Hey, have you ever heard of personas and wondered what the hell that actually does? Me too! And I'm telling you, I’ve stumbled upon the same stone more than once. But let me tell you why all this persona stuff isn't just empty talk and how we can really bring this approach to life.

 

As it is with personas

I've seen so many different types of personas in my time: UX personas that are supposed to help with web design, product development personas that are somehow less common, and of course buyer personas for content and inbound marketing. But every time I come across them in organizations, I almost bet that the answer would be something like: "Oh yes, we have them somewhere, I'll have to see. Or even better: Let's have a look, but honestly, hardly anyone has used it. â Sounds familiar? I thought to myself.

So what's the catch? I don't think the problem is that the idea behind it is bad. No, the problem is: Personas are gathering dust somewhere in the drawer. Created and ticked off. But wait a minute, couldn't we have stayed with the good old target group?

 

Personas are more than just paper characters

If we're honest, we both know that personas should be more than just a piece of paper with a few nice character traits on it. It's about creating lifelike human beings that help us design our products, services or content to make a real difference in our customers' lives.

And here comes the crossroads: Personas should not be the end, but the start of a thought process. An ongoing process that systematically feeds into every initiative. Imagine your team digging deeply, discussing and creating a persona that really has a hand and foot. Perfect. But as soon as someone new joins or some time passes, the beautiful illusion is shattered.

 

Change of perspective

We need a change of perspective. No more looking from the inside to the outside. We have to turn the tables and think and act from the point of view of our customers. And for that, it's essential to see the whole persona approach as part of a process, not as something you tick off in a half-day workshop and then forget.

How did Malcolm Gladwell say so beautifully? "Twenty thousand hours is the magic number of mastery.¢Ââ That's exactly what it's all about. We have to understand personas as part of a living, breathing process that evolves with every new piece of information, with every new insight gained.

Here are three things to keep in mind:

1. This process should be seen as an opportunity, not an obstacle. Let's have fun while we improve our offer.
2. We need to be able to record and manage our results.
3. Every time we learn, the system should be fed so that our customer centricity is constantly evolving and never stands still.

One framework that I find totally inspiring is the so-called proto-persona from Lean UX. This is a cracker, especially for content marketing and communication.

At the end of the day, it's not about what we want to say or what message we have. It is about approaching the real realities of life and developing measures on this basis that bring us closer to our goals.

So get rid of the dust on our persona docs! Let them come alive as a thought process in our daily actions.