This document discusses building contextual personas through scenario planning. It begins with an overview of traditional personas and their limitations, specifically that they lack product context. The document then introduces scenario planning and strategic foresight as tools to address this limitation. It demonstrates how to identify critical uncertainties and develop user types through a sample scenario planning exercise for a VP tasked with refreshing Canadian Tire's digital channels. The document addresses common questions around contextual personas and emphasizes the importance of user research and understanding users' needs.

1. Jesse Emmanuel Rosario @jemrosario
Building Contextual PersonasThrough Scenario Planning

2. PodCampToronto 2016 | February 20-21, 2016
• User Experience Specialist,
Analy3cal Engine Interac3ve, Inc.
(Toronto, ON)
About Me
@jemrosario
#PCTO16

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F A C T:
Personas are great!

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From Freepik
(http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/variety-of-human-avatars_766615.htm)
user
research
Ellen
• 45 years old
• Mother of two
• Proud tech adopter
• Pays for her coffee
exclusively from her
mobile device

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A Sample Persona
(courtesy Nielsen Norman Group)

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#PersonaProblems
• “Too good to be true” syndrome:
Clients/stakeholders quibbling about the details
(and veracity) of the persona.
• Personas are either so fake (i.e. based on
assump3ons or zero user research) or spiked
with the wrong data.

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This is
great!
So
exciting!
This app will be the
app to end all apps!
Acme, Inc.
can kiss my
hands!

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Four weeks and a persona later…
“That’s my target user?”
“Amazing Amy really does this?”
“Fastidious Frank sounds like a pain!”
“I don’t want Meandering Millie near my cool
app…. she’ll break it!”
“Cool story, bro. Still feels fake to me!”

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The typical
Canadian
family!
Joe Oliver, PC
Former Finance Minister
“'Henry and Cathy,' with 'two active kids' are one of the typical Canadian families featured in the Conservative government's
messaging around the 2015 federal budget, also known as the Economic Action Plan. (budget.gc.ca)” – CBC News

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From CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/typical-family-in-federal-budget-not-so-typical-critics-1.3051011)

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"If you look at the typical Canadian, the typical
family that a Canadian lives in, then $120,000 —
that puts you in the upper 15 per cent of
Canadian families," says Miles Corak, an
economist at the University of OXawa.
"The Conserva3ves' imaginary 'typical family'
doesn't reflect the reality of Canadian families:
they make almost twice as much as the real
average Canadian family,"
- former NDP Finance Cri3c Nathan Cullen.

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“Are you for real? As in really, real ‘REAL’?!?”!
a.k.a. the Credibility QuesGon directed towards tradi3onal personas

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P R O B L E M
Traditional personas
lack the product
context needed to
build digital products
that users want and
generate business.
How do we solve this?

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SCENARIO
PLANNING
A strategic
foresighting tool

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STRATEGIC
FORESIGHT
“A systematic approach to
gathering intelligence about
possible futures and building
shared visions, aimed at guiding
and enabling present-day
decisions”
- GregVan Alstyne
Co-Founding Director, Strategic Innovation Lab
OCAD University

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CRITICAL
UNCERTAINTY
“Drivers of change with high
potential impact, which, at the
same time are very difficult to
call”
– 2020 Media Futures Report
OCAD University
Strategic Innovation Lab

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Let’s take scenario
planning for a spin!
(a.k.a. Let’s build your first contextual persona)

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Try it!
!
You are a newly hiredVP Digital at
Canadian Tire and have been tasked to
refresh the company’s digital channels for a
millennial crowd.

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“Millennials cool to older brands”
Metro News (February 16, 2016)
“Old-stock companies aren’t winning the favour of the
‘Net<lix and chill’ generation, according to an
Ipsos-Institute of Communication Agencies survey of the most
in<luential brands in Canada in 2015. […]
Millennials were also much less likely to hold Canadian Tire in
high esteem. The company founded in 1922 by the Billes
brothers in Toronto was the seventh-most in,luential
among boomers, but a distant 51st among millennials.”

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• What’s a cri3cal uncertainty again?
Find your Critical Uncertainties
What is the
most hard-
hitting/crucial
factor facing the
business that
could impact
their future?
What is the
most uncertain/
volatile factor
facing the
business?

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• What’s a cri3cal uncertainty again (WRT contextual personas)?
Find your Critical Uncertainties
What is the
most hard-
hitting/crucial
factor about your
users that could
affect the product/
service’s creation?
What is the
most uncertain/
volatile factor
surrounding your
users?

