This project’s aim was to help solve BMC’s user persona problem. In their previous state, personas were few, thin on relevant information in some areas, stored in decentralized compartments, without any version control, and infrequently consulted by team members when making design decisions. Most importantly, these personas were not researched-based. Instead, persona qualities often included on guesswork or suppositions, even information supplied by one or two users lumped together in a "Frankenstein" fashion..
According to one BMC team member, their user personas were largely based on four sources of data:
1. Pre-existing personas (used without either validation or knowledge of their provenance).
2. User interviews from design process for specific features (very small sample sets, very focused questions, lots of extrapolation).
3. Notes & observations from assorted user interviews and recordings of customer calls.
4. General product management knowledge of the product.
The central idea here was that in creating more uniform and informative research-based personas, project team members could generate greater empathy for their users, understand real user needs and opportunities, resolve pain points and add new desired features, thus creating more satisfied customers and increasing ROI.
Methods:
I conducted user feedback interviews with 17 team members, determined necessary template criteria, wrote guidelines on methods to be used to capture relevant data, produced and tested competing sketches and wireframe prototypes, revising them several times. Lastly, I recommended a simple solution for version control.
Deliverable:
I decided on a 3-slided PowerPoint prototype as the medium for common usability, ease of access, and future updatability. Slide 1 is a brief summary of the persona (job role, tasks, goals, technical expertise, etc.) to be used as an at-a-glance overview or reminder, but can also be printed out as a poster to apply to a wall, corkboard, etc. for continued use. Slide 2 comprises a deeper dive into the persona’s work environment, pain points, tools/applications, solutions they need to get their job done, and negative instances they need to avoid. This slide can also be used in brainstorming sessions to help identify design opportunities. Slide 3 features an organization chart showing team hierarchy and a communication network and noting information context, content, and flows. Team members will have the opportunity to add a 4th slide containing task scenarios or user journeys, but that will be up to each team during each release or major update as this information changes rapidly and can't be included into the core of the a persona.
Lastly, I proposed a simple solution to version control so that the most up to date slide deck can be identified: simply make the file read-only, giving only team leaders editing rights. Managers can save as final under the Save tab and add a digital signature. However, any team member can view a list of previous versions and its editors and can view the created/last modified timestamp under the Save tab as well.
The result is a persona template management system that fits the needs and interests of BMC researchers and designers such that personas can easily be created, continually reevaluated and updated, and that team members can perform their duties easier and better communicate the benefits of persona creation more widely within the company.
