personas for coders

Carbon FiveSeptember 5, 2012

Personas for Coders

http://karinedrumond.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/user_story_card4.jpg

User story

Who is this “user” of which you speak?

People

People

Needs

People

Needs

Uses

People

Needs

Uses

Features

People

Needs

Uses

Features

Insert business vision here

People

Needs

Uses

Features

Insert business vision here

UI design, wireframesVisual design

People

Needs

Uses

Features

Personas

Epics

Stories

Personas help us understand

• Motivations

• Level of expertise

• Context of use

• Workflow

• Goals and needs

Personas are NOT

• Demographic segments

• General-purpose

• Stereotypes

The origin of personas

Introduced by Alan Cooper

“The Inmates are Running the Asylum”

Widely used in user experience (UX)

Based on user research

A little known fact

Personas help coders solve problems

Specific more important than accurate

Alan’s first persona - “Kathy”

http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/05/the_origin_of_personas.html/

Pragmatic personas

David Hussman, 2008

Agile “pragmatic personas”

Draw someone you know

Photo: Flickr jazzmasterson/275800917

Lean Startup

Learning experiments

Make products people want

Persona hypothesis

Evolve as you know more

Personas grow and evolve

Before talking to customersSee if you agree about who “the user” isFigure out who you need to talk to

Personas grow and evolve

After talking to customersPersistent, shared visual artifactDefines “customer value”Establishes scope of featuresAid to prioritize features

Personas before talking to customers

Photo: Lane Halley

Personas after talking to customers

Photo: Lane Halley

Let’s make a persona

Name & sketch Description

Needs & goalsBehaviors

Show & tell

Photo: Lane Halley

Discussion

Thank you!

Lane Halleywww.carbonfive.com @thinknow