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• How do we do that?
– User research (user interviews, primary and
secondary research, analy3cs research, surveys,
ethnography, contextual inquiry, etc.)
– Synthesize the raw data
• Affinity mapping
• The Five Whys (a.k.a. root cause analysis)
Find your Critical Uncertainties

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Don’t be that guy (or girl)!

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• Iden3fy the criGcal and the uncertain.
Find your Critical Uncertainties
CRITICAL:
Brand perception
(e.g. “How is the
Canadian Tire brand
perceived among
millennials?”)
UNCERTAIN:
Engagement with
brands over digital
media (i.e. social
media, etc.)

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HIGH REGARD
LOW REGARD
DISENGAGED
(e.g. apathetic)
HIGHLY
ENGAGED
(e.g. outspoken)
CRITICAL:
Brand perception
(e.g. “How is the
Canadian Tire brand
perceived among
millennials?”
UNCERTAIN:
Engagement
with brands over
digital media (i.e.
social media,
etc.)
The
Silent
Fan
The
Spokes-
person
The
Pessi-
mist
The
Loud
CriGc

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HIGH REGARD
LOW REGARD
DISENGAGED
(e.g. apathetic)
HIGHLY
ENGAGED
(e.g. outspoken)
The
Silent
Fan
The
Spokes-
person
The
Pessi-
mist
The
Loud
CriGc
RESULT:
User
types
• Personas
• User Story
Mapping
• Customer
Journey Maps,
etc.

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Some common
quesGons, concerns,
objecGons, etc.
(a.k.a. YA RLY…)

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#SameOldLove
“How are contextual personas any different
from traditional persona development?”!
!
• Principal benefit: Contextual personas situate your product
alongside your business’ and your users’ context before
delivering the first line of code (or beyond).
– Provide hints on your users’ possible rela3onship with your product/
service, which is key during the Discovery phase.
– Delivers the best of both worlds:
Behavioural Insight + Product Context (through cri3cal uncertain3es).

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• CASE STUDY: The
Canadian Jewish News
Contextual Personas
• Answered:
– Who are our users?
– What kind of content
maXers to them?
– What type of rela3onship
could they have with the
product being built.
#SameOldLove
“Foot in
both
worlds”
“The
Ac3vist”
“The
Downtown
Jew”
“Holis3cally
Jewish”
Younger, Proac3ve
Older, Reac3ve
Less
Religious
Highly
Religious

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Critical vs. Uncertain
“ ‘Critical’ and ‘Uncertain’ aren’t so clear cut. !
A critical factor may just be as uncertain as the
other. How do you solve this?”!
!
• In theory, criGcal and uncertain factors may seem dis3nct.
In reality, they’re omen close and so related.

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• Keep calm and open your mind.
• Identify more critical uncertainties,
and then pair them.
• It’s okay to miss it. Some pairings
may not make sense; try again.
• PRO TIP: Involve your client!
The Design Squiggle (by Daniel Newman)

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#StupidUsers
Why bother?
Users are stupid…
Life’s too short to cater
to a dimwit, anyway...

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#StupidUsers
Ask yourself,
“What if you launch your
product and nobody
buys it?”
– ScoX Hurff,
Designing Products People Love
(O’Reilly, 2015)

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#StupidUsers
Ego-First Development:
“The core problem with so many
businesses is that they’re based on
what the business owner wants…
They’re fantasizing about being the
hero: ‘I’m going to ride in on my
white ‘somware’ horse, and save
these poor people”
– Amy Hoy,
“Why It’s Not About You”
Episode 52, Product People podcast

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#StupidUsers
“Concoc3ng a product idea is really an
act of listening. And without
knowing who you’re serving and
what they need, building product is
simply another form of op3mis3c
specula3on.”
– ScoX Hurff,
Designing Products People Love
(O’Reilly, 2015)

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• Contextual Personas =
Behavioural Insights + Product Context.
• Glimpses poten3al usage scenarios given user goals, mo3va3ons,
and product context.
• Driven by user research, this 3me with a view towards the cri3cal
and the uncertain.
• Covers much more ground cri3cal to achieving problem-solu3on fit.
• Funnels nicely into agile user stories, user story mapping, customer
journey maps, etc.
In Conclusion

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R E M E M B E R
“Life’s too short !
to build something nobody wants”. !
Build “what’s worth doing” !
so you can deliver digital products
that your users love.!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ash Maurya (author, Running Lean), Joe Natoli (author, Think First),
and Scott Hurff (author, Designing Products People Love) for the quotable quotes!

38. Jesse Emmanuel Rosario @jemrosario
Building Contextual PersonasThrough Scenario Planning
Thank
you! :-)