3 How personas can help to create empathy
Empathy is about experiencing someone else’s feelings as if you were that person, and is a valuable way to gain insight into the behaviour of project beneficiaries. A popular phrase in some cultures is to ‘walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’. This isn’t meant literally, but is a metaphor for empathy.
The nature of a persona, presenting a rich picture of a person with a name and backstory, can help you to empathise with the feelings and motivations of the audience behind that image.
Activity 2
Think about someone at work, either a colleague or one of your customers, partners, clients, beneficiaries etc.
2 When and why to use personas