The problems personas can and can’t solve.
The real reasons most teams need personas has nothing to do with data, and data can’t solve the real reason most teams need personas.
We think data is all-powerful. Maybe it should be, but it isn’t.
I’ll start with a little story about the past 15+ years of my consulting work. I get calls or notes from people who are ‘reaching out about a research-driven persona effort we are planning and would like to find out more about [my] services.”
Here’s a typical conversation:
“Hi. I think I’ve convinced my boss to let us do research to create personas. We’re still figuring out budget. We’re thinking of <insert research methods here>. Is that something you can send us an RFP on?”
“My approach to personas is different than most. Can I ask you some questions?”
“Uh, Ok.”
“What problems are you trying to solve with the personas?”
“We need everyone to understand our users better and data is the only thing anyone will pay attention to” or equivalent.
“Can you give me some examples of how this has been a problem?”
Two minutes later we’re talking about how the VP of product and the CMO can’t stand to be in the same room together for more than five minutes, or how a senior dev was terrorizing a UX team, or how a exec got all excited about “UX” at a conference and seagull-managed* the otherwise perfectly happy team to ‘transform the entire company to be more user focused’ with a budget that would cover lunch for your team on a day when a bunch of people were on vacation.
The HOPE is ‘data will solve this.’ The reality is different. Because while data is SUPPOSED to solve almost every question and problem in business, it just can’t.
People create data-driven persona (or other deliverable) projects because they think that data is all-powerful and it’s easier to get funding for projects related to data.
But the big problems don’t come from lack of data. In fact, more data often makes things worse.
Usually the last thing your business needs is more data.
Look again at that list of real issues. Will data solve any of them? Before you say yes….really? There’s a difference between data SHOULD solve this problem and data WILL solve this problem.
How will data make a VP and a CMO get along? Maybe by proving that one of them is ‘right’ somehow? And suddenly they’ll be able to work together? No.
How will data make a senior dev stop terrorizing a UX team? It can’t.
How will data stop an exec from getting overly excited about a new direction for the company or product? Data may (MAY) calm an exec down, but it won’t make them any less interested in ‘innovation.’ The seagull will show up again…and soon.*
OK, it’s time for you to start commenting and arguing with me. Tell me what problems you are trying to solve with data right now, or problems you’ve tried to solve with data in the past. And tell me if it worked.
#seagullmanagement: from Ken Blanchard’s 1985 book Leadership and the One Minute Manager: “Seagull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, then fly out.” #credityoursources
