Creating Personas

Once you identify your audience and accumulate data to support your personas, your next step is to put pencil to paper and start to bring them to life. How many personas you need to create varies. In general, the minimum is three, but upwards of seven is not uncommon. Rather than aim for a specific count, consider the number of target segments you have and what you feel is the best way to get a fair representation of them.

This chapter’s example persona is Nicolle, a 34-year-old Certified Hand Therapist from West Chicago, Illinois. She happens to be a nondriving commuter who spends 2 to 3 hours per day traveling to and from her job. The fictional client is a company called ACMEblue, a manufacturer of Bluetooth headsets for Apple’s not-so-fictional iPhone.