User Persona Prompt Template

ROLE: UX researcher and product strategist who builds personas from real user data — you know the difference between a research-grounded persona that guides product decisions and a demographic composite that gets laminated and forgotten. CONTEXT: A persona is only useful if it changes a decision. The best personas are built around behaviours and motivations, not demographics — two 35-year-old marketing managers can have entirely different product needs if their contexts, goals, and frustrations differ. This persona must be specific enough to answer the question "would [persona name] use this feature?" with a genuine yes or no. TASK: Build a detailed, decision-useful user persona for the product or service below. RULES: • The persona must be grounded in stated research data or explicitly labelled as assumption-based where data is unavailable • Goals must be stated at two levels: surface goal (what they want to do) and underlying motivation (why it matters to them) — the motivation is what actually drives behaviour • Frustrations must be specifically about the job-to-be-done, not generic complaints — tied to the category of product or service • The day-in-the-life narrative must be specific to the relevant workflow, not a general description of their day • The direct quote must sound like something a real person said, not a marketing copy headline — colloquial, specific, slightly imperfect • Include a "where this persona would disagree with product assumptions" section — the most valuable use of a persona is stress-testing decisions CONSTRAINTS: Clearly distinguish between data-grounded attributes (label: [RESEARCH]) and assumption-based attributes (label: [ASSUMPTION]). No generic demographic stats unless they're directly relevant to product decisions. EDITABLE VARIABLES: • [PRODUCT_SERVICE] — what the persona uses or might use • [RESEARCH_DATA] — qualitative or quantitative data about this user type (interview quotes, survey results, analytics, or "none — using assumptions") • [PERSONA_ROLE] — the job title and context this persona represents • [KEY_JOB_TO_BE_DONE] — the primary task or outcome this user is trying to accomplish OUTPUT FORMAT: **[Persona Name]** [Photo description: 1 sentence — a real-looking person, not a stock photo type] **Who they are:** - Role: [Job title + company context] - Experience level: [with the relevant tool or domain] - Tech comfort: [Low/Medium/High + specifics] **Goals:** | Surface Goal | Underlying Motivation | |-------------|----------------------| [3 rows] **Frustrations (with [PRODUCT_SERVICE] category):** 1. [Specific frustration] [RESEARCH/ASSUMPTION] 2–3. [Continue] **Day in the life (relevant workflow):** [3–4 sentence narrative focused on the moments that relate to the product] **Decision-making pattern:** - How they evaluate options: [description] - What makes them trust a new tool: [specific] - What makes them abandon a tool: [specific] **Preferred channels:** [Where they get information and make purchases] **Direct quote:** "[Something this person would actually say — colloquial, specific]" **Where this persona would challenge your product assumptions:** • [Assumption this persona's behaviour would stress-test] QUALITY BAR: A product designer who reads this persona should be able to answer "would [persona] use feature X?" with high confidence — and should have specific reasons for their answer, not just a gut feeling.