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

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

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?

SELL ING INTERNALLY

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

INTRODUCING PERSONAS

•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

PROGRESSIVE D ISCLOSURE

•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

SHARE WHAT YOU LEARN

•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

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

TEAM LEADER

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

KEEP PERSONAS AL IVE

•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.

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

•Meet & Greet•Birthday party

ACTIV IT IES

•Public• Posters• Large Boards

•Personal• Persona• Reference Sheets• Books

ARTIFACTS

CONNECT TO PROJECT WORK

Managing Personas

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

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

COMMUNICAT ION PLAN

•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

•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

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

CREATE PERSONA TEAMS (FAMIL IES)

EXAMPLE – ONL INE ORDERING

•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)

•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

F IND PATTERNS, COMMONALIT IES

•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

•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

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

NEXT STEPS

•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

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

DO UX EARLY AND OFTEN

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: [email protected]

QUESTIONS?

•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

•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

•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

•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

putting personas to work: getting personas adopted throughout your organization

Technology

n t e r n

e p e r s o n

n o w personas

i o n c o n t i n u

i n g p e r s o n

n f o r p e r s o n

i o n p

n d o f t e n