Personas for Coders

Agile development uses "user stories" to provide context for features. Who is "the user?" anyhow?

Long considered the domain of user experience experts, personas are a great tool anyone working on a software project can use to talk about and create shared understanding about user needs.

Personas help us understand user:
- motivations
- level of expertise
- context of use
- workflow
- goals and needs

Transcript

1. Carbon Five September 5, 2012 Personas for Coders
2. http://karinedrumond.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/user_story_card4.jpg User story
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 Uses Features Insert business vision here
9. People Needs Uses Features Insert business vision here UI design, wireframes Visual design
10. People Needs Uses Features Personas Epics 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 Needs & goals Behaviors
22. Show & tell Photo: Lane Halley
23. Discussion
24. Thank you! Lane Halley www.carbonfive.com @thinknow