UX: Creating Proto-Personas
“Give a man a mask and he will show his true face.” ~ Oscar Wilde
The word persona comes from the Latin word for mask. Originally used to describe a role or character played by an actor, it is thought to derive from the word personage meaning “to sound through.” During the Gilded Age (nope, but it sounds good), actors would project their voice through the mouthpiece of an acoustic theatre mask allowing for increased energy and presence on large outdoor stages.
In modern usage, and as it’s applied in UX practice, the persona continues to be a mouthpiece for the user. The ‘stage’ is becoming increasingly larger, and the chatter more difficult to hear over. The level of competition in the market demands building better products for the everyday user. As the signal-to-noise ratio continues to rise, it’s more important than ever to refine the usability and functionality of digital material.
Although many masks are used to conceal and cloak, the UX Persona is intended to shed light on what users want in a product or service. Personas are a representation of the goals and behaviors of prospective users and they help guide our decisions and push the organization of the system we’re building to be as approachable as possible. A deep understanding of users is fundamental to creating a stellar product.
There are tons of articles on creating personas based on collected information and ethnographic research. I recommend searching the web and your favorite bookstore for some. But for now, let’s talk about the proto-persona:
The Cult of Personality
“The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself.” ~ Amari Cooper
Unlike the standard persona, proto-personas are based on the assumptions of the stakeholders, and further checked against actual data. They are a collection of heuristics, market research, and intuition presenting an opportunity to articulate the target audience, their needs, and behaviors. We rely on proto-personas to ensure alignment amongst our client stakeholders. They ultimately represent what we think our users are like.
This type of persona should not be replacement for a proper persona study, but should be used in conjunction with one. The proto-persona should serve as a benchmark in the UX process that produces a solid artifact to measure collected research against.
When I first decided to try a proto-persona exercise with a client, I loosely followed two resources I found on the interwebs; Smashing Magazine’s “Using Proto-Personas for Executive Alignment” and Christopher Daniel’s (Adobe) deck on “Developing Provisional Personas”. The Smashing article does a great job at framing the exercise and explaining its usefulness and purpose, while the presentation deck provides a nice overall format for the workshop. This workshop should be completed in the stakeholder interview phase of discovery.
For my latest project, an enterprise video management solution, my presentation and workshop outline looked like this:
- Define the proto-persona.
- Clarify purpose of the workshop.
- Brainstorming exercises:
- Identification + Segmentation: Name all the people that use or may use the platform and generally group them together.
- Demographics + Environment: Assign attributes for each group as defined by the stakeholders.
- Needs + Goals: Define haves, needs, and wants for each group.
- Pain Points: Specify common difficulties and frustrations for each group.
- Consolidation: Arrange and finalize the groups and subgroups. Name each final group.
4. Spectrum profiling: Identify common or dominant characteristics for each group and describe what makes them different.
5. Identify Attributes: Pick 5–7 attributes that are important and place each group on the spectrum.
You can download a copy of my Keynote presentation template here.
Creating proto-persona cards
Once the workshop is over you should have collected and organized enough Post-It notes to create the proto-persona cards. In general, these cards should contain the following tidbits of information:
- Name
- Biography (based on wants, needs, etc.)
- Demographic information
- Attribution scale
Again, there are tons of articles and online resources for creating persona cards. Find one that works for you and continue to improve upon it. Once the user research is completed, I create a second set of persona cards based on the findings. These two sets of cards can be compared to find similarities and differences between what was originally thought to be true and what insight was gained from the user interviews.
Involvement + Buy in
“People who get involved with the success of something have to be given at least some share of that success.” ~ Michael Ironside
Honestly, I was surprised at the positive response we received. Executives are typically not too keen on brainstorming sessions, especially those that involve Post-It notes and Sharpies! It was clear that they had definite ideas of who they thought their users were and they wanted to have those notions captured. Once they understood what we were trying to accomplish and that the upcoming research would support or refute our assumptions, they saw value in the exercise.
I’ve seen many UX folks present personas at design reviews and meet-ups. Most of these are proto-personas disguised as full personas. It’s important to understand the difference and to use each tool where appropriate. The best case scenario is to have the time and budget to produce both. If that’s not an option, try a proto-persona workshop to promote client understanding and involvement.
Thanks to katie biscuits for her decisive editing and narrative wizardry! :)
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