Download - Provisional Persona Workshop 1.0
Provisional* PersonasWorkshop
Mo Goltz
*AKA Proto-Personas, Ad Hoc Personas, Strawman Personas, Skeletal Personas, or Pragmatic Personas
2:15
Provisional Personas These are your current best guesses as to describing and understanding who is currently using (or will use) your product and why.
They are not full, research backed personas.
Why expose what you know, and what you don’t about your users
Benefits
When you use this process -‐ you will come across things you just don’t know. !For those things that you don’t know and that do ma;er, you can create a backlog of research that you need to do. !This backlog will help inform and focus subsequent research.
Benefitsability to test hypothesis and assumpAons you already have !target areas that will require more inquiry !gives the team a structure for collecAng and organizing informaAon as it comes up !help your team understand personas and why they are important !help your team pracAce and perfect persona creaAon methods
It’s recommend that you create provisional personas whether or not you plan to collect first-‐hand data about your target users.
1Agenda
Identification & Segmentation
Attribute Profiling (discrete)
Spectrum Profiling (continuous)!
Personification
234
0:15
1:00
1:15
0:20
break
Stage 1
Identification "& Segmentation
0:15
PurposeDetermine who uses your soGware. What kinds or types of people are they? How would you divide this crowd into meaningful groups?
Disclaimer
No ma;er how informed or thorough the reasoning, there are always mulAple ways to create segments. !
There is no one right way to segment your users….but that’s OK. !As long as you determine users that are important to you and your business , you will have succeeded, no ma;er how you segment your user base.
It is more important that a persona be precise than accurate. That is, it is more important to define the persona in great and specific detail than that the persona be the precisely correct one.
– Alan Cooper
PrecisionAccuracy
Identification & Segmentation Activities
1. think of all the people who currently use, or could use your so5ware how are users typically categorized
how do you think they should be categorized
industry and roles are a good place to start
2. name each type of user, and put each kind of user on its own s7cky note, then place it on the wall
3. cluster, group, and eliminate duplicates as needed Discuss whether there are too many or too few categories
consolidate or divide personas as needed
Don’t spend too long debaAng this, as the number of categories will evolve over the course of this exercise
5 min
10 min
Stage 2
Attribute Profiling
1:00
PurposeHow would you describe they types of people that use your so4ware? As a team, what are the common, average, or dominant characteris<cs that are meaningful and make each type of users different than the others? Describe these traits as discrete data points.
43 years old 30% of users I need to make the quota this month
Attribute Profiling Activities
Get out four colors of s7cky notes
Color one: demographics and environment
Color two: responsibiliAes, needs / wants, moAvaAons, and goals
Color three: pain points
Color four: design imperaAves
Attribute Profiling Activities
For each type of user determine 1. color one: demographics, and environment
Gender
Age
Size of populaAon as a percentage or raw number (best guess)
size of company and/or office (best guess)
fill out s7cky notesone concept per notebrain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place s7cky notes on a wall or whiteboard
stand back, no7ce paAerns and discuss as a team
cluster notes into related groups (affinity diagram)you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine if anything is missing
5 min
5 min
Attribute Profiling Activities
For each type of user determine 2. color two: responsibili7es, needs / wants, mo7va7ons, and goals
I have to___
I need to ___
I want to ___
fill out s7cky notesone concept per notebrain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place s7cky notes on a wall or whiteboard
stand back, no7ce paAerns and discuss as a team
cluster notes into related groups (affinity diagram)you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine if anything is missing
10 min
5 min
Attribute Profiling Activities
For each type of user determine 3. color three: pain points
I find __ difficult
I am frustrated by __
I would be able to do a be;er job if ___ was different
___ ruins my day
fill out s7cky notesone concept per notebrain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place s7cky notes on a wall or whiteboard
stand back, no7ce paAerns and discuss as a team
cluster notes into related groups (affinity diagram)you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine if anything is missing
5 min
10 min
Attribute Profiling Activities
For each type of user determine 4. color four: design impera7ves
what does the product have to do in order to make them happy and successful? Be as specific as possible.
fill out s7cky notesone concept per notebrain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place s7cky notes on a wall or whiteboard
stand back, no7ce paAerns and discuss as a team
cluster notes into related groups (affinity diagram)you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine if anything is missing
5 min
10 min
Profiling Activities
5. for each user type, consolidate all affinity diagrams onto an piece of paper folded into quadrants
demographics & environment
responsibilities, needs / wants,
motivations, and goals
pain points design imperatives
5 min
leave blank
for now
Stage 3
Spectrum Profiling
1:15
PurposeHow would you describe they types of people that use your so4ware? As a team, what are the common, average, or dominant characteris<cs that are meaningful and make each type of users different than the others? Describe these traits as a spectrum.
