Nailing it on the first try: How user personas shape perfectly aligned digital products

Are you looking to enhance your digital product development process and create a solution that truly resonates with your customers? One powerful tool that can help you achieve this is the creation of user personas. In this blog, we will unravel what they are, why they can be a trusty sidekick, and share valuable insights into effective tools and techniques for crafting them.?

User personas are fictional representations of your ideal users. They can go through different stages of maturity as a product team progresses through the design, development and testing phases. Here’s why they play a crucial role in guiding product creation:?

1?? Focused decision-making – user personas are like the North Star for decision-making. They keep user needs at the forefront, ensuring every choice is user-centric.

2?? Improved UX – designing experiences around persona needs leads to better user experiences. Imagine putting on a tailored suit; personas are the tailors.?

3?? Prioritization of features – focus on what features satisfy user needs, and you’ll dodge unnecessary iterations.

4??Usability testing – persona-guided usability testing ensures relevant feedback from the right users.?

5?? Reduced scope creep – say no to features that don’t align with user needs, saving time and resources.

6?? Stakeholder buy-in – stakeholders can better visualize the target audience and gain an understanding of their needs. ?

Now that we know the benefits, it’s time to create robust personas. Think of these components as a must:?

? Name – it humanizes the abstract data captured in the research and fosters empathy and relatability with the persona. Plus, it’s easy for your team to remember.

? Demographics can include age, gender, income, education and occupation, which serve as clues to solving the mystery of your user base.

? Goals/needs – defines what the persona aims to achieve with your product, bringing alignment which helps generate the features that will satisfy the users' goals.?

? Pain points/frustrations –?understand the challenges and frustrations the user faces. This allows the product team to design around these, create potential solutions and stay relevant to real-world problems.

? Behaviours – help understand how a user interacts with a product, looking at online habits and product usage patterns. Tailor your product to match.

Building robust personas has become an art, and every artist needs a good toolkit. Here’s a snapshot of what we use at TTT Studios:?

• Desk research: For most demographics and industries, there’s a lot of existing data that's already been researched:?

Useful resources for statistical data:?

• Statistics Canada
• Statista
• World Bank Data
• UN Statistics
• Google Public Data
• Wolfram
• RAND Research

Useful resources for market information:?

• McKinsey
• Gartner (Magic Quadrant)
• Pew Research Center
• ArXiv
• ProQuest?

For more specific references, you can find YouTube videos on the subject/industry, which sometimes have user stories and experiences to add more data to your persona. There are also online chat groups such as Reddit or Discord, where you find groups specific to the information you need. You can also ask potential users questions and get feedback at this stage, giving you an idea of the demographics you’ll be targeting.

• User interviews – Nothing beats talking to real people. Identify your target user group and recruit people to talk to. We generally source our interviewees through our clients, though there are plenty of third party participant solutions out there which can add cost to your research. For scheduling, we use the Research Hub product at userinterviews.com; this allows us to keep everything manageable, and then we use Zoom or Google Meet to record the interview. Don’t forget to turn the transcribe option on!?
• Surveys and Questionnaires: Another great method which can be used to get data in mass. This can be useful for statistical data that you may need help finding in the desk research. Using platforms like Google Forms or Typeform is valuable here.
• Observational Studies: Watching how users interact with products can help understand their behaviours using methodologies such as Usability Testing on existing or similar products can inform data here. Even performing Field Studies to observe challenges users face in the real world is valuable.

Lastly, I want to provide two last pearls of wisdom:?

?? Don’t let your data sources be your Kryptonite! Avoid biases from project owners and focus on the right user needs.

?? User personas are like fine wine; they get better with time. User personas are living documents that should change and improve over time. Evolve them to match shifting user needs, industry tides, and feedback.?

User personas are more than just a best practice; they’re essential for creating products that serve and delight users. By incorporating them into your product development process, you’ll be one step closer to achieving your business goals and ensuring your company’s success.