persona-definitionlisted

# Persona Definition Create research-backed user personas that drive product and documentation decisions. A persona is a composite archetype grounded in observed behavior, not a fictional character invented by the team. Personas without evidence are opinions with names. ## When to Use - Defining who the product is for before building features - Creating user archetypes for a new product or feature - Building empathy maps to understand user emotional landscape - Characterizing the audience for documentation or design decisions - Aligning a team on who they're building for - Evaluating whether a feature serves a real user need ## When NOT to Use - Mapping stakeholders across an organization with power/interest (use persona-mapping) - Creating RACI charts or influence analysis (use persona-mapping) - Designing research interview flows (use elicitation) - Identifying what users need (jobs, wants vs needs) (use user-needs-identification) - Writing value propositions (use value-proposition-design) ## Decision Tree ``` What persona problem are you solving? │ ├─ Creating new personas │ ├─ Quick alignment needed, no research yet? → Proto-persona (low detail) │ ├─ Agile team, need direction for MVP? → Lean persona (medium detail) │ └─ Strategic decisions, high stakes? → Full persona (high detail, evidence-backed) │ ├─ Validating existing personas │ ├─ No research behind them? → Rebuild from interviews/behavior data │ ├─ Personas are aspirational? → Replace with behavior-obs