Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Personas

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Sunday 11th March 2012

• The Hispanic Persona Project

  by José Villa

  The Hispanic Persona Project provides innovative insights for marketers eager to tap the ever-expanding Hispanic population and its use of digital technology - Web, social media, mobile - to connect with family, friends and extended social circles. Hispanic marketers used customer research for decades to create segments that model the complex demographics of the U.S. Hispanic consumer. Similarly, software developers and digital marketers used ethnographic research to create Personas to understand the behavior and motivations of “users” to create optimal user experiences. The session will present the results of a comprehensive primary research study combining Hispanic demographic segmentation with digital ethnographic research in the form of comprehensive digital Personas for the U.S. Hispanic consumer market. Multicultural and digital marketing thought leader José Villa will introduce attendees to 4 Hispanic Personas and facilitate a thoughtful discussion on Hispanic digital behavior.

  • Hispanic
  • Personas

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Sunday 11th March

  In Room 10AB, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage slide deck audio clip

Monday 12th March 2012

• Avoiding Bullshit Personas: A Case Study

  by Jill Christ and Stephanie Carter

  Bad personas can make your skin crawl. The ones that offer no real insight into an audience and play make-believe with random facts are not useful in any context. Good personas theoretically inspire and guide innovation, but like any good story, it's difficult to create relatable characters. This session outlines a project where we developed five nameless personas for lynda.com.Our method uses no names, psychology, or broad habits. The philosopher Harry Frankfurt explained, "it is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction." We removed the things that didn't matter even if they were true from our personas. We communicated the major distinctions across the personas so lynda.com could immediately understand the lifetime value of their site to customers. In this session, we go over how we identified and eliminated the B.S. that creeps into personas, and how we made a video instead of the traditional paper approach.

  • Personas
  • User Experience

  At 12:30pm to 1:30pm, Monday 12th March

  In Ballroom BC, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage slide deck audio clip