Thirteen Obstacles To Persona Success

Early adopters in Japan have started to use design personas across a range of applications including product design, marketing communications, HR strategy, and Web site design. To understand the challenges faced by Japanese companies that have used personas, Forrester interviewed 12 user companies, six design agencies, and two academics. Our research uncovered 13 obstacles across the key phases of persona projects — planning, research, analysis, creation, and usage. Some of these obstacles include: executives who fear focusing on just one customer, marketers who don't see the value of qualitative research, and team members who won't let go of preconceived stereotypes. Customer experience professionals introducing personas to Japanese companies should plan for a widespread and ongoing educational effort, engage their product development organizations, and plan for personas to become long-term assets.