Personas
(Behavioral Archetypes)
Problem: Designing to meet user expectations has been a challenge for UX Designers who were hired directly into the UX Team from outside the company because they don’t have any existing knowledge of who our customers are.
Research
In 2022, I headed a team of six designers with the goal of creating Personas for the Costco UX Team.
During the Research phase, we surveyed 100 Costco members from across the US to understand their shopping behaviors, goals, and frustrations. We then conducted 10 in-person interviews to deepen our understanding of their experiences and confirm the patterns identified in the survey. This gave us a comprehensive understanding of our members, which served as the foundation for our Personas. In addition, we also gathered previous personas and segment information from the marketing team for reference.
After we had processed the information, we presented the findings to the full UX team so that they could begin familiarizing themselves with the data before the Team Personas Segmentation Workshop.
Segmentation & Synthesis
To leverage the fresh insights gained from our user research, I facilitated a segmentation workshop with the full UX team. During the workshop, we collaborated to identify key characteristics, behaviors, needs, goals, and pain points of our research participants. We also grouped our research participants into behavior-based segments to gain a deeper understanding of them in order to identify the personas that we would focus on moving forward with.
The team began by splitting into small groups of 3-4 individuals while I provided support and answered questions. Each group was asked to brainstorm and dump all the relevant information from our research from different perspectives, such as "How people solve problems" or "What people value."
Afterward, the information was compiled into a single pile and formed into cards for a small group collaborative card sorting exercise. Each team then presented their final information groupings, and we merged them as a team, discussing and agreeing on four behavior archetypes to move forward with.
Final Design
To create the final design, we reviewed persona examples on the web and selected elements that were relevant to our available information. We used sketches and wireframes to develop the information architecture and layout, and incorporated Costco's branding to create a cohesive final product.
We then presented the final personas to our team for any final feedback. After some minor tweaking, our personas were done.
The 4 personas were a full team product. It was my honor to be a part of the process.
Relationship with…
Personas Cohort
My role for the Personas Cohort was to provide leadership as we progressed through the various steps in the process. I additionally instructed the members in how to get to the information that was needed to produce credible personas.
UX Team
I provided leadership to the UX Team at large as I moderated the segmentation workshop and generally walked the full team through a unification process.