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Plate TPL·003 · TemplateGrid H3 · Rev. 2026-09-14

Persona

A research-grounded description of a user type, focused on goals and behaviour rather than demographics.

TemplateCraft conventionIntermediate

Definition

A persona summarises a pattern found in research. It is only useful if it is grounded in data and if it changes decisions. Invented personas with stock photographs are decoration.

Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.

On this plate
  1. 1Definition
  2. 2Tests a persona has to pass before it is published
  3. 3Keeping it grounded
  4. 4Commonly confused with
  5. 5Local chart
  6. 6Continue from here

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Identity

A realistic name and a role that reflects the pattern. Avoid placeholder names.

The distinguishing behaviour, not the demographics.

How many participants this pattern came from, and from which study. If you cannot fill this in, the persona is invented.

Behaviour

What they are trying to achieve in their work, not what they want from your product.

What they actually do now, including the workarounds.

Observed, with a supporting quote where you have one.

Domain knowledge, tool familiarity, and the environment they work in.

Implications

The decisions this persona should change. If none, the persona is not earning its place.

Guard against over-generalising. Name who this does not describe.

Tests a persona has to pass before it is published

If it fails any of these, it will be quoted in decisions it cannot actually support.

  • Every claim traces to something observed, and the source is recorded next to it.
  • It changes a decision. If the design would be the same without it, it is describing an audience rather than informing one.
  • It is behaviourally distinct from the others. Two personas differing only by job title are one persona.
  • It could be wrong. A persona with no falsifiable claims is a marketing profile.
  • It carries a date and a sample size, so readers can judge how much weight it holds.
  • Nothing decorative is doing argumentative work: no stock photograph standing in for evidence, no invented quote.

Keeping it grounded

Do

  • Lead with goals, context and behaviour, which are the parts that change design decisions.
  • Include the constraints people work under: devices, connectivity, interruptions, assistive technology, expertise.
  • Quote real participants verbatim, with the session reference.
  • Retire personas that stop matching the evidence, and say when they were retired.

Do not

  • Do not build personas before research. Inventing the user and then designing for the invention is worse than designing for nobody.
  • Do not include demographics that do not affect the design.
  • Do not name a persona in a way that invites stereotyping.
  • Do not maintain more than a handful. A set nobody can hold in mind gets ignored as a set.

Commonly confused with

Close neighbours that get substituted for each other. The difference is stated first, then the condition that picks one over the other.

vs.

Jobs to Be Done

Research method

Demand framed as the progress someone seeks in a circumstance, not as a user type.

Key difference

A persona describes who someone is, as a pattern found in research. A job describes the progress they are trying to make, independent of who they are. Two very different people can share a job, and one person has different jobs on different days.

Use Persona when

  • The team needs a shared, memorable picture of who this is for.
  • Differences between groups genuinely change the design.
  • It is grounded in data, not invented with a stock photograph.

Use Jobs to Be Done when

  • The question is what the product is hired to do.
  • Demographics have stopped explaining the behaviour you see.
  • You want a frame that survives a change of audience.

Learn about Jobs to Be Done

Local chart

TPL·003 · Region VIII · Grid H3

This entry and the entries it is stated to connect with. Each line is labelled with what the connection means.

Survivorship BiasBIAS·010 · OFTEN USED WITHMental ModelsMOD·001 · OFTEN USED WITHResearch SynthesisRES·014 · OFTEN USED WITHUser InterviewsRES·003 · OFTEN USED WITHJourney MapTPL·004 · OFTEN USED WITHJobs to Be DoneRES·018 · COMMONLY CONFUSED WITHPersonaTERM·116 · SHORT DEFINITION

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Often used with

These usually appear in the same screen or the same decision.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.