School Tools: Personas

How to use this foundational human-centred design tool in the classroom 

Greetings, fellow innovators! If you’re searching for an excellent way to gain deeper insights into your users, look no further than personas. These fictional characters represent your target audience and can help you better understand their needs, desires, and behaviours. With personas, you’ll have a powerful tool in your innovation toolkit to help you create products and services that truly resonate with your users.

So, how can you help your students define personas in your innovation programs? Here are a few tips:

Start with research

Before you can define personas, you need to understand your target audience. Have your students conduct research through surveys, interviews, and other methods to gather information about their potential customers.

Identify commonalities

After conducting research, have your students identify commonalities among their potential customers. What are their goals? What are their pain points? What motivates them?  How tech savvy are they? These commonalities can be used to create a persona.

Give your persona a name and a key statement

Once you have identified commonalities, have your students give their persona a name and a key statement. This will help them visualise their persona as a real person with real needs and wants.

Use visuals

Have your students create a visual representation of their persona, such as a picture or infographic. This will help them keep their persona top of mind and make it easier to share with others.

Use the persona to inform product development

Finally, have your students use their persona to inform product development. By keeping their persona in mind, they can make decisions that will better meet the needs of their target audience.

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Defining personas is a fun and engaging way to bring innovation to life in the classroom. It encourages creativity, critical thinking, and empathy – all valuable skills for students to develop. So, what are you waiting for? Get your students defining personas today!