Create Solution for the Right Persona
“This product is built to help millennials’ live easier.”
“Which millennials?”
“You know, millennials.”
“Yeah, but millennials consist of different types of people. So, which millennials are you talking about?”
Then we go silent. Hopefully, that conversation will never happen to us.
The above conversation is an example that proves that in addition to knowing who the target market we want to target is, we must determine specifically ‘who’ will use our products. Why be specific? As we know, humans are very complex animals. What determines our every decision is made of different characters. A person’s character can be formed from two things; nature and nurture. Background, culture, parenting greatly affect a person’s personality.
Therefore, it is very important to choose and determine ‘who’ is the persona of our product users. How to? Where is the classification from? We’ve put together a few points to watch out for when creating personas.
One thing that must be considered according to the Interaction Design Foundation is personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research in order to represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way. Creating personas will help you to understand your users’ needs, experiences, behaviors, and goals.
Constructing a persona will generate appropriate questions to ask customized personas. “What will A do if I add feature X?”, “Will C find it helpful if I make design Y.”
In the Design Thinking process, designers will perform a ‘define phase’. In the Define phase, Design Thinkers synthesize their research and findings from the very first phase, the Empathise phase. From there then we have to determine the main objectives and also determine what kind of persona we want.
How to determine the persona we want is divided into 4 phases;
1. Data collection & analysis
2. Persona description
3. Scenarios
4. Acceptance
After that we will divide the 10 ways to dissect it:
1. Collect data
Collect as much data as possible for your persona. Do thorough research, this can be done in various ways. Starting from surveys to looking for several journals that can help you to describe your persona more mature.
2. Form a hypothesis
From the results of the research that has been done, you will make a general idea of what differentiates your users from other users.
3. Everyone accepts the hypothesis
The goal is to support or reject the first hypothesis about the differences between the users. You can do this by confronting project participants with the hypothesis and comparing it to existing knowledge.
4. Establish a number
Decide how many personas you want to create. From several personas, then determine one persona that will be your primary persona.
5. Describe the persona
Describe it in great detail and clarity. Why? Because the goal is so that you can make the right solution for that persona.
a. You should include details about the user’s education, lifestyle, interests, values, goals, needs, limitations, desires, attitudes, and patterns of behavior.
b. Add a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character.
c. Give each of your personas a name.
d. Create 1–2-pages of descriptions for each persona.
6. Prepare a situation or scenario for your persona
By making a picture of what your persona is doing when you are in a situation, it will make you more specific in getting a solution for them. Scenarios usually start by placing the persona in a specific context with a problem they want to or have to solve.
7. Obtain acceptance from the organization
It is very important to build a persona by involving many parties in the organization. It is important to obtain the acceptance and recognition of the participants of the various steps. In order to achieve this, you can choose between two strategies: You can ask the participants for their opinion, or you can let them participate actively in the process.
8. Disseminate knowledge
It is important to decide early on how you want to disseminate this knowledge to those who have not participated directly in the process, to future new employees, and to possible external partners.
9. Everyone prepares a scenario
Persona is useless if it is not imagined or applied to the scenario.
10. Make ongoing adjustments
Build a persona and its description should be revised continuously on a regular basis. Sometimes you would need to rewrite the existing persona descriptions, add new personas, or eliminate outdated personas.
So, what are you waiting for? Time to create the persona for your product and be specific in telling people who you are creating your product for.
