Customer and user personas

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What this deliverable is

A persona is a fictional-but-research-grounded profile of one specific type of customer. It’s not a description of all your customers — it’s a focused portrait of one person who represents a segment of your audience.

Personas exist because it’s much easier to make creative decisions when you’re writing for a specific person than when you’re writing for “everyone.” Every good creative brief asks: “Who are we talking to?” A persona answers that question with enough specificity to actually be useful.

You’ll create at least three personas for the final project. At least one fully developed persona is due October 9. You finish the set in the research dossier, due October 30.

What goes in a persona

1. Name, photo, and basic demographics

Give the persona a real name. Give them a stock photo or illustrated avatar — something that makes them feel like a person. Include:

• Age
• Location
• Occupation
• Relationship/family status (if relevant)
• Income range (if relevant to your org)

This isn’t stereotyping — it’s narrowing. You’re not saying all your customers look like this. You’re saying this is one real person you’re designing for.

2. Bio

Two to four sentences that establish who this person is. Write it like you’d introduce them to someone.

Example:

Maya is a 27-year-old graduate student in Montclair State’s communication program. She moved to Montclair from North Jersey six months ago and is still building her social circle. She works part-time as a freelance social media coordinator for two small businesses, which means she tracks trends for a living and has strong opinions about content quality.

3. Typical day

Walk through their day — not every hour, but the relevant beats. Where are they? What devices are they on? What’s competing for their attention?

Example:

7:30 AM — Wakes up, scrolls Instagram in bed for 15 minutes before getting up.

9:00 AM — Heads to campus for a seminar. Grabs coffee from the dining hall because it’s convenient, not because she likes it.

12:30 PM — Finishes class, needs somewhere to work for the afternoon. Goes to the library, but it’s noisy. Considers a coffee shop but isn’t sure which ones have good WiFi and aren’t too loud.

3:00 PM — Starts her freelance work. Needs caffeine and a stable environment for two to three hours of focused output.

7:00 PM — Heads home. Checks Instagram again while making dinner, saves posts from brands she likes.

4. Goals

What are they trying to accomplish — both in their life generally, and in moments relevant to your organization?

Example:

• Finish her thesis while maintaining freelance income
• Find a neighborhood spot that feels like “her place” — she misses her old coffee shop from undergrad
• Get better at the design side of social media (she’s strong on copy, weaker on visuals)
• Build local professional connections before she graduates

5. Pain points

What frustrates them? What problems are they actively trying to solve?

Example:

• The dining hall coffee is terrible and she feels guilty about how much money she spends at Starbucks
• She can never tell from a café’s Instagram whether it’s actually a good place to work or just photogenic
• She wants to try new places but doesn’t like wasting time on a disappointing experience
• Her freelance clients often push back on content strategy — she wishes she had better frameworks to explain her decisions

6. How your organization serves them

Connect the persona back to your campaign. How does your org solve one or more of their pain points?

Example:

Grounds for Change has what Maya’s looking for — a work-friendly environment, high-quality coffee she can geek out about, and a staff that actually knows what they’re doing. But she doesn’t know it exists because our Instagram doesn’t communicate any of that. A campaign targeting Maya would lead with “the best place to get two hours of work done in Montclair” — not just pretty latte art.

7. Material conditions

The external structures that shape their life: income range, transportation (car, bus, on foot), childcare responsibilities, and work schedule flexibility. These limit what is possible for this person.

8. Digital habits

Not just “uses