2 When and why to use personas

Personas enable project managers and service planners to see their project or service through the eyes of users and beneficiaries. There are great benefits to this:

  • bringing focus to the planning process

    personas can help you identify and define your target audience or group

  • building empathy between users and planners/managers

    help planners/managers to see how things look and feel from the perspectives of the user

  • encouraging consensus building

    ensure shared vision and a buy-in into the project/service development process

  • creating efficiency

    personas help decision makers to make key decisions early in the design process to avoid wasting money and time later.

(Adapted from Moulder and Yaar, 2007, pp. 22–27)

Activity 1

Timing: Allow around 10 minutes for this activity

Check your understanding

a. 

Personas are only used once a project is live, as a way to understand how users are engaging with it.


b. 

Personas can be used to inform or influence project, business or service development at any stage of its life cycle.


The correct answer is b.

Discussion

Although a persona can be used to represent a group of users and how they are engaging with a project, based on real data about those users, this is not the only possible use for personas. They are suitable for informing and influencing decisions at any point in a project. However, they are particularly useful for informing and influencing decisions before a commitment is made to a cause of action.

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1 What are personas?

3 How personas can help to create empathy