A persona is a fictional profile that represents a group of users with similar goals, needs, behaviours, and challenges.
Teams create the profile from user research, interviews, surveys, observations, or usage data. Therefore, it should reflect evidence rather than personal assumptions.
The description of a Persona may include skills, tasks, motivations, pain points, and preferred workflows. Moreover, clear differences between profiles help teams understand diverse user groups.
Teams use personas during requirements elicitation, design, and prioritization. For example, they can evaluate whether a feature supports the goals of a novice or experienced user.
Proto-personas rely mainly on initial assumptions. In contrast, research-based profiles use validated user data. Teams should therefore test assumptions and update the profiles when new information appears.
Well-founded user profiles support relevant requirements, focused design decisions, and a shared understanding of user needs.
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