User Persona
A research-based, semi-fictional profile of a target user — their goals, context, and frustrations — used to keep design decisions grounded.
A persona distills patterns from user research into a memorable, representative character: who they are, what they are trying to accomplish, the context they work in, and what gets in their way. It gives a team a shared, specific "who" to design for instead of a vague "the user."
Personas are only as good as the research behind them; invented from assumptions, they become a way to launder opinion. Used well, they anchor prioritization — "would this actually help Maya close her month-end faster?" — and feed directly into journey maps and flows.
Related terms
User ResearchThe systematic study of users' needs, behaviors, and pain points — through interviews, surveys, and observation — to ground design in evidence.Customer Journey MapA visualization of the full experience a customer has with a product or brand over time, stage by stage, including actions, emotions, and pain points.Product-Market FitThe stage at which a product satisfies a strong market demand so well that usage, retention, and word-of-mouth grow on their own.