Personas
Give your target users a face, a name, and a story your team can rally around.
What is it?
Personas are research-based fictional characters representing key user segments. They synthesize demographics, behaviors, goals, and frustrations into a relatable profile that keeps teams aligned on who they're designing for.
When to use it
Create personas during the discovery phase, when the team lacks a shared understanding of users, or when stakeholders push for features without user evidence.
How to do it
Conduct user research: interviews, surveys, analytics data.
Identify behavioral patterns and group users into distinct segments.
Build each persona with demographics, goals, frustrations, and context.
Add a realistic photo, name, and a key quote that captures their mindset.
Validate with stakeholders and integrate into your design process.
Pro tips
Fewer personas are better. 3-4 well-researched personas beat 10 shallow ones.
Focus on behaviors and goals, not demographics. A 25-year-old and a 55-year-old might share the same needs.