guerilla personas and the gentle art of design defense

Guerilla Personas

Lorelei Brownloreleibrown@yahoo.com

What We’ll Do Today

•Meet each other

•Personas - what they are & what’s inside

•Data sources & what you can learn

•Putting it all together

Me•I work at a little agency

•Mostly with non-profits & associations

•Little budgets, big opinions

•More content, less applications

•IA is still a new frontier for clients

You are?

•Innie or outie?

•What kind of companies and clients?

•Use personas?

•Applications or content?

Part 1History, Rules,

Structure

Origins•Print and TV

Marketing audience segmentation

•Demographics, buying habits, interests

Evolution

•Cooper - About Face

•Research based

•Task oriented

•Individual

Sample: Bob•  Bob is 52 years old and works as a mechanic with an organisation offering road  service to customers when their car breaks down. He

has worked in the job for  the past 12 years and knows it well. Many of the younger mechanics ask Bob  for advice when they meet up in the depot as he always knows the answer to  tricky mechanical problems. Bob likes sharing his knowledge with the younger  guys, as it makes him feel a valued part of the team.

 Bob works rolling day and night shifts and spends his shifts attending breakdowns and lockouts (when customers lock their keys in the car). About 20% of the jobs he attends are complex and he occasionally needs to refer to his standard issue manuals. Bob tries to avoid using the manuals in front of customers as he thinks it gives the impression he doesn't know what he's doing.

Bob has seen many changes over the years with the company and has tried his best to move with the times. However he found it a bit daunting when a new computer was installed in his van several years ago, and now he has heard rumours that the computer is going to be upgraded to one with a bigger screen that's meant to be faster and better.

Bob's been told that he will be able to access the intranet on the new computer. He has heard about the intranet and saw once in an early version on his manager's computer. He wonders if he will be able to find out want's going on in the company more easily, especially as customers' seem to know more about the latest company news than he does when he turns up at a job. This can be embarrassing and has been a source of frustration for Bob throughout his time with the company.

Bob wonders if he will be able to cope with the new computer system. He doesn't mind asking his grandchildren for help when he wants to send an email to his brother overseas, but asking the guys at work for help is another story.

• Credit: Step Two

De-evolution

•Makes the user relatable

•Catalogs likes/dislikes/pains

•Includes business goals

•Some basis in reality

Personas focus

•Commercials!

•Tells a story everyone understands

•Persuasive

New Rules

•No rules!

•Single person, multiple person

•May not use demographics

You are a journalist•Get the eyewitness

reports

•Place it in context of larger events

•Explain it so everyone understands

•Remember the bias of your readership

The expert witness•Speculation to problem

solving

•What would Betty do?

•How would Betty do this?

•What do we want Betty to do?

Decision-Making 101

•Decisions are rarely made on facts

•Money, turf, emotion, perception

•Number one driver: Fear

Personas are good at

•Thinking about feasibility

•Determining how to extend new services

•How to repurpose content - what’s new to you?

Shift conversations

•‘How’ to ‘what’ & ‘why’

•Unites factions into a single front

Elements

•One big need, several smaller common needs

•Must dos and can dos

•User method, mood, point of view

Traditional Personas

•Photo

•Tagline

•Tasks

•Demographics

•Summary of research

Archetypical Attitudes• Seeker

• Involved user

• Passive user

• Interpreter/storyteller

• Advertiser

• Sponsor

• Decision maker

• Outsider

Seekers

•Are not interested in you, but may be interested in your subject

•They have a HUGE untapped potential, once they see your value

•Examples: casual shoppers, surfers, researchers

Involved

•Involved users love you and may be your evangelist

•Examples: Mac users, volunteers, campaign contributors

Passives•Passives are involved because they

don’t have anything else to do

•Can suddenly realize they don’t need you

•They can be converted, carefully

•Examples: people on auto-pay, email deleters

Interpreters

•Interpreters tell your story to the world

•Can be allies or adversaries

•Examples: reporters, bloggers, raters

Deciders

•Deciders are small & powerful - they determine if you are read, bought or used

•Beware the assistant

•Examples: policy makers, head of household, purchasing agent, CEO

Outsider

•Outsiders are not interested in you or don’t know about you - yet

•Most powerful because there is the highest potential to expand a niche

•Examples: Coming of age/eligibility

Advertiser/Sponsor•These users are looking for ways

that your brand has affinity with theirs

•Not a direct audience, but often give you money

•Examples: ad buyer, grantmaker, individual donor

Mix-n-match•Seeker-sponsor = giving officer at

a corporation foundation

•Outsider-interpreter = gaming blogger who’s telling people about the site she just found

•Involved-sponsor = large stockholders, trustees

Tips: Tasks

•Ask ‘who’s interested?’

