A persona is a fictitious character developed to help us understand and empathize with our target audience. Originally introduced by Alan Cooper, a persona represents an archetypical user, someone who would use a product or service. This is key to stakeholder analysis, as discussed in our article Going Beyond the “Who” to Analyze Stakeholders. It’s also critical to successful process improvement projects, as we share in 7 Guidelines for Achieving Business Process Improvement Project Success.
Personas can help us develop effective, valuable solutions for our customers. If we don’t understand who our customers are, we’re a lot more likely to deliver customer experiences that less than ideal. The next time you are starting a project, consider asking yourself, “Who are our customers – really?”
Our template can help you get started. While most templates share a lot of common elements, you may also find it useful to customize the template for your project. Learn more about personas in Kathy’s blog 6 Steps to Creating – and Using – a Persona