If you are transitioning from Classic to the UX, you may have read this article about our recommended methodology: U.S.E.R. (Understand, Sketch, Execute, and Repeat).
One of the key concepts during the Understand phase is to really get to know your users. For this, we recommend a classic UX tool: Personas.
What are personas, and why are they so useful to define at the start of your implementations?
Personas are fictional representations of the actual users for whom you are building. They are based on a set of common behaviors, actions, and expectations. Creating personas will help you understand your users, standardize their needs, and get to solutions faster.
In the context of the UX, personas are critical for the following reasons:
Learn more about the UX.
Now that we have more insights on the concept, where do we start?
We recommend starting with the people who will be using Anaplan. Get together with the project team and walk through the process to be supported in Anaplan step-by-step. Each action will be performed by a person; these will form the backbone of your personas. You may start off by thinking about the job title or their user role in Anaplan, but we want you to think more broadly than that.
With the process laid out, it’s time to find common ground:
Example of Persona mapping
Once your groups are more defined, move on to the finesse work.
We recommend these three steps:
Step 1: For each persona, take a deeper dive into their goals and frustrations.
Step 2: Add logistical details.
Pro Tip: Add a picture and an easy-to-remember name.
You are creating a fictional identity that is not linked to a real person. This gives you a degree of freedom to dive into frustrations without associating them with a specific person.
Step 3: Put it all together
Pro Tip: Share your personas widely.
Make sure the whole team knows and uses them. This will facilitate all future conversations about needs and wants.
Here are 3 examples of personas we are using daily at Anaplan:
Briana, the Builder
Kiran, the Contributor
Rich, the Executive Reviewer
Are you ready to start using personas? Or, are you already using them?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Hello, would this persona template be available for us to use/customize as we onboard new use cases?