Proto-Persona: Differences and Similarities with Persona

[#1]

Proto-personas are preliminary user profiles created from existing knowledge and assumptions. They serve as a springboard for early design discussions and decision-making, helping teams establish a basic understanding of their target users.

What Is Proto-Persona?

A proto-persona is a preliminary user profile based on existing knowledge and assumptions. Unlike a full-fledged persona, it isn’t built on extensive user research. Instead, it serves as a springboard for design discussions and early decision-making.

Think of it as a foundational block. It helps establish a basic understanding of your target user, their goals, and potential needs. This initial user image can then be refined and fleshed out through user research methods like interviews or surveys later in the design process.

Proto-Persona and Persona Similarities

Proto-personas and traditional personas share several key similarities, making both essential tools in user-centered design.

Both proto-personas and personas aim to represent user archetypes, helping design teams understand and empathize with their target audience. They provide a tangible reference for user needs, goals, and behaviors, ensuring the design process remains user-focused.

Shared attributes and elements of these two types of personas:

• Demographics: Both include basic demographic information such as age, gender, occupation, and location.
• Goals and Needs: They highlight the primary goals and needs of the users, guiding design decisions to meet these requirements.
• Pain Points: Both identify common challenges and pain points that users face, allowing designers to address these issues effectively.

Proto-personas often serve as preliminary versions of fully developed personas. As projects progress and more user data is gathered, proto-personas can be refined and evolved into detailed personas. 

Proto-personas and personas are interconnected tools that work together to provide a comprehensive understanding of users, starting from initial assumptions and evolving through continuous research and validation.

Proto-Persona and Persona Differences

While proto-personas and personas share similarities, they also have distinct differences in their creation, detail, and usage. Here’s a clear comparison:

Aspect	Proto-Personas	Personas
Data Source	Based on assumptions and initial hypotheses	Based on extensive user research and data
Detail Level	Simplified and broad	Detailed and specific
Creation Time	Quick, often created in hours or days	Time-consuming, requires thorough research
Resource Involvement	Low cost and effort	High cost and effort
Usage Stage	Early stages of the design process	Throughout the design and development process
Flexibility	Highly flexible, easy to update	Less flexible, requires more effort to update
Validation	Hypotheses to be tested and validated	Validated through user research and feedback

Proto-personas and personas serve different yet complementary roles in the design process. Proto-personas offers a quick and flexible way to start understanding users, while personas provide a more reliable and detailed representation based on comprehensive research. Using both effectively can enhance the overall user experience design process.

→ Build your own proto-personas and personas on Jira easily with the help of ProductGo here!

Final Words

Proto-personas and personas are essential tools in user-centered design, each serving unique purposes at different stages of the design process. Proto-personas provide a quick, flexible way to begin understanding users and making initial design decisions, while personas offer a detailed, research-backed representation of user archetypes. 

By leveraging both proto-personas and personas, design teams can ensure they remain user-focused from the outset and continuously refine their understanding of users through ongoing research. 

[Joanna Weber]

I love using personas - but I use them in a slightly different way.

For me, the purpose of the proto-personas is surfacing the assumptions every member of the product team has about their users.

I don't include the demographics part at all - as a fortysomething woman, at work, I don't have different needs or behaviours than a man in his 20s. However, much older adults (typically 70+) can develop impairments to vision and fine motor skills, so this is important information if you are working in this area (e.g. making phones with big buttons.)

Instead of demographics, I typically focus on the imagined user's wants/needs/drivers/fears/frustrations - this is where you write down the problems that you think your customer has. Instead of personality, which is fixed, the drivers/fears/frustrations part surfaces ideas about how important accomplishment of the task is to them: I'm very impatient, but I'll wait if it's important to me.

We use the proto-personas in kick-off workshops, and then test them with interviews.

Proto-personas can not help you to understand your users, but they can help you to understand what you imagine you know about your users, which is the first step towards understanding them.

When you compare your assumption proto-personas with the actual insights derived through research, you'll notice that the differences between them are the very areas in which your product diverges with actual user needs.

When you make those changes, they make a meaningful difference to the user experience, making your product more valuable to customers.

[Liam - DevSamurai]

Thank @Joanna Weber for your comment.

That's a great insight about proto-personas that I can learn about.