Research methods for building and validating personas
Key Takeaway
Build personas from real research, and shadow people when you need to learn why they do what they do.
A persona is an archetype that stands for a group of people who share common traits. Personas built from real research keep solution design grounded in what users actually need, not in guesses. You build personas with methods such as surveys, interviews, staff knowledge, shadowing and embodying. You validate them by checking how real users map to them.
What a persona captures
A persona usually blends the traits of several people or roles instead of describing one person. A persona is broad enough that you don't design too narrowly for one person, but specific enough that you aren't left with only a vague sense of your users.
Persona research does not need to capture everything about a group. Focus on four things:
- Main jobs
- Motivators
- Common pain points
- Pain relievers or gain creators