What is a persona?

According to the NN Group, a persona is a fictional yet realistic description of a typical or target user of the product. A persona doesn't represent a living human being but should be described as a real individual.^[1]

A persona synthesizes observations of the target audience gained from real-life interviews, field studies, focus groups, card sorting, and other user research methods. It includes details about user needs, beliefs, pain points, and goals and may also contain background information such as age, gender, behaviors, and occupation if necessary.

Personas enable designers to focus on manageable archetypes and create more personalized products rather than build a generic product that attempts to please everyone.