Presentation at Carbon Five Hack Night September 5, 2012. Personas are a way to think about who "the user" is and how he or she would use your software. Learn how personas can provide focus on the most important features, guidance about how those features fit together, and information about how much capability a feature really needs to provide. Carbon Five LA bi-weekly, intimate hack night for developers who want to code and collaborate for a couple of hours after work. Bring your own project or work with someone else. Developers of all experience levels are welcome. There will be at least a couple Carbon Five folks around to help out. For more information, please see our Meetup Group http://www.meetup.com/Hack-Night-at-Carbon-Five-LA/events/77422712/

1. Personas for Coders
Carbon Five
September 5, 2012

2. User story
http://karinedrumond.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/user_story_card4.jpg

3. Who is this “user” of
which you speak?

4. People

5. People
Needs

6. People
Needs
Uses

7. People
Needs
Uses
Features

8. People
Needs
Insert business
vision here
Uses
Features

9. People
Needs
Insert business
vision here
Uses
UI design,
wireframes
Visual design
Features

10. People
Personas
Needs
Uses Epics
Features Stories

11. Personas help us understand
• Motivations
• Level of expertise
• Context of use
• Workflow
• Goals and needs

12. Personas are NOT
• Demographic segments
• General-purpose
• Stereotypes

13. The origin of personas
Introduced by Alan Cooper
“The Inmates are Running the Asylum”
Widely used in user experience (UX)
Based on user research

14. A little known fact
Personas help coders solve problems
Specific more important than accurate
Alan’s first persona - “Kathy”
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/05/the_origin_of_personas.html/

15. Pragmatic personas
David Hussman, 2008
Agile “pragmatic personas”
Draw someone you know
Photo: Flickr jazzmasterson/275800917

16. Lean Startup
Learning experiments
Make products people want
Persona hypothesis
Evolve as you know more

17. Personas grow and evolve
Before talking to customers
See if you agree about who “the user” is
Figure out who you need to talk to

18. Personas grow and evolve
After talking to customers
Persistent, shared visual artifact
Defines “customer value”
Establishes scope of features
Aid to prioritize features

19. Personas before talking to customers
Photo: Lane Halley

20. Personas after talking to customers
Photo: Lane Halley

21. Let’s make a persona
Name & sketch Description
Behaviors Needs & goals

22. Show & tell
Photo: Lane Halley

23. Discussion

24. Thank you!
Lane Halley
www.carbonfive.com
@thinknow