User persona is a critical UX tool that helps you be really user-centred. Therefore you should devote sufficient time to the development of user personas. Let’s look at some typical flaws that can hinder the creation of a successful product.
When promoting the widespread adoption and meaningful impact of personas, you should beware of the following:
- Rapid fire persona: This buyer persona is developed in a minimum time span, often based on a few calls with potential users on the grounds that it is better to have something than nothing. However, rapid-fire questions don’t really help with designing the product. You cannot really get to know someone in two minutes.
- Single experience persona: Beware of making assumptions based on a single user. You need to interact with more of them; otherwise you may miss vital pieces of information. Dig deeper.
- Made-up persona: This persona is based on the raw data which marketing and customer care teams put together. The resulting image is incomplete and shallow; moreover, it is usually produced by employees who don’t really understand how personas should be created, according to the business2community.com website.
- Built-in-isolation persona: When researchers are isolated from designers, the end-users of the persona itself are missing. They should be involved.
- Outdated persona: Users of your product change; thus any persona can turn out to be obsolete after some time. Make sure your personas reflect the current behaviours and needs of users.
- Wordy personas: Your persona shouldn’t be incoherent. Keep the bios of your personas brief and concise to ensure people will find them helpful and useful.
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