Personas are an important part of any design activity. But what do you do after the post-it notes have settled? How do you make your personas actionable? This presentation describes how you can lead your team beyond personas using customer journey mapping and design workshops to arrive at specific, testable design hypotheses

1. No One Cares About
Your Persona. Now What?
FITZGERALD STEELE, JR.

2. Techcorridor.io
Jerry Steele
@fjsteele
• Network of Tech Meetups in the
Creative Corridor
• ~400 Members
• Making “We Create Here”
meaningful & accessible

3. Techcorridor.io @fjsteele

4. A little bit about me
1993 1996 1998 2000 2005 2008
2012

5. Buzzwords Scope Methods
1970’s-1990’s
Usability
Usability Engineering
User Centered Design
Task Efficiency
Desktop Metaphor
Waterfall Design
2000’s
User Experience
Outside-In Design
Ease of Use/Access System Affect
Browser Metaphor
Agile Design
2010’s Customer Experience
Service Design
Service and Brand
Relationship
Mobile First
Multi-device
Lean Startup

6. Personas
Archetypal customer summarizing a
segment
vs Specific, real world person
Emphasizes customer goals, needs,
expectations
vs Demographics and Preferences
“How does feature X help Ben
accomplish Y?”
vs “I think our customers want to…”

8. I’ve had a number of persona type projects
Fitzgerald Steele, Jr. – Manager of User Experience

9. But I probably won’t do a traditional persona gig again
Fitzgerald Steele, Jr. – Director of Marketing

10. $35,000 for a budget persona effort??!!
www.uxmag.com/articles/personas-the-foundation-of-a-great-user-experience

11. Agile Development Doesn’t Want To Wait

12. Sometimes cheaper to build/prototype and test

13. Getting Out of the UX Deliverables Business
Jeff Gothelf – Lean UX
http://www.slideshare.net/jgothelf/lean-ux-getting-out-of-the-deliverables-business
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/07/lean-ux-getting-out-of-the-deliverables-business/

14. We need the benefits of personas,
at a fraction of the speed and cost
 Preventing Grounding
 “How would Ben use this system?”
 Using the Story-Telling Tradition
 Role Playing
 Generating Scenarios

16. These are not personas

17. Personas are Not a Document
 Personas are to Persona Descriptions as Vacations are to Souvenir
Picture Albums
-- Jared Spool…I think.

18. We need to know…
Who What/Why/When/Where How

19. Define
Personas
Map
Customer
Journey
Create and
Critique
Prototypes
Who What/Why/When/Where How

20. {Proto,Disposable,Pragmatic,Incremental}
Personas
Archetypal customer summarizing a
segment
vs Specific, real world person
Emphasizes customer goals, needs,
expectations
vs Demographics and Preferences
“How does feature X help Ben
accomplish Y?”
vs “I think our customers want to…”
Based on our existing knowledge
and experience to drive consensus
vs Generated from ethnographic
studies of users in the field
Google
Those

21. Sample Proto-Persona
• Graduate Student Lackey
• English is not his first language
• Expert in what he knows, but risk adverse.
 Circumstances, opportunities may
force him to explore or learn new
technologies

22. Designing Personas
MUCH OF THIS WORK COMES FROM JEFF PATTON, JARED SPOOL

23. 1. Define Actors for User Types
• Actors are people who interact with us.
• They’re often described using job titles or a common name for the
type of user.
PI
Purchasing Agent
Post-Doc
Laboratory Administrator

24. 2. Identify Actor Roles
• A user role general refers to a user’s responsibility when using a piece of software or
participating in a business process.
• Often in the form ‘thing-doer’
 AP voucher enterer
 administrator
 on-line payment checker

25. From Roles to Personas

26. Characteristics of a good persona
• Name
• A role or job title
• Quotes in the personas language
• Relevant demographics
• Descriptions that reveals goals, motivations, pain points
• Descriptions that describe primary activities this user type will engage in.

