Identifying personas
A quick checklist to discover archetypes
Introduction
“….We make up pretend users and design for them. We call these pretend users personas”
No. That was not a quote from the movie Fight club, rather it is a quote from Alan Cooper about Personas. Personas are the Customer proxy, they are the make believe customers for whom we design our products
Personas are not “made-up” but they are discovered. Usually by conducting interviews on a adequate number of people, find patterns, use patterns to group similar people together and then derive the personas.
But what if we do not have to resources to do the actual interviews, is there any other way? *wink wink*
Introducing Proto-Personas. These are as you would have guessed are hypothetical archetypes. There is no data or research that backs you on this. But Proto-persona offers a tool for us to get into the shoes of the users and can be a good place to start. Once we make up these Personas we actually validate them in the real world. Persona validation can be done by surveys, observation or interviews.
Persona Checklist Walk-through
Dhiraj and I wanted to create “an online parenting question & answer solution for Indian mothers”. Using the checklist, we attempt to create the primary personas
Summary
Persona 1: Isolated Inchara
Role & Personal background
Inchara is a house wife aged 32, living with her husband, mother-in-law and her only daughter.
She is judged by her husband & mother in law by the way she takes care of the house and how she brings up her daughter.
In the afternoon after her chores, she uses her mobile to access Facebook & Whatsapp.
Goals
She wants to see her daughter always happy. And feels responsible for overall wellness and growth.
Watering Hole
Since both her daughter and husband love Chinese food, even with her limited English, she looks up new Chinese recipes on Google and serves them.
Challenges
Lately she is concerned that her eight year old daughter is still wetting her bed. Though she has managed to keep this is a secret so far she knows she has to something to help her child.
She is too embarrassed to discuss this with her friends or neighbors. And she is scared to discuss this with her mother in law or other relatives since they might hold her responsible for this.
She has tried writing to parenting newspaper columnists but their suggestions have been too superficial to act upon.
She also tried Google to find answers, but the language used in the medical websites has confused her.
She does not want to go to her family doctor fearing he might reveal the problem to her husband or mother in law.
She is looking for an anonymous way to get guidance from either experts in the field or from other mothers whose children have faced the same problem.
Persona 2 : Pious Mom Radha
Pesonal Background
Radha is a 50 year old, home maker of a middle class Indian family.
She lives with her husband and son Arjun (aged 22). Radha is known for
her devout devotion to her faith and her religion. She raises her son
in the customs that her mother taught her.
Goals
Radha makes sure that her son participates in all religious events.
She is more ready to support her son’s wishes and preferences.
She has always desired to surround her son with the best influences
from his earliest years. She may desire that her son excels in all
that is useful and excellent, but she will not insist that he secure a
large share of wordly prosperity, as if there was not thing like
happiness or honor without it.
Watering Holes
Radha is averse to technology. She uses a simple sms-based cell phone
(without any internet facilities). She asks her son to book bus & train tickets online.
Challenges
Arjun a sports fanatic has developed a liking for bikes. He recently
asked his mother whether the family could afford a Harley Davidson
bike.
Radha though eager to keep her son happy, is not sure whether this
would be a wise decision. She thinks Arjun may be better off learning
to save money and the importance of financial planning. She is not
sure of the best way to put this forward to her son. She asked her
relatives for suggestions but none of them seemed to have given her a
convincing answer.
Persona 3: Tiger Mom Heena
Personal Background
Heena a 40 year old, working mother lives with her husband and two two
daughters named Sakshi (aged 17) and Tanya (aged 13). She demands
respect from her children and expects that her children excel in every
area including discipline, school,music and even appearance.
Goals
Heena besides her daily household chores and office hours, puts in
efforts to ensure that her daughters are focussed on their studies.
She regularly monitors their extra curicullar activities and
encourages them to be competitive and excel in whatever they pursue.
Heena feels that children OWE them excellence in return for the
efforts/investments they make as parents.
Watering Holes
Heena is tech savvy and regularly blogs on her day-to-day activities
especially documenting her experiences as a mother. She is also a
consumer of blogs written by other mothers.
Challenges
Heena believes that Moms know best what is good for their children and
can/should override their children’s preferences.
Of lately she has been having several disagreements with Tanya. Tanya
a free-willed girl, is not a book-worm like her elder sister Sakshi.
Tanya loves to explore new terrains like pubs, discos and
relationships (with boys in her age group). Heena would like to
believe that Tanya is waisting her precioius time and would be better
of focusing on getting better grades and developing an interests in
activities like cooking and tailoring.
Tanya recently got a F (Fail) grade in her Math class and seems to be
pretty callous about how it affects her long-term career. Heena used
her disciplinarian approach and suggested Tanya to put an hour of
daily practice in Maths. She also got her signed-up for extra coaching
from her Math teacher.
Tanya however does not take Heena seriously and seems to have her own
personal priorities in life (including attending discos). Heena is now
considering taking this up in a harder way which may also include
corporal punishment. She is however concerned whether such routes
could have a long-term psychological impact on Tanya.
She has tried reading parenting books and searching online for others
experiencing a similar problem. Unfortunately she has not had much
success. Most suggestions offered were superficial and did not seem to
work with Tanya.
