Personas can be a powerful tool in service design. It is very easy to fall into the trap of defining requirements that meet the needs of the project team rather than the actual customers of the service or system. At their essence, personas act as an archetypal representation of a group of users or potential users.  The following useful definition is provided in the BCS book 'Business Analysis Techniques: 123 essential tools for success'.

"The concept [of personas] is that the developers of a product or service build representations of customers or user roles in order to better understand their expectations, particularly in the area of customer or user experience."

Personas represent the Voice of the Customer

Well-used personas interject the voice of the customer into service design. They give a name and a face to a group of customers, with each persona having a relevant range of attributes associated with it. There will usually be a representative set of personas, ensuring that the diverse nature of the customer base is taken into account.

For example, perhaps one persona represents a group of customers who live in a rural area and don't have reliable mobile phone connectivity. When a project team member suggests using SMS messages as part of a login process for a customer portal, the persona would be a useful reminder that there may be an entire population of customers for whom that wouldn't be convenient. It's easy to imagine someone interjecting and saying: "But what about 'Francis'? We know that they live in an area without mobile phone signal. How will we ensure people in their situation can also access the service?"

Used in this way, personas can ensure that services are designed in a way that enhances the customer experience.

Personas should be Informed by Research and Data

Personas really ought to be based on some form of data, research or insight. Ideally, there would be a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data about the real or potential customer base. This data would be used to derive a set of personas.

Of course, as with any type of research, it is always possible to seek more data. The key with personas isn't to seek perfection, but to ensure there is enough insight to drive the service design activity. There will still be assumptions and hypotheses that need to be tested along the way, and there will be insight that emerges throughout the process. This is completely normal.

Sometimes, it isn't practical to obtain enough data or insight in advance, so a 'proto-persona' can be used.  A proto-persona (much like a 'proto-type') is a hypothesis that requires testing. The data isn't available in advance, so an informed guess is made by stakeholders who know the customer base and a plan is made to test any assumptions later. This testing is very likely to involve liaising with actual customers and service users to elicit their feedback and opinions.

Aim For Personas, NOT Stereotypes

Personas and proto-personas should never be uninformed stereotypes. It is very easy to fall into the trap of making assumptions based on particular demographics such as age. There might be a perception that older, retired people aren't as technically savvy as younger people. Yet is this really true? Or do they just engage with technology differently? Might they have a better understanding of some technologies compared with other groups? Without conducting research it would be impossible to know. Personas made without insight or knowledge are mere stereotypes, and these are not a useful basis for service design. They may lead to assumptions being made that actually make the service worse for its users.

Like so many techniques, using personas yields real benefits. However, they are a technique that requires careful application: misuse them and you'll get a service that doesn't survive contact with real service users!

Watch AssistKD's recent BA Brew podcast on Personas here.

AssistKD offers training courses leading towards the new A4Q Certified Service Designer qualification. Find out more here.

Looking to update your BA toolkit? Check out AssistKD's wide choice of business analysis courses.