•What’s the unmet need?

•How can you meet it?

•Who doesn’t know they need it?

Tips: A/S/L/$$$•Age: internet

behaviors or life stages

•Race: language issues

•Sex: outlook/interests

•Income: Can get meaningless quickly

Tips: Names & Photos

•Proper names and behaviors

•James, the Seeker

•James, 45 year old white male

Part 3Data Sources

Traffic, search, documents, the outside world

Bottom line•Some data is better

than no data

•Use what you have

•No one piece is the grail - you put it together

If it’s happened...

•Someone has studied it.

•In detail.

•With grant money.

•Especially the Internet

Outside research

•PEW Internet Life Project

•Marketing journals - ClickZ

•Government & NGOs

•Foundations

•Software companies

You may have•Traffic

•Search

•Products and services

•Call center/info email/other interactions

•Leadership’s opinions

Daily Life Stats

•US Census

•Bureau of Labor Statistics

•Foundations

•Groups & Associations

Traffic Tells You•What

happened, but not Why

•What changed

•Needs analysis for externalities

Traffic: Bad Parts

•Doesn’t show leaf content well

•Different programs measure differently

•Assumes volume is best

•Affinity is better

Traffic: Jackpot

•External navigation

•Provides some comparison to related sites

Traffic Haters•Business Owners

• “If my content were more prominent, it would get more traffic”

Search

•Can tell you what people want but don’t see

•The process that people go through to find something

Search Jackpot

•User’s vocabulary

•What they’re looking for

•What’s really popular

•When’s it’s important

Search: Bad

•Top 100 Terms and Queries - too simple

•Good semantics take more time

Search Haters

•Executives “They’re searching by the wrong name”

•Marketers “It hurts the brand”

Internals: Good•Call centers & emails

•Sales, registrations, event attendance

•Hits the people who may not use your website

•Information that’s already been seen

Internals: Bad

•Can already have been interpreted

•Has a what, but not a why

•Over emphasis on functions

•Vocal minority can capture attention

Internal: Neutral

•Many have seen & digested it

•Some liked it, some hate it

•Can have a set perception

Internal: Fans

•Whoever did the research loves it

•Whoever hates the researcher hates it

External reports

•Great source of general population

•Can be perceived as biased or irrelevant

•Can be highly valued

Social Sites

•Offers some context : vocabulary, affinity, relationships

•Has strong bias of people who use social sites

•May be dismissed as “kid stuff”

Part 3Putting it all

together

Step 1

•What’s the business problem?

•Existing metrics?

•Tone/design

•Application issues

•Audience/share expansion

Step 2• What do we know?

•Who’s the expert on your users?

•How do they like the way you’re engaging? communication, presentation

•What are other people doing?

Step 3

•How do we report?

•What data answers the questions?

•How do we tell a story to make the data more engaging or clearer?

Let’s meet NAWG•Trade association of electricians

and construction managers

•Membership is aging - few young skilled tradesmen

•Goals: be an expert, provide training, professional standards, make members more money

NAWG Provides

•Professional certification

•Training

•Meetings

•Credibility to the electrical industry

•Publications/reference

Business Problems•Lots of phone calls

•Low online fulfillment, registration

•Some areas are completely unused

•Construction industry is aging

•Bilingual and international expansion

•[image]

What’s wrong?

•What makes NAWG successful as a business?

•What’s makes NAWG unique?

•Do the users know that?

•Why not?

Stakeholders

•What drives the decisions?

•What’s the pet peeve?

•What’s the motivation?

Where we start?•Who matters: Involved?

Uninvolved? Insider? Outsider?

•What do we want to know? A/S/L/$$?

•What sources can tell us about construction?

•Who can help us internally?

Referring Sites• IBEW

• USA Jobs

• BLS

• Google

• Speciality Contractors

• California Electrician’s Associations

• Monster.com

• Wikipedia

• NE Apprenticeship

• ConstructionWeblinks

Search trends• Proper names

•Magazine

• Topics

• Spelling

Let’s build

•Pain point

•Task to address that pain point

•Person who feels it

•Their point of view

Fill in the blanks•Name

•Behavior

•Demographics

•Needs

•Pain points

•Relationship to the business

Questions?

Recap

•Personas provide a focus and tell a story

•You can use lots of different data

•What’s important...depends

Thanks!

•loreleibrown@yahoo.com