Personas
Personas are representations of archetypal users of your products.
What is it?
Personas are a collaborative research & communication tool to help keep your product user focused.
Personas help illustrate why a product or feature would not work for the target user, and allow for teams to design with the same user in mind, thus creating a more coherent user experience.
When to use
You should create personas at the start of your project as they can inform product functionality and highlight new opportunities. Personas should evolve over time as your understanding of your users develops.
Read our case study of using personas: BI/MI user research
Further reading
Personas information on Usablity.gov
How to: Create a user persona on Xtensio website
Using proto-personas for executive alignment on UX Magazine
The essence of a successful persona project on UIE website
Persona posts on the University Website Programme blog