Avoiding Bullshit Personas
Details: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP12363
Check out the hashtag #badpersonas for lots of examples.
Back in the day we thought the user was ourself. Then we thought maybe it was someone like our mom. Then we learned the user is a bunch of different people with stuff in common.
Alan Cooper came up with Personas. He writes that "Personas are not real people, but they represent them…"
People have turned his philosophy into really detailed personas with very little useful information.
The presenters were inspired by haiku. The briefness of the message that evokes a real response.
Who is everybody?
Modular personas - data driven personas.
Lynda.com personas
I am a... [insert job title]
I want to be... [insert job title]
I can do … if you want me to
I'm not a … but I need to do
I really like doing…
How did they do this?
Preparation > The right data > Synthesis > Personas without the B.S. > Communicated & used appropriately
The right data
Surprises over trends. Look for surprises that came out of the conversations.
Ask users to tell a story. Tell you about specific moments.
Try to do interviews in the context of where they are working/accomplishing their goals. Take pictures.
Have them define their words. When they say something like "I need freedom." You ask them, "What do you mean by freedom?"
Keep asking why.
Synthesis
1:3 rule, every hour you spend talking to users, spend 3 hours synthesizing.
Define your dimensions:
Situation. What? People tend to stop here. Don't. People don't always fit into these.
Approach. How?
Desire. Why) Pick words to categorize each of these dimensions.
These dimensions will help you create groups.
Apply your model to everyone to test it out.
Personas without the B.S.
avoidbspersonas.com
Fluff is dangerous. It kills credibility. Developers can smell the bullshit. People feel stupid playing pretend. Someone people like to add more fluff.
If you avoid the B.S., you start to get questions like "What did the persona research say?"
Communicated & used appropriately
Make it digestible and easy to share.
Sit down with people personally, in small groups and explain to them who the people are. Talk at lunchtime in a neutral space.
Don't use names because it prevents others from making stuff up. Go with behaviors. They call this "active naming."
Share direct research. Subtle details are important. Show authenticity.
Record your interviews so you can present what they're actually saying.
Evangelize the personas.
How do they get used and inform product direction?
Tactical
Lynda.com created a queue.
The goal set out: It needs to work for everybody.
Immediately, everyone fell back into designing it for themselves. "I like the Netflix queue because…"
So, they performed usability testing and got some mixed feedback about it. They started iterating and trying the standard approaches, but still didn't get everyone on board.
They realized the people who didn't like it fell into the "I can do it if you want me to…" group of personas. So, they knew they weren't designing it for them and they stopped testing it on them.
Use the personas to prioritize
Feature lists often fall into the "marked high" syndrome. Use the behaviors to determine whether a feature solves the problem for most or just some.
Stop making stuff you think is cool.
Conclusion
Don't default into what is comfortable. Have the courage to dig into people's messy lives.
If you care, you can put authentic things into the world.
