A persona is a fictional portrait of a real group of customers, built from research: who they are, the context in which they use the product, what they want to achieve, what frustrates them and how they behave. It helps the team decide with someone concrete in mind rather than an "average user". A user persona describes who uses the product; a buyer persona describes who decides and pays. They may or may not be the same person.
How to use
- Describe the product, the segment and, if you like, the persona’s day-to-day role.
- Write the main problem and the situation in which it shows up.
- List up to five goals and up to five frustrations (three are usually enough).
- Tick the channels the persona uses and choose the type: user, buyer or both.
- Review the card, adjust the rule-based suggestions and export it or create a link for the team.
What each field asks for
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Product or service | What you offer, in one line. |
| Segment and context | Who they are and what situation they are in. Leave out sensitive personal data. |
| Role (optional) | What the persona does day to day. |
| Main problem | What gets in the way most today, in one sentence. |
| Usage situation (optional) | When and where the problem shows up. |
| Goals | Up to five, each starting with a verb. Three are usually enough. |
| Frustrations | What annoys or blocks them today. Three are usually enough. |
| Channels they use (optional) | Where the persona looks for information and solutions. Up to five. |
| Persona type | Who uses it, who buys it, or both side by side. |
| Buyer role (optional) | Used when the type is "both". |
Example
A team builds a shift scheduling app for fashion retail chains. The user persona is Leo, a store lead who builds the weekly rota: he wants to close the rota in under an hour and struggles with swaps agreed by message that nobody records. With the type set to "both", the card shows Marina alongside, a regional operations manager who signs off the purchase: she wants a visible result within a few weeks and is frustrated by tools the team abandons. Leo’s quote combines the first goal and the first frustration: "I just want to close the weekly rota in under an hour, but I keep running into this: swaps agreed by message that nobody records."
When to use
- At the start of discovery, to align the team on who the product is for.
- After a round of interviews, to condense what came up again and again.
- In business-to-business sales, when the people who use and the people who buy have different goals.
- Before an empathy map or a customer journey, which both start from the persona.
Frequently asked questions
What is a persona?
It is a fictional representation of a group of customers with similar goals, frustrations and context. It sums up research in a memorable format and helps the team decide with someone concrete in mind.
What is the difference between a user persona and a buyer persona?
A user persona describes who uses the product day to day; a buyer persona describes who decides and pays. In business products they are often different people with different criteria, which is why the tool can show both side by side.
How many personas should I create?
Start with one or two that represent the most important segments. Too many personas dilute focus: if two of them would lead to the same decisions, merge them.
How do I validate a persona?
Talk to 5 to 8 people in the segment and check whether goals, frustrations and behaviours repeat. Whatever does not come up in the interviews leaves the card; whatever is new goes in.
What is the difference between a persona and a target audience?
A target audience is a broad description of a market. A persona is more specific: it describes the motivations, frustrations and behaviours of a group, which guides product decisions and not only messaging.
What is the difference between a persona and jobs to be done?
A persona describes who the customer is; jobs to be done describes the progress they want to make in a situation. They complement each other: the persona gives a face and the job explains why someone switches solutions.
Can I use real customer data?
Use what you learned in research, but do not paste personal data, names or sensitive information. The tool picks a fictional name and warns you if ethnicity, religion, health, sexual orientation or individual income appear.
What does AI do in this tool?
When switched on, AI suggests behaviours, a quote and what would convince the persona based on your inputs. Without it, those sections come from rules that show where each suggestion came from, and the name is always picked from a fixed list.