Did I Pull That Persona Out of My
You Know What
Nellie LeMonierPerforce Software
UX Design
David DruckerPerforce Software
UX Design
{Abridged Slide Deck
for SXSW 2013}
Nellie LeMonierPerforce Software
UX Design
David DruckerPerforce Software
UX Design
Case Study #1: Personas without research
LarryUser
The dev team made these up
MoeSys Admin
CurlyContent Manager
Personas are used to
•Unite product team
•Reduce conjecture
•Build the product with the right requirements
Personas created from
•Field studies
•Domain research
•User observation
•Mental model and behavior
Personas are made up
•An initial hypothesis can be made of the roles
•The persona should not remain a hypothesis
Case Study: Content
Management System (CMS)
•Developers came up with the personas
•No research was done to create these
CMS Personas – Take 1
Larry Moe Curly
The dev team made these up
What was RIGHT with Larry, Moe and Curly ?
-United the team, gave them a common conversation
-Tasks for personas were defined
CMS Personas – Take 1
What was WRONG with Larry, Moe and Curly ?
-No motivating factors defined
-No domain expertise defined
-Did not reduce conjecture
-Curly couldn’t type and his voice to speech skills were lacking
CMS Personas – Take 1
1st: Larry, Moe and Curly were retired (RIP)
2nd: Research domain through internal website manager interviewed. Roles & tasks determined.
(1 day)
3rd: Research specific roles through interviews
(1 week)
4th. Synthesize into new Personas
(1 week)
CMS Personas – Take 2
CMS Personas – Take 2
AaronFront End Developer
MayaContent Editor
EdSite Administrator
Take 2 Conclusions
1. Motivations are clear
2. Tasks are defined
3. Expertise known
4. Unifies product team
Next Case Study{ Sneak Peek }
“Vera” made a cameo appearance as one of our Personas
Thanks for reading and we hope to get your vote.
“Whishing it was South-by every day”
@NellieLeMonier David Drucker
