Persona
A persona is a fictional but research-grounded archetype of a target user, used in product design and marketing to align teams on who they're building for and why.
In depth
Personas were popularized by Alan Cooper in the 1990s and remain a foundational design artifact. A typical persona includes demographics, goals, motivations, frustrations, behaviors, and a quote that captures the archetype's voice.
Personas should be built from real research (interviews, surveys, analytics) — fabricated personas can do more harm than good. Most teams need 3–7 personas; more than that and they stop being memorable.
OpenCharts ships persona templates on the whiteboard with structured fields for demographics, goals, frustrations, and quotes, plus AI-assisted draft generation from interview notes.
Also known as
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Use a persona templateRelated terms
Customer journey map
A customer journey map is a visual diagram that depicts a customer's interactions with a product or service over time, including their actions, thoughts, emotions, and pain points at each stage.
User flow
A user flow is a diagram that maps the steps a user takes through a product or service to accomplish a specific goal, including screens, actions, and decision points.
Wireframe
A wireframe is a low-fidelity sketch of a digital interface that shows layout, structure, and content placement, intentionally stripped of color, typography, and visual polish.