Report

December 2003

• More than half of the companies we surveyed are using, piloting, or considering personas.
• FedEx redesigned its drop-off centers around personas.
• Firms suffer from misguided persona efforts.

• Firms can evaluate personas with a six-question self-test.
• The foundation of a good persona: solid user research.
• Focus on the most important persona(s).
• Keep personas highly visible.

• The rise of "persona-lization."

• Figure 1.  Personas Catch On, But Problems Remain
• Figure 2.  Persona Effectiveness Evaluation
• Figure 3.  Persona Research Sharpens Understanding Of Customers

 

• Methodology
• Vendors Interviewed For This Report
• Related Research

• Do you know where your customer profile is?
• Personas go on tour.
• "Reverse" personas try to justify a backward design process.
• A persona that passes the "sound like a real person" test.