Persona

A short profile of a representative user — their role, goals, constraints and what they currently do instead.

Example

'Ana, 34, ops manager, judged on on-time delivery, currently rebuilding a rota every Friday.'

Important

Personas built from imagination are decoration. Personas built from ten real interviews are a decision tool.

Related terms

• ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) — A precise description of the customer who gets the most value from your product and is easiest to reach, sell and keep.
• Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) — The framing that people hire a product to make progress on a specific job in a specific situation.
• Buyer vs user — The person who pays is often not the person who uses it, and they care about different things.

Lessons that explain it

• Defining your ICP — The customer who gets the most value and is easiest to reach. If your definition does not tell you where to find them tomorrow, it is not specific enough. (12 min)
• Jobs To Be Done — People do not buy products, they hire them to make progress in a situation. The frame that stops you building features nobody asked for. (10 min)

All 176 terms in the Founder glossary