Describe the Personas
22 February 2022
This page is part of The Lean Inception article series
If we want to effectively identify the functionality of a system it is important that we focus on our users and their goals. A common way to represent these users is through personas
A persona represents a user in the system, describing not only her role but also her specific needs. Our aim is to create a realistic representation of users, helping us to describe functionality from the point of view of those who will interact with the final product.
How we do it
- Divide the team into pairs or triplets. Hand a template of personas (right) to each group.
- Ask each group to create one persona, using the template as reference.
- Each group presents their persona to the whole team.
- Re-divide the team into different groups and repeat the above steps.
It is important to work in groups and repeat this activity as many times as the team needs. In doing this activity the participants share their knowledge and assumptions about the main users for their product. If this activity creates many personas, then we can combine and prioritize them.
By the end of the activity, we should have described all the personas for the various users of the system. The stakeholders who know the goals of the project must participate actively in all this, helping the team to identify the personas and reviewing their descriptions.
| morning | afternoon | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Introduce the inception, kick off, and Write the Product Vision | The product Is – Is not – Does – Does not |
| Tuesday | Describe the Personas | Discover the Features |
| Wednesday | Technical, User eXperience and Business Review | Show the User Journeys |
| Thursday | Display Features in Journeys | Sequence the Features |
| Friday | Build the MVP Canvas | Showcase the results of the inception to those interested in the project |
This page is an activity of The Lean Inception, for an overview go to the main page.
For more details on how to run a workshop, consult the book.