Personas are foundational elements of a company’s go-to-market approach, yet persona development isn’t always managed with the rigor it deserves — and bandwidth issues like impending deadlines, lack of expertise, and shortage of personnel may preclude an internal project. While we strongly recommend building personas in-house, knowing what to look for when evaluating external providers can increase your likelihood of success when outsourcing persona development. In this report, we outline three sets of best practices for selecting a provider for a persona project.