27. Potentially relevant characteristics about users
• # of users that occupy this user type
• General responsibilities or activities
• Computer skills
• Scientific expertise
• Goals: how does the product or service tool help this user reach their
goals?
• Pain Points: what nagging problems can IDT help solve?
• Usage Contexts: where will this customer come into contact with IDT?
• Software Ecosystem: what other software tools does this user type rely
on?
• Collaborators: who does this user work with to help reach their goals?
• Frequency of Use: how often is this type of user likely to come into
contact with IDT?

28. Experience Mapping
THIS IS MOSTLY ADAPTED, BORROWED, OR STRAIGHT UP REUSED FROM
HTTP://DESIGNINGCX.COM/CX-JOURNEY-MAPPING-TOOLKIT/

29. http://icsa.on.ca/what-is-a-customer-journey-map-and-how-do-you-extract-value-from-it/
cus·tom·er jour·ney map
…visually illustrates customers’
processes, needs, & perceptions
throughout their interaction and
relationship with an organization

30. Experience Map Components
 Lens / Persona
 Phases
 Journey Model / Touchpoints
 Takeaways

31. experiences
influence
resultsattitudesdrive behaviors deliver

32.  Create Initial Map
 Behaviors, Experiences, Attitudes
 Evaluate and Prioritize
 Identify Moments that Matter
 Add Details to Understand
 Gain deeper understanding of needs, and how those needs are
fulfilled
 Evaluate and Frame Issue or Opportunity
 Design New Experiences

37. Experience Map Components
 Lens / Persona
 Phases
 Journey Model / Touchpoints
 Takeaways

39. Design Workshop/Studio
DERIVATIVE OF WORKS PUBLISHED BY JEFF GOTHELF, TODD ZAKI
WARFEL, ANDERS RAMSAY…PROBABLY OTHERS

40. Why Design Studio?
•Quickly explore lots of ideas and concepts
•The best way to get a good idea is to pick and choose
from lots of diverse ideas
•Get ‘everyones’ ideas out on the table
•Explicit, externalized assumptions
•Closer collaboration in generating, synthesizing,
evolving ideas

41. How does a design studio work?
Illuminate
Design
Challenge
Sketch
Concepts
Present
Concepts
Team Critique
Iterate Design
Concepts

42. We’re doing 3 rounds of sketch-
present-critique
Illuminate
Sketch
PresentCritique
Iterate
Illuminate
Sketch
PresentCritique
Iterate
Illuminate
Sketch
PresentCritique
Iterate
Individual Sketching (8 min)
Small Team Critique (22 min)
Individual Sketching (8 min)
Small Team Critique (22 min)
Team Sketching (30 min)
Group Critique (15 min)

43. Define
Personas
Map
Customer
Journey
Create and
Critique
Prototypes
Who What/Why/When/Where How

45. Persona Webinar Panel from Keylime Interactive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pomwKqo70P8

46. My Favorite Usability Peeps
 Jakob Nielson – Nielson/Norman Group
 Jarod Spool – User Interface Engineering
 Luke Wroblewski – LukeW
 Jeff Gothelf – Perception Is The Experience/Lean UX
 Jeff Sauro – Measuring Usability
 Mike Alber – Designing CX

47. My Favorite Usability Toys
 Ethn.io – Recruiting
 Loop11 – Unmoderated Testing
 Optimal Workshop – Unmoderated IA
 Verify – Design Surveys & feedback
 Visual Website Optimizer – AB/Multivariate Testing
 CrazyEgg - Heatmaps
 GoToMeeting – Moderated Remote Testing
 Google Analytics – Measure all the things, set goals, track revenue
 SurveyMonkey – Post Usability Study Surveys, Single Usability Survey
question

48. I’m totally interested
in hearing your
comments and
questions!
@fjsteele
Github: fitzgeraldsteele
http://fitzgeraldsteele.wordpress.com