putting personas to work: getting personas adopted throughout your organization

P u t t i n g P e r s o n a s t o Wo r k

P r e s e n t e d b y C a r o l S m i t h & R i c h a r d D o u g l a s s

@ C a r o l o g i c @ R i c h a r d D o u g l a s s

UPA International ConferenceJune, 2012

Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization

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WHICH STUDENT?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjkbh/ via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/caharley72/ (Christopher Alison Photography) via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0

Selling Personas

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GETTING BUY- IN FOR PERSONAS

•We don’t need UX – we know our users

•Tell us the story • What are they really doing?• What are their goals?• Roadblocks?

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SELL ING INTERNALLY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895.jpg

INTRODUCING PERSONAS

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•Like real-life, dating•You are the match-maker

• Create opportunities to get to know them• Tell the story, effectively• Support recall of significant details

PROGRESSIVE D ISCLOSURE

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PROGRESSIVE D ISCLOSURE

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•Clarify how the personas are to be used

• Support design and development

• What they cannot do•For each persona:

• Goals

• Needs

• How use product

• Challenges

• “Irrelevant Information” creates the mnemonic•Introduce Artifacts•Encourage and answer questions

TELL THE STORY

Get The Persona To Work

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SHARE WHAT YOU LEARN

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•Form a team that includes product/project team members•The team:

• Supports persona development• Reviews personas regularly• Advocates for personas• Watches for opportunities

SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS

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•Curates personas•Tracks work that may influence personas•Identifies opportunities to enhance them

TEAM LEADER

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•Make opportunities to sew them into culture•Regular touch points •Refresh documentation regularly•E-mail addresses for personas

KEEP PERSONAS AL IVE

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•Include them at meetings•Role play or “channel” the persona

• Review of interface thru eyes of Persona• Analyze competition• Review stories/scenarios

What would they do? Would they use this?

WORKING SESSIONS

The User is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web by Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar.

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•Panel with “Personas” (role playing)• Individual teams, products, etc.• Answer questions in character

•Meet & Greet•Birthday party

ACTIV IT IES

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•Public• Posters• Large Boards

•Personal• Persona• Reference Sheets• Books

ARTIFACTS

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CONNECT TO PROJECT WORK

Managing Personas

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•What to communicate • Progressive disclosure - Highlights• Updates• Tips for use

•When•To whom (team, stakeholders, etc.)•How (Web site, Email, etc.)

COMMUNICAT ION PLAN

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•Plan:• Ongoing work

• Include open questions in new projects.

• Include in planning templates• Usability study triggers a persona review.

• Communication Plan • Regular reviews.• Plan for distribution of updates.

UPDATING PERSONAS

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•Up-to-date personas and profiles;

• Can be used indefinitely for the same product;

• If Goals and Needs remain static.

•Potentially form “Persona Teams.” •Inform new persona development efforts.

• Provide a preliminary context.

•Do Not re-purpose for different:

• Products

• Scenarios

• Needs and goals

REUSING PERSONAS

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•Extend - include all aspects of experience.•Provides a preliminary context.•Complex set of products.•Group personas in meaningful ways.

CREATE PERSONA TEAMS (FAMIL IES)

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EXAMPLE – ONL INE ORDERING

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•One persona to represent all Shoppers is extremely unlikely. •More likely:

• Small set of personas for each role.• Few more for additional roles.

EXAMPLE: EDUCATION (CONTINUED)

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•Personas interact at various times • In person.• Virtual “handshakes.”

•Convey to the team:• Where occur?• When?• Frequency?• What information is exchanged?

SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW

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F IND PATTERNS, COMMONALIT IES

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•Knowledge of relationships between personas.•Frequency of their interactions.•What they need from each other.•What they provide to each other.

•Different Lenses: • Pain points by: product, service, need, and motive.• Motivations based on personas: goals, needs, tasks,

occupation, family, and environment.• Commonalities such as: tech use, tech purpose,

demographics, occupation, and context of use.

RESULTS

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•Once documented prioritize relationships • Team understands which interactions are most important

to the users and the products functionality.• Visual work flows are ideal.

RESULTS, CONT

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•Identify gaps and plan to fill them.•Sync with market segments (if they exist).

NEXT STEPS

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•Creating strawman Profiles now•Schedule and conduct research with users•Expand Profiles into Personas•Build on what you know •Keep digging - each project can answer more questions

START NOW

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•Create Information Radiators• Personas• Artifacts• Schedule of activities

DO UX EARLY AND OFTEN

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RECOMMENDED READINGS

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Carol J. Smith

Twitter: @carologic

LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/caroljsmith

Slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/carologic

Speaker Rate: speakerrate.com/speakers/15585-caroljsmith

CONTACT US

Richard Douglass

Twitter: @richarddouglass

LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddouglass1

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/richarddouglass/

Speaker Rate: http://speakerrate.com/speakers/25641-richard-douglass

E-mail: richard@improvedusability.com

QUESTIONS?

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•The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web by Steve Mulder •The Persona Life-Cycle by John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin•The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper•Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research by Mike Kuniavsky•Additional Reference list: http://v3.thewatchmakerproject.com/journal/375/using-personas-to-inform-design

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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•Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services by Kim Goodwin (one chapter)•The Persona Life-Cycle by John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin•The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web by Steve Mulder •The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper•Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research by Mike Kuniavsky•Babcock, L. and Sara Laschever. (2008). “Ask For It: How Women can use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want.” Bantam Books. •Godin, Seth. (2010) “Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?” Penguin Group.•Ury. William L. (1991) “Getting Past NO: Negotiating in Difficult Situations.” Bantam. •Fisher, Roger and William L. Ury. (1981) “Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.” Penguin Group.•Kennedy, Gavin. (2004). “Essential Negotiation.” The Economist and Profile Books LTD. •Lavington, Camille. (2004) “You’ve Only Got Three Seconds: How to make the right impression in your business and social life.” Doubleday. •Lewicki, Roy J., et. Al. (2004) “Essentials of Negotiation.” McGraw-Hill Irwin. •Young, Ed. (2011) “Justice is served, but more so after lunch: how food-breaks sway the decisions of judges.” Discover Magazine. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/11/justice-is-served-but-more-so-after-lunch-how-food-breaks-sway-the-decisions-of-judges/ Retrieved on October 24, 2011.

REFERENCES

CONTROVERSY

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•Irrelevant information•“Pseudo-science”

• Not trying to be scientific• Statistical methods used to analyze data• Rigorous, repeatable methods• Result in mostly qualitative data

CONTROVERSY

The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design by John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin

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•Personas enable team to learn and remember user’s efficiently and effectively•Reduces chance decisions will be made based on seniority or influence in the organization•Make a better product

•Help teams avoid:• Designing for themselves/technology• Designing for everyone

BENEFITS