Lorelei Brownloreleibrown@yahoo.com

My first website launched circa 1995

Worked in agencies, non-profits, media companies, associations, big, small (you’ve heard of some of them, never heard of the rest)

Degree in Public Policy

Content Strategist at Verizon

Deliverables – the big picture

What is a persona, anyway?◦ The optimal way◦ The guerilla way◦ 7 behaviors that you should represent

How to assemble data on the cheap

How to use personas wisely and well◦ When they love it◦ When they hate it

A mutual reference point between you and your client

Not an end unto themselves

Justifications and documentation of decisions in the product

A representation of current or desired audiences, backed by some kind of data

◦ Demographics◦ Psychographics◦ Technical challenges◦ Tasks◦ Limitations◦ Motivations

Read the history: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2003/08/the_origin_of_personas.html

The user is the expert on what they need

◦ You report on behaviors, trends and tactics that are not your opinion

◦ Start to talk about the users’ motivations

◦ The designer becomes the ambassador for the users point of view

Strong ethnography Usability testing Hands-on contact with potential users As little speculation as you can

A lot of money, a lot of time – or do it the guerilla way

“Personas based on anything less than full ethnographic research and contextual inquiry are like tits on a bull – useless.”

“Some data is better than no data – just don’t make sh*t up”

Search analytics Site traffic Info about the business Other people’s research Surveys

Guerilla personas are about 80% right

They are 90% effective at facilitating discussion

Manage the expectations about what you’re going to get with any ‘sample users’

No single persona will solve all your problems

Classic elements

◦ Photo◦ Age◦ Zeitgeist◦ Story◦ Tasks

Things people want to do

Why people want to do them

How to make them successful and satisfied

Demographics/photos

Prioritize the most important tasks

Compare like tasks

Answer both what they need and what will make them happy

Use a/s/l/$$$ only as key differentiators

Disclaimer: I made these up based on my observations

I don’t have statisticals, but I have a lot of RFPs and meeting notes

Someone is going to raise these issues – think ahead on how to recast them

Carve an elephant

First, get a block of marble and then remove everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.

Present only as much as you need to think about the problem.

Consider it forensic anthropology – construct a picture from artifacts

◦ Search Analytics◦ Traffic◦ Business owners◦ External research & stats◦ Survey

Tells you WHAT happened, but not WHY

Gives a big scale picture of what’s popular, paths, entry and exit points

Shows external navigation – referrers, search terms, keywords – a good portrait of affinity

Most valuable when taken as a body and aligned with other groups

Often volatile when someone feels like they could be more visible

If there’s money, someone has recorded it. Offline behaviors inform/predict online

behaviors

◦ Pew Internet Life◦ US Census◦ Foundations (Kaiser, Robert S. Wood, NEA)◦ Software companies◦ Universities (University of Witchita)◦ Marketing – ClickZ, Hitwise, Jupiter, etc

Tracks vocabulary, what people might want that you don’t offer/feature

Seasonal variations

Searching process

Call center/email/contact us mail◦ (we really do read this at Verizon, btw, be nice!)

Email subscriptions, registrations, event attendance

Membership profiles/statistics

Captures people who may not hit the internet Gets some buy-in from skeptics

This is a brand spanking new field, so use with caution!

Eavesdrop◦ Twitter conversations – very pungent◦ Blogs

Gauge Affinity◦ Tagging◦ Bookmarking

If you can, take a broad survey with the following:

◦ Why are you visiting?◦ Did you find what you were looking for?◦ How often do you visit?◦ Were you satisfied with your experience?◦ How would you improve the site

Use open fields, gauge for passion, quote heavily

Think about the comparison points◦ What problem can you solve for these people?◦ What do they all need?

Infer from your external sources for your narrative◦ Active in community, joins clubs, politically

conservative = Member of the Lions Club

Carve the elephant◦ What does each piece of data mean? Which

matters?

Focus and context ◦ Don’t make a blanket statement – give an

example

Someone we can relate to◦ When conversations get off track, bring them

back to the users

A well of goofiness to relieve tension◦ Paperbag puppets, action figures, playlets…

Stakeholders may not buy into this methodology – it’s different from what they know

Be an expert but prepare to revise (you can study, but you’re not the expert in their business)

Explain your relationships and comparisons, then address specific concerns

Suck it up. Rethink, try again tomorrow.

Be an interpreter Be a forensic anthropologist Carve the elephant Put it all together Have fun

loreleibrown@yahoo.com http://marriedias.blogspot.com