4: The Final Number

Abstract

The analysis has now been concluded, and a picture emerges of how many personas the project should have. But the final number has yet to be decided. Step 4: A number is established includes strategic decisions about who belongs to the user group. This also contains decision about what areas are that are to describe the various personas. As this step entails certain strategic implications, it may be important also to include the decision-makers in determining the final number. One of the questions often put to me is: ‘How many personas must we have in order to be covered?’ But as one of my partners said, ‘It should be more expensive to prepare a few personas than many’. The reason that it should be more expensive to prepare only a few personas is that the purpose of personas is to reduce data to usable sizes that are both representative and workable. This includes a number of personas that you can actually remember. At this point in the process, it is also determined whether the project has secondary personas. They may be secondary because they have no direct relationship with the product but still should be kept in mind or because they have to be included due to political reasons even though they most likely will not use the product. Let me give you four examples that each in their own way describes the process with determining the final number of personas.