PebblePad personas
Operating in a global market is challenging if you are looking to define who your users are. If we were to generate plausible personas it was critical that we had proper representation of this global user base in our research output. Therefore one of the key challenges for this work was to gain access to representatives of each persona in all of our major markets. It was a challenge to secure interviews with at least 6 examples of each persona in Australia, US, Canada, UK and Europe. It was also a challenge to secure timely access to research participants that were extremely difficult to pin down. Senior Leaders in top Universities are very busy people! We were also operating with a very small budget and we were not a dedicated research team, so fitting this research project in and around everything else we were undertaking was also a challenge.
There was also the challenge of ensuring the personas would be accepted and used consistently by the wider organisation. If I was to raise the UX maturity of PebblePad, it was essential that the various teams in the company embraced a user-centric approach to product design and accept the personas as a critical component in the process of design and development, and for them to be constantly referenced and respected.
We wanted the personas to be based on sound, extensive user research. Our goal was to conduct lengthy qualitative research interviews with as many people as we could. Our aim was to produce personas that were based on industry standards, backed up with comprehensive evidence that stood up to any scrutiny. We wanted to be 100% confident that the personas we produced were robust and legitimate and we wanted them to be representative of the global user base.
We had given ourselves 3 months to secure access to the necessary research participants, conduct all the user interviews, collate and process all the data and then present and promote the final personas to PebblePad.
At the end of the process (that ran slightly longer than anticipated due to the challenge of gaining access to research participants) we presented and promoted a set of primary personas that we were 100% confident in. Our workflow for generating the personas was refined over the duration of the project and by the time we interrogated and shaped the final set of research data, the team was operating like a very well oiled machine. Because of our diligence in the research phase, the final personas had a tangible weight that pointed to a legitimate and sound process.
We presented the personas to the wider business via our monthly product showcase, through our UX and design hub and by physically putting up persona posters around the office. A break thru moment then occurred during a recent development 'hackathon' day. A few of the personas were front and centre from the start and were constantly referenced throughout the exercise. A lead developer was heard saying: "We no longer just refer to 'users' when considering our approach, we reference the specific personas as a representation of our actual users". Job done!
