Process of Revising a Persona in an Organization - Step by Step Guide

Creating personas for each user segment could easily lead to 10-12 personas, but it would be difficult to keep track of so many. It would also be a strenuous task to take all of them into account while refining and iterating upon your product. 

Further, once you have created user personas for your product, the process does not end there. Throughout the product’s lifecycle, the user’s circumstances and characteristics may change due to innovation and competition, and you need to keep up with these changes. You can do this by revising and updating your personas as and when required.

Let’s see how both of these issues can be handled successfully.

Personas are most effective for the product development process when you only have a few of them. The ideal number of personas is 3-4.

The example of the original Uber USA persona Paul and the revised Uber India persona Rakesh illustrates how personas can be revised to accommodate changes in the user segment. In the example, the following changes were made in the revised persona:

• User goals

  • Through the comparison of the user goals of both the personas, cheaper cabs and cash payments were introduced in India

• Pain points 

  • As the revised Indian persona has a car of his own, he needs to have a substantial incentive for using Uber, whereas the original American persona does not own a car and would use Uber even without any substantial benefit

• Technology 

  • Uber shifted its focus from majority iOS devices in the USA to majority Android devices in India through comparison of the technical elements of the two personas

Disclaimer: Please note that the personas of Rakesh and Paul are hypothetical, not real Uber personas.