by Peter de Gosztonyi
As part of the Govcamp exercise that I participated in on June 1 2010, one of the sessions the question of using persona’s came up. See the discussion. Although it can be a complex undertaking, in many instances a quick development process can be very useful as an enabler in understanding a user of an application. This process is specifically used for a website redesign but can be adapted for any use.
Step 1. Review Desired Business Objectives
- Describe the Vision and Mission of your website.
- Describe the objective or purpose of your website.
- What are the Business objectives of your website Measures
- What do you want users to do on your website?
Step 2. Identify and prioritize Website Target Users and Stakeholders
Definitions:
Stakeholder is anyone who has a vested interest in the success of the website. Includes employees, management, etc
Target users are your current customers or people you want to do business with.
- Who are you doing business with?
- Who is vital to the success of your organization?
- Why are these stakeholders vital to the success of your organization?
- Which stakeholders are your target market
- For your Organization?
- For your web channel
Step 3. Research target users using either quantitative or qualitative methodologies. Which type of research methodology is best for you to complete your understanding of the target user groups:
- Qualitative
- Quantitative
Definitions:
Market Research
Is either quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of both. Qualitative and quantitative market research methods each provide different insights into customer behaviour. Normally, research results are more useful when the two methods are combined.
Qualitative research
Is a research method that measures information based on opinions and values as opposed to statistical data. It investigates the why and how of decision making and is typically performed through face to face or other interactive sessions and is not structured in approach, use of small-scale samples or small numbers of observations.
Quantitative research
Is a research method based on collecting statistical data through questionnaires or surveys or similar methods to help researchers determine the public opinion. It measures the what, where and when and typically has little direct interaction with users, use of large samples; results subjected to statistical analysis
Step 4. Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct subsets (segments) that behave in the same way or have similar needs:
- Look at data gathered for each target user group
- Look for trends or natural groupings
- Group brainstorming session
- For each grouping identify
- Goals
- Behaviors
- Attitudes
- Regroup based on findings ( between 3 to 6 groups)
- Establish segment based on the above groupings
- Rank Segments
- Primary, secondary, unimportant
- Test Segmentation
- Does this meet your business objectives?
- Match expectations?
Step 5. Develop Scenarios based on each Persona
- Set the scene
- Establish the goal or conflict
- Overcome crises along the way
- Achieve resolution
- Reach a solution or conclusion
Step 6. List Actionable Insights and develop an implementation plan and assign a prime for each action
Step 7. Do it again
