TALE: A Possible Theme called “Possible Personas”

Oliver Ding

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TALE500

10 min readFeb 16, 2023

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Self, Role, and Everything in Between

The above picture represents a Possible Theme called “Possible Personas”.

Name: Possible Personas
Clue: Self, Role, and Everything in Between
Type: knowledge theme
Contributors: Lavinia Mehedintu
Reference: Venn Diagram, Role Theory, Possible Selves Theory
Related Themes: The Project — Portfolio Gap

The theme of “Possible Personas” was inspired by a post about the different roles of Mentors on Linkedin.

In fact, I pay attention to the meta-diagram behind the above diagram. See my original comment:

This is an interesting diagram. It can be used to discover possible personas.
1. Use “YOU” to replace “The Mentor”.
2. Use Behaviors to replace “I listen” and other items.
3. Use possible personas to replace “Coach” and others.
Wow. We can use it to discuss multiple-function of a role too.
4. Use “The Designer” to replace “The Mentor”.
In this way, we discover a meta-diagram from your diagram.
Thank you very much!
p.s. I wrote a book (draft) about meta-diagram and diagram network in 2021.
Diagram Blending: Building Diagram Networks (Introduction)
https://medium.com/p/c9b90682269

Later, I realized that I can use this meta-diagram to develop a model for a notion called “Personas Dynamics”.

The Concept of Personas Dynamics

In 2019, I developed a framework called SET which stands for “Social Engagement Theory” for understanding Social Interaction Design.

The notion of “Personas Dynamics” is part of the SET framework. See the diagram below.

The unit of analysis of the SET framework is the pan-interpersonal level.

Traditional social psychological theories and sociological theories tend to use real interpersonal actions or social roles for units of analysis. Inspired by interaction design and digital social practices, I adopted the term “Persona” from the field of User Experience to define a middle entity between Person and Social Role.

Person
Persona
Social Role

In this way, we can research pluralistic social interaction in the age of digital platforms. See the diagram below.

In 2020, I also used a term called “Quasi-social Interaction” and developed a related framework called Ecological Interaction Analysis. You can find more details in Frame Analysis in Context.

Today I am going to focus on the possible theme called “Possible Personas” for career development, especially the process of Diagramming as Thinking.

Possible Personas (v1)

Let’s start with Lavinia Mehedintu’s original diagram. She uses behaviors and possible roles to define the Mentor. Each possible role was defined by two behaviors. For example, the role of “Challenger” is defined by “I keep you accountable” and “I ask questions”.

The role of “Guide” is defined by “I keep you accountable” and “I share my experiences”.

Finally, the Mentor has to do the above six types of behaviors. If a person only does “I keep you accountable”, “I ask questions”, and “I share my experiences”, then the person is not a Mentor, but a Challenger and a Guide.

If we apply the notion of “Personas Dynamics” to this diagram, then we can see a great fit:

Person: the Mentor
Personas: Guide, Challenger, Coach, Connector, Cheerleader, and Sparring Partner

Based on the diagram, we can make a general model for “Possible Personas”. See the diagram below.

I use A, B, C, D, E, and F to refer to Behaviors. Possible Persoans are represented by P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, and P6.

Also, I use the sign “A ∩ B” for each possible persona. This sign refers to the intersection between A and B. You can find more details in Venn diagram.

As mentioned above, the diagram can be used to discuss roles too. The above is a case study of “the Designer”. I roughly use the following talents to define “the Designer”. In fact, I should use “a Designer”.

Creative Imagination
Strategic Curation
Digital Craftsmanship
Ask Questions
Structural Analysis
Making Visual Metaphors

The next step is discovering some possible personas. However, I found the diagram is not good for displaying the names of possible personas.

I decided to modify the original diagram in order to highlight possible personas.

Possible Persoans (v2)

The new version switches the positions of behaviors and possible personas. See the diagram below.

The above diagram doesn’t place Possible Personas at the interactions.

Since this diagram is not a formal Venn diagram, I think the new design is better for my purpose.

The above diagram is a test. If a designer lists his/her top talents, what are his/her possible personas?

Creative Imagination
Strategic Curation
Digital Craftsmanship
Ask Questions
Structural Analysis
Making Visual Metaphors

By using the above diagram, we can discover three possible personas:

Prompt Engineer = Ask Questions + Structural Analysis
Platform Curator = Strategic Curtion + Digital Craftsmanship
Brand Storyteller = Creative Imagination + Making Visual Metaphors

The new version also indicates a simple way to use this model for discovering possible personas.

