Personas WOrkshop

Bizly, Inc.
August 2016

Bizly is an on-demand meeting space platform, connecting hotels with unused conference rooms with business professionals looking for high quality meeting space.

Project included: workshop development and facilitation

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PURPOSE

While working with Bizly, I proposed a proto-persona workshop when I noticed that our group vision for the product was lacking alignment, with notable disparities between departments. By establishing a collective understanding of our user base and their motivations, I hoped to develop a starting point from which product decisions could be made. Further, as features were proposed and developed, the proto-personas would offer a benchmark against which things could be evaluated. 

The Workshop

Being at startup amidst crunch time, we didn’t have the ability to set aside the recommended six hours. So, I decided to put together an abbreviated version with the goal of introducing the team to the idea of proto-personas and user-centered decision-making. Our small team brought unique perspectives around our users’ wants and needs, a perfect springboard for our workshop.

Introduction & Brainstorm
I kicked things off with an introduction to proto-personas. I explained that they are meant to be archetypes of people that would use the product and could be referenced to encourage customer-centric decision making. I also emphasized that proto-personas are not data-driven, and should be updated as insights emerged with wider product adoption. I then presented an example, shown below. When preparing the sample persona, I wanted to show the desired level of storytelling and detail without offering an overly memorable character. My goal was to highlight the granularity of the “Behaviors” and “Needs/Goals” sections and demonstrate the skeleton set up for everyone to mimic.  

Then, working individually, I gave everyone 12-15 minutes to come up with as many personas as possible. I encouraged everyone to be creative and descriptive. At the end of the allotted time, each person had 2-3 personas sketched out. I had each participant go around and tell us about their users. Everyone took the exercise seriously, and the responses were on the whole thoughtful and detailed. 

Next, I introduced the concept of spectra. In preparation for the workshop, I had predetermined the spectra onto which we would sort the personas. Identifying the relevant spectra was more challenging than I had anticipated. Ultimately, I sought to compile a list of personality and behavior qualities that could inform product decisions. After weighing a whole list of options, I narrowed it down to the following:

  • Tech Savviness
    To what degree does this person understand technology (e.g. how to troubleshoot,  conventional interaction patterns, etc)?  
    (1: not at all, 4: very)

  • Patience
    How likely is this user to persevere when confused? how forgiving is he/she to errors or malfunctions?
    (1: impatient, 4: extremely patient)

  • Influence
    How connected is this person, and what sort of weight would their recommendation carry with another?
    (1: not influential, 4: very influential)

  • Price Sensitivity 
    To what degree is this person budget-constrained?
    (1: indulgent, 4: frugal) 

  • Organization
    Is the person more systematic or freeform?  
    (1: disorganized, 4: very organized)

  • Risk Aversion
    How willing is this person to go out on a limb or try something new?
    (1: willing to risk, 4: unwilling to risk)

After drawing these spectra onto the board, I had the group sort each persona that had been created onto the various scales. I encouraged discussion, explaining that this conversation would bring to the surface the most important characteristics of our personas. The group was fairly engaged, delving into the lifestyle and motivations of each person, why they'd fall in a certain place on the scale, and particularly how they compared to other personas. Once that was finished, we wrapped on day 1. 

Compilation & Vetting

I took the spectra and sorted personas (pictured at the top) and extracted patterns. This exercise revealed a few major themes about our user base. Specifically, our group imagined Bizly users to be:

  • Moderately tech-savvy, with some outlying experts

  • Mostly impatient, with a few more tolerant folks

  • Pretty influential, with at least some engaged network

  • Fairly price-sensitive, but not penny-pinching on the whole

  • Quite organized and put together

I compiled our brainstormed personas with these insights, and crafted five proto-personas. Each had a drawing, set of characteristics, and a place on the spectra. On day 2, I presented the personas, and took feedback on how accurately they reflected the group's expectations. We made tweaks, debated a few points, and ultimately came together around an understanding of our intended user base. The workshop was a success!

The Outcome

I took the feedback from day 2 and made the relevant updates. We came away with a comprehensive document outlining our various imagined users and their behaviors, needs, and tendencies. Below is the complete set of spectra and a couple examples of final proto-personas. The results were distributed and used by the team to discuss, make decisions, justify proposals, and vet product changes.