Persona Frameworks

# Persona Development Frameworks

## Overview

This knowledge resource provides comprehensive frameworks and methodologies for developing evidence-based user personas from research data. Personas are archetypal representations of user segments that help teams empathize with and design for their users.

## Core Principles

### Evidence-Based Development
- **Every attribute must trace to research data**
- **Minimum 3 participants per persona** for validity
- **Behavioral focus over demographics**
- **Quotes and observations required** for all characteristics
- **Contradictions explicitly addressed**

### Persona Quality Criteria
1. **Distinct:** Each persona represents a unique segment
2. **Memorable:** Easy to remember and reference
3. **Actionable:** Drives design decisions
4. **Realistic:** Based on actual users, not stereotypes
5. **Evolving:** Updated as users and contexts change

## Major Persona Frameworks

### 1. Cooper's Goal-Directed Personas

**Developer:** Alan Cooper
**Focus:** User goals and behaviors

**Components:**
- **Primary Persona:** Must be satisfied; can't be happy if another persona is satisfied instead
- **Secondary Persona:** Mostly satisfied by primary persona's interface with minor adjustments
- **Supplemental Persona:** Satisfied by combination of other personas
- **Customer Persona:** Not an end user but influences purchase decisions
- **Served Persona:** Directly affected by product use but doesn't use it
- **Negative Persona:** Who we're NOT designing for

**Development Process:**
1. Identify behavioral variables
2. Map interview subjects to variables
3. Identify significant behavior patterns
4. Synthesize characteristics and goals
5. Check for completeness and redundancy
6. Expand description of attributes
7. Designate persona types

**Best For:** Software and digital product design

### 2. Pruitt & Adlin's Persona Lifecycle

**Developers:** John Pruitt & Tamara Adlin
**Focus:** Organizational adoption and maintenance

**Lifecycle Phases:**
1. **Family Planning:** Organizational preparation
2. **Conception & Gestation:** Data collection and analysis
3. **Birth & Maturation:** Persona creation and enrichment
4. **Adulthood:** Active use in design process
5. **Retirement:** Archiving or updating

**Key Components:**
- **Foundation Documents:** Core characteristics
- **Persona Comparison Chart:** Differentiation matrix
- **Persona Weighted Matrix:** Priority scoring
- **Scenario Collection:** Use case library

**Best For:** Enterprise environments requiring buy-in

### 3. Lean Personas

**Developer:** Jeff Gothelf
**Focus:** Rapid, assumption-based starting point

**Format:**