You or a Role
List six top talents or skills
Find possible personas

There is a clear spatial logic behind this approach: the “CENTER-PERIPHERY” spatial logic. We start with the CENTER, then move to the PERIPHERY.

Now we can turn the model into a method for career development.

Step 1: What are your greatest talents?

Make a list of your skills
Select the top six skills
Place them on the diagram

Step 2: What are your Possible Personas?

Think about the intersection between two skills
Give a name to an intersection
Replace skills on the diagram in order to discover more possible personas

Step 3: How to develop a Passion Project?

Think about a possible project for each possible persona
Connect several possible projects together
Discover a Passion Project

The above diagram gives an example of a Passion Project that is associated with four top skills: A, B, C, and F.

You don’t have to find such a Passion Project. You can connect two possible projects together or just focus on one possible project.

The rest of the article will discuss some issues about the concept of “Persona” and the “Persona Dynamics” framework.

Possible Personas v.s. Actual Personas

In the field of User-centered design and marketing, a persona refers to a fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way. See the diagram below.

What we can learn from the above diagram?

The concept of Persona is both a subjective concept and an objective concept.

Subjective concept: it is related to people.
Objective concept: it is an abstract type that is independent of a particular person, but dependent on a particular product.

In traditional sociological theories, the concept of Role is an objective concept that is independent of a particular person, but dependent on a particular social structure.

In most psychological theories, the concept of Self is a subjective concept that is based on a particular person.

I adopted the concept of Persona as a middle entity between Self and Role. Moreover, it is better to see my version of Persona as a dynamic process, not a substance. I use “Persona Dynamics” to name a new framework for this notion.

A person could have multiple Personas. Each persona is associated with a particular activity. Moreover, the Persona — Activity fit can be perceived by others. See the diagram below.

What’s the difference between Possible Personas and Actual Personas?

Possible Personas: a person thinks about several Personas, but there is no any real Persona — Activity fit.
Actual Personas: there are several Persona — Activity Fits, and they are perceived by others.

In other words, Actual Personas emphasize real actions and others’ perceptions.

Possible Personas v.s. Possible Selves

In 1986, Hazel Rose Markus and Paula Nurius published a paper titled Possible Selves to challenge the traditional theories of self-knowledge. According to Markus and Nurius:

Possible selves represent individuals’ ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link between cognition and motivation. Possible selves are the cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and threats, and they give the specific self-relevant form, meaning, organization, and direction to these dynamics. Possible selves are important, first, because they function as incentives for future behavior (i.e., they are selves to be approached or avoided) and second, because they provide an evaluative and interpretive context for the current view of self.

What’s the difference between Possible Personas and Possible Selves?

Possible Personas are both about thinking and actions, while Possible Selves are only about thinking.

Possible Personas are both about subjective aspects and objective aspects. However, Possible Selves are only about subjective anticipation.

If we put these two concepts together, we can find a path to actualize possible selves.

The Persona Dynamics Framework

Now we can summarize the above discussions in the diagram below.

As mentioned above, there are many possible personas, but only some of them could be transformed into actual personas. The key to transformation is the Persona — Activity Fit.

Eventually, some actual personas could be transformed into social roles.

If a person thinks about his/her possible selves and decides to do something about one particular possible self, then this decision activates an Anticipatory Activity System.

The Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework is inspired by Activity Theory, Anticipatory System theory, Relevance theory, and other theoretical resources. The framework is about modeling a specific structure: “Self, Other, Present, Future”.

An Anticipatory Activity System is formed by two parts: First-order Activity and Second-order Activity.

What’s the relationship between the Personas Dynamics Framework and the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework?

As a new approach to Activity Theory, the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework offers an abstract model for understanding future-oriented activities. It can be applied to domains such as Strategy Development, Career Development, Life Strategy, etc.

In 2022, I wrote a book (draft) titled Advanced Life Strategy: Anticipatory Activity System and Life Achievements. However, I didn’t discuss the “Self — Personas — Role” issue in the book.

I’d like to add the Personas Dynamics Framework to the Advanced Life Strategy toolkit. You can find more details in Life Strategy Center.