Personas can be expressed in a structured manner so they can be used in ways impossible with purely narrative descriptions. The following examples illustrate the differences between the Demographic, Ethnographic and Persona-graphic descriptions.

Demographic Description In a widely used segmentation scheme, one finds the category ‘Middleburbs – Young Influentials’:
Young, middle class singles and couples who are more preoccupied with balancing work and leisure pursuits. Having recently left college dorms, they now live in apartment complexes surrounded by ball fields, health clubs and casual dining restaurants.
There are, by the way, 64 other categories.

Ethnographic Description A description of the Ethnographic variety is given below:
Bob is a mid-30’s male who owns a high performance, European sports car. When he gets in to drive, he always makes sure everything (seat, mirrors, etc.) is adjusted properly before turning on the engine and he always buckles his seat-belt. Bob always accelerates quickly and drives above the speed limits. He maneuvers around slower vehicles and other obstacles that impede his progress…

Persona Description
Persona – ‘Accident Avoider’: A ‘skills’ driver who is at the center of the vehicle. They want the car to augment their capabilities. If the car is capable, they won’t get into an accident in the first place. They can ‘perform’ their way out of danger.

Different Forms of the Persona

Even the difference between these narrative descriptions is striking. The persona model is context free. It addresses the ‘why’ and is outcome and experience based. The alternatives are attribute based, context dependent and say nothing about ‘why’

But the Persona description goes beyond even this difference in narrative. The following diagram shows the three levels of a persona that are derived from primary community research. In addition to the narrative description the Persona provides, the structured model provides additional levels of detail for assessing how customers think and choose.


These components together comprise all of the information and knowledge available about a persona and provide a very rich source of understanding and insight into the customer’s world.

Knowledge from in-depth engagements – This is the ‘raw material’ of the persona model that is derived from direct engagements with individuals. It consists of

• Example Individuals and their demographic characteristics
• Stories (metaphors and analogies) that evoke specific persona attributes
• Beliefs, Behaviors and Goals (what they believe – true or not, and how they behave)

Structured Persona Description – The structured description of a persona details the specific items that are important to the persona and the specific ways the persona makes decisions. It consists of the following components.

• Narrative Persona Description – Like personas described in the preceding section, the narrative persona description is a prose description of a ‘category of individual’ (an archetype) based on the relevant attributes.
• Needs and desires – the primary outcomes (rational) and experiences (emotional) that motivate the persona’s response to specific items.
• Persona Profile – The persona’s ‘score’ on each of the outcome and experience dimensions

Model Persona Description – An executable simulation of the persona that calculates responses of the persona to specific concepts presented to it. This is described in more detail later in this document.

These ‘sections’ of the persona model are derived from the in-depth engagements held with community members that elicit specific needs and desires (expressed as outcomes and experiences).

The Structured Persona Description

The structured description of a persona details the specific items that are important to the persona and the specific ways the persona makes decisions. It goes beyond the narrative description to provide item by item lists of the specific needs and desires that are the basis for adoption. Compared to the ‘traditional’ customer research approach, the structured persona description replaces the ubiquitous list of ‘value propositions’ with a much richer picture or the underlying causes of value.


The different sections of a structured persona description are:

• Example Individual & image
  
• Stories (metaphors and analogies)
• Beliefs & Behaviors - what they believe – true or not, and how they behave
• Needs & Desires

• Outcomes – the rational. Increasing those that are valued, minimizing those that are not
• Experiences – the emotional. Enhancing those that are desired, mitigating those that are not

• Decision States - How the persona decides. What is important, what is satisfactory

These ‘sections’ of the persona description are derived from the in-depth engagements held with community members that elicit specific needs and desires (expressed as outcomes and experiences).