[Sigia-l] Personas vs Business Needs?

[Todd Warfel]

Jonathan,

Personas aren't about business needs, they're about the customer's  
behaviors, goals, wants, and needs (at least that's how we use them).

I think what you're asking, or should be asking is how do you match  
up Business goals with Customer behaviors, goals, wants, and needs.

We use something called a task analysis grid. It's a large matrix,  
based on data from our initial research and personas, that outlines  
all the tasks and steps involved in completing a task that a customer  
would go through in using a product. For instance, if you're going to  
sign up for web hosting service, it outlines your initial comparison  
shopping, how you make your decision, how you sign up and how you  
would setup your hosting service (including confirmation and welcome  
emails sent by the service provider).

To us, it's a pretty simple artifact, but to our clients, it's often  
been the silver bullet. Each item is color-coded and prioritized from  
1 (must haves) to 4 (sometime in the future). Those prioritizations  
come from discussions with the business unit and are framed around  
the Customer and Business needs. So, if it's a 1, it's because both  
the customer and business unit think we have to have it. If it's a 2  
(We really want it, but if something has to slip before launch,  
that's one that gets cut) then the Business has decided that we can  
live w/o it (either it wasn't critical to the business or the  
customer, or possibly either/both).

The nice thing is that this shows the big picture for a project (what  
is involved if we build the entire thing) as well as what's in for  
right now (the no. 1s). One of our clients described it as "You've  
just distilled our 60 page requirements document into one page."

I can send you an example if you'd like, just let me know.

On Jul 19, 2006, at 7:57 AM, Jonathan Baker-Bates wrote:

> How do you use personas? I don't mean how are you supposed to use  
> them (Cooper-style or whatever), but how do you *actually* use them  
> in your work, if at all?
> [...]
>
> Personally, I use personas as a means of arriving at design  
> directions. They are necessarily vague, and journeys constructed  
> using them are not supposed to document the system's features.  
> Usually, a brief explanation of this is enough to keep a client  
> from wanting the personas to answer all the design questions, but  
> sometimes it's not.
>
> I'd be interested to hear whether others have hit real-world  
> problems around the use of personas on projects.
>
> Jonathan

Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel
Partner, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | designing and usability consulting
--------------------------------------
Contact Info
Voice:    (607) 339-9640
Email:    todd at messagefirst.com
AIM:       twarfel at mac.com
Blog:      http://toddwarfel.com
--------------------------------------
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.