What the heck is a persona, and why will my product be way better with it?

Persona non grata — an unacceptable or unwelcome person.

Seriously, for a long time, this was the only context I had for the word ‘persona’. Maybe it’s the same for you. I’d like to change that today.

Product experts love personas. I guess you could consider it product lingo because it refers to not just any person, but someone important to your company and product, your person. And no, not like you are your dogs person… or wait, maybe exactly like that.

Let’s rewind.

Nielsen Norman Group are world leaders in research-based user experience. They define a persona as “a fictional, yet realistic, description of a typical or target user of the product.”

They go on to explain how they’re an archetype and not an actual living human. It’s important to the product team, however, that they’re able to think of them as a real person. To do that, the persona is fleshed out (pun intended) with background information like age and gender, as well as their needs, concerns, and goals. They even include a picture to make them memorable. We are visual creatures after all.

And think about it. It’s a much more impactful conversation, especially if you get to decision-making time, to say that “Maureen would lose her shit if you did that” as part of your reasoning for not getting rid of a feature.

It seems silly, but being able to point to that representative, and really understand their motivation, gets you to step outside of your own bias for a moment, and see the product from the view of the person you hope will love it the most.

When you’re able to empathize with a persona, you’re not the business owner, you’re not the product owner, you’re not the designer or the developer. You are Maureen, and all you care about is that you can do what you want, it’s easy, and intuitive.

I feel it’s important to mention here that we’re not just making up a persona so we can shoot down ideas. For a persona to serve their true purpose, and be the most effective, they should be based on solid research, and clearly defined.

Also, you don’t have to let them run the whole show, you just need to give them a seat at the table. Business goals are still important, as are design and development considerations. But creating a persona early in the process, and returning to them throughout the project, is vital to allow you to get the most out of it.

Making it too late could mean that you develop features that you don’t need.

Making it and never referencing it again could mean that you develop features that you don’t need.

See what I’m getting at here?

Personas allow for a more user-focused product, and should be part of your design and development process.

If you found this article because your product team mentioned they’d be working on a persona, I hope this gives you a better understanding of what the heck it is, and encourages you to embrace that persona with all your might.

But not for too long, Maureen isn’t really a hugger.

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If you want to learn more about the nitty-gritty of developing and using a persona as part of your project, I do recommend the article mentioned above, and linked again here. But more than anything, the goal of this article was to give you a general overview, and hopefully some peace of mind that creating a persona is not a scary or out-there thing, but an essential and very helpful part of your product development process.