persona-builder

name	persona-builder
description	Create data-driven user personas from research findings with goals, behaviors, pain points, and design implications
allowed-tools	["Read","Write","Grep"]
effort	medium

When to activate

• Creating user personas from research data
• Updating existing personas with new research findings
• Differentiating between user segments for product decisions
• Aligning teams on who they're building for
• Prioritizing features based on persona needs

When NOT to use

• For marketing buyer personas (different focus)
• For demographic segmentation only
• For statistical clustering without qualitative data

Instructions

1. Gather research data. Compile interview findings, survey data, analytics, and support tickets.
2. Identify behavioral patterns. Group users by behaviors, goals, and attitudes — not just demographics.
3. Define 3-5 personas. Each represents a distinct user segment with meaningful behavioral differences.
4. Build persona profile. Name, photo placeholder, quote, demographics, role, context, tech comfort.
5. Add goals and motivations. What they're trying to achieve (primary, secondary) and why.
6. Document pain points. Current frustrations, unmet needs, and workarounds they've developed.
7. Include design implications. For each pain point, what should the product do differently?

Example

Persona: "Busy Beth" — The Efficiency-Seeking Manager

Quote: "I just need to see what my team is doing without clicking through 10 screens."

Demographics: 38, Engineering Manager, 12 reports, 6+ years experience
Context: Manages a distributed team across 3 time zones

Goals:
- Primary: Get quick visibility into team progress and blockers
- Secondary: Report status upward without manual compilation

Pain Points:
- Spends 2 hrs/week compiling status from multiple tools
- Can't tell who's overloaded without asking directly
- Misses blockers until standup because async updates are scattered

Design Implications:
- One-glance dashboard with team health indicators
- Auto-generated weekly status summary
- Proactive alerts when someone has too many tasks