes and insight statements into user personas by filling in each section in the template.
This step will take you 2-3 hours if you are creating two persona.
🧙♂️ Tip: Do this step within 24 hours of creating insight statements.
That way the insights will still be fresh.
🧙♂️ Tip: Use the annotated example of a persona to help you.
Have it available to look at as you build your personas.
🛠️ Tools
The whiteboard you used in Guide 3.
The deck you added your user need statements to in 4.1.
🧍🏿 Solo or collaborate 👫?
You can do this on your own or with anyone you created insight statements with.
👣9 Steps
1. Read about personas
👬 Read the introduction to personas again
👬 Look at the full set of two contrasting personas to imagine what yours might look like at the end.
2. Decide how many personas you need
Look at the patterns that have emerged from your research. See if there are strong contrasting needs and user types in your user group.
Create one persona if everyone has broadly similar needs and behaviours. It's ok if some of those needs contrast with each other.
Create a second, contrasting, persona if your research shows big differences in needs and behaviours within your user group. Decide which persona will be the primary persona, reflecting the most common needs and behaviours.
Create up to three personas if you need to. More than three personas can be unhelpful as they will blur together.
Give each persona a tagline or label. Add these to your deck.
Don’t worry if you feel like you are missing some of your users or their needs.
2. Add basic details
Add basic details that help us imagine them as a person and understand their situation in life.
This could include name, role and past experiences. Be specific. Keep it simple.
3. Find an image
Do this now because it makes the persona more real. This will help you create it.
Use natural photos of real people in everyday life if you can. Use head and shoulder photos.
Find free to use photos using Flickr’s creative commons search parameters. Scroll photos or use the search function. GDSteam’s Flickr can be useful.
Crop the photo then add it to your slides.
4. Create a composite quote
Look at the quotes on your whiteboard. Look at the words people use to describe themselves and what they do in life. Combine what they say into one descriptive quote that shows how they see themselves.
5. Add goals
Look at your themes, sub-themes, insight statements and user need statements. Search them for your users’ goals.
Write down three high level goals that summarise what your persona is trying to achieve in their work.
6. Add behaviours
Look at your themes, sub-themes and insight statements. Search them for behaviours, fears, motivations, quirks, frustrations and habits.
Write down 5-7 behaviours. Try to start each one with a verb or adjective. Write simply. Try to use only 1-2 sentences per behaviour.
7. Add wants and needs
Look at your user need statements. Search for what your users want to be doing, feeling or knowing.
Write down 5-7 primary wants and needs. Start each sentence with ‘Wants’ or Needs’. Include why they want or need what they do.
8. Add notable quotes
Look at your direct quote post-its in your sub-themes. Look for those that illustrate a goal, behaviour, want or need.
Pick the most vivid and specific ones. Copy these. Edit each one for brevity and readability. Quotes should be snappy and memorable.
9. Show your personas to others
This is an optional step. Your persona will be good enough even if you don’t do this.
Show your personas to people working with the same user group. They could be in your organisation or others.
Ask them what they recognise in your persona. Ask them if they know other user types, or how they might iterate the persona or create another to sit alongside it.
Decide if you want to iterate your persona, create another or do nothing for now.
🧙♂️ Tips
Like with user need statements, creating personas is not a science. Your personas should be rooted in the evidence but it's up to you how you use that evidence.
Your personas don’t need to represent every variation or type of user in your user group. They can’t do that. But they can represent some. That’s enough to design with.
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