When It Comes To Personas, The Real Value Is In The Scenarios

Personas without scenarios are like characters with no plot. — Kim Goodwin

I’ve seen it happen many times. A team launches a project to identify user personas with all the best intentions. They’ll define three, four, and sometimes as many as ten or fifteen different personas. Then, when they’re all done, the personas become lifeless mannequins on a closet shelf that are rarely referenced.

That’s because the team doesn’t work on the parts that matter: the scenarios that define why the personas are essential.

And here’s the kicker: Too many times, what the team required for their personas was far less than what they created. Had they put the resources into creating great scenarios, the effort would have played a more significant role in a better-designed product.

First, Identify A Dominant Story Through Research

An airline’s UX team is working on how the passenger check-in process can reduce stress for their passengers. The team starts with user research, conducting deep hanging out with dozens of airline passengers.

They study the passengers while preparing for an upcoming trip and while in transit. They detected several repeating…