Synthesize

Build a persona

Describe a representative user, grounded in research.

How to do it

1. Pick the behaviours that define this group.
2. Pull goals and frustrations from your evidence.
3. Choose a real quote that sums them up.
4. Check every line traces back to a source.

Tip. AI drafts goals, frustrations and behaviours from tagged notes in your inputs, with each line linked to where it came from.

What you need

Start from:

• Insight, Interview notes or Affinity map

It is better with: Survey results, Jobs to be done or Empathy map.

What you get: Persona

A persona template has these sections:

• Name, tagline and a quote in their words
• Goals
• Frustrations
• Behaviours

Where it fits

• Define (Double Diamond): Agree the one problem worth solving, and for whom.

Usually comes after

• Synthesize insights
• Run an interview
• Affinity mapping

What to do next

• Write an interview script
• Map a journey
• Map empathy
• Write a readout
• Audit the evidence
• Ask a persona panel
• Build a survey
• Write a scenario
• Check for bias
• Check what new evidence changes

Templates that use it

• Exploratory study: We don’t know the problem well yet: why do people do what they do?
• Double Diamond: A whole project, from understanding a problem to a tested answer.
• Design Thinking: Empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test, in the classic five modes.