Designing a website without a persona is like driving cross-country with no GPS. The importance of targeting a specific user cannot be overstated -- you need to know them better than you know your best friend. In this resource, I will discuss creating personas for your experiences, and how to amplify that persona by adding a user scenario.

In a nutshell:

• Your persona defines WHO you are targeting.
• Your scenario defines WHY they might be using digital experiences and channels.
• Your customer journey map (described in another resource) will outline the details of each step.

Part 1: Personas

What is a persona?

A persona is a model of a real-world customer. Personas humanize the customers that mean the most to your organization, revealing their functional and emotional needs. Personas bring targets and customers to life by conveying their backstory and shining a light on how they view the world around them.

Why are personas important?

Personas are essential for getting crystal clear about who you are targeting and how you can help them. Whether you are a marketer, designer, strategist, or all of the above, having a persona in your arsenal is important because it allows you to create more compelling communications, and as a result, better connections with your audience.

What are the benefits of having personas?

• Inspire: Members of the marketing and design team can generate new ideas for reaching or connecting with customers. Personas guide the team’s strategies and designs, allowing them to create more relevant marketing materials and experiences by using a persona to humanize the user.
• Generate empathy: A persona allows for a deeper understanding of the customer, beyond functional needs. To make deeper emotional connections with users, it’s important that a business connects their values and beliefs to those of the customer.
• Create a shared understanding: When individuals have a collective understanding of persona needs and challenges, they can better understand the opportunities the business has to meet those needs. They can work together to align resources and coordinate plans in a way that serves the customer better. Aside from the benefits within the work, personas are a great way to motivate all team members – no matter what their role – to consider how what they are doing impacts the lives of the customers.