texts oftentexts infrequently
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 1. choose 5 -‐ 10 aAributes you think are important or maAer more than others
infrequent taks frequent tasks
short tasks long tasks
nega<ve a@tude posi<ve a<tude
knows nothing about tech expert in tech
rookie pro
General
10 min
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 1. choose 5 -‐ 10 aAributes you think are important or maAer more than others
relies on research that’s provided does own personal research
avoids jargon with client uses jargon
reluctant to new technology embraces new tech
few clients many clients
small accounts large accounts
less experience more experience
focused on risk management focused on returns
infrequent transac<ons frequent transac<ons
does what clients ask nego<ates with client
Specific
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 2. share the 5 -‐ 10 aAributes each team member chose by puNng them up on the
whiteboard
3. consolidate the numerous spectrums into one set of 5-‐10
5 min
10 min
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 4. each team member places a a uniquely colored dot on the spectrums where they
think is most appropriate
5. con7nue for all 5-‐10 spectrums
5 min
5 min
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 6. stand back and no7ce paAerns (if Ame allows)15 min
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 6. stand back and no7ce paAerns (if Ame allows) If there is immediate consensus, minimal discussion will be required.
If, however, there are outliers or a broad distribuAon of opinion, the team should be encouraged to discuss and debate those issues.
Do pa;erns in the spectrum voAng reveal that perhaps what has been thought of as one persona should be split into two, or do you just not understand enough to come to an agreement on what this type of user is like
!for more info: h;p://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Persona+CreaAon
Designing for the Digital Age: pages 247 -‐ 265
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 7. consolidate all ‘vo7ng’ dots into one dot per spectrum
If there is immediate consensus, minimal discussion will be required.
If, however, there are outliers or a broad distribuAon of opinion, the team should be encouraged to discuss and debate those issues.
texts oftentexts infrequently
texts oftentexts infrequently
10 min
Spectrum Profiling Activities
For each type of user (or similar type of users -‐ i.e. in the same industry) 7. place the 5 -‐ 10 spectrums on the back of the persona sheet
10 min
Stage 4
Personification
0:25
PurposeAt this point you have a bunch of user types, but they are not yet a provisional persona. Personifying makes each user type more a more concrete and tangible example
Personification ActivitiesFor each type of user determine name
descripAve label (i.e. impaAent shopper)
strong quote in ‘their own words’
5 min
fill out s7cky notesone concept per notebrain dump -‐ fill out sAckies unAl you can’t think of any more
place s7cky notes on a wall or whiteboard
stand back, no7ce paAerns and discuss as a team
cluster notes into related groups (affinity diagram)you may want to name clusters to clarify data and to make discussion easier
over the course of discussion, clusters may merge or separate -‐ let the conversaAon naturally go where it needs to go unAl the team is happy with the clustering
determine if anything is missing
10 min
Personification Activities1.fill out the personifica7on aAributes on the front of your persona sheet in the top le5 quadrant
5 min
name descriptive label
strong quote
End of the Workshopwhat’s next
After the Workshop
Validate & Refine
Validate & Refine Activities
Have others (who weren’t in the persona workshop) review your provisional personas. People could be
Others in your company who frequently interact with end users
Subject Ma;er Experts outside the company
Actual users
Ask Them
Are these the people you interact with
Is anyone missing?
Are these really all separate people? Have you captured “differences that make a difference”
Additional Sourceshttp://www.infoq.com/presentations/pragmatic-personas!http://vimeo.com/70214000!http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Personas!http://zenexmachina.wordpress.com/tag/pragmatic-personas/!http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/03/the-dangers-of-design-by-user.php!http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/personas_empath.html!http://blogs.forrester.com/jonathan_browne/09-11-04-assumption_personas_handle_care!http://www.forrester.com/Assumption+Personas+Help+Overcome+Hurdles+To+Using+ResearchBased+Design+Personas/fulltext/-/E-RES53874!http://uxmag.com/articles/using-proto-personas-for-executive-alignment!http://learningspacetoolkit.org/needs-assessment/working-with-data/creating-personas/!http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/avoiding-half-baked-personas/!http://uxoslo.com/2013/10/14/proto-personas/!http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/07/personas_and_twinkies!http://boxesandarrows.com/building-a-data-backed-persona/!http://www.uie.com/events/virtual_seminars/ad_hoc_personas/!http://www.thingsontop.com/remixing-power-adhoc-personas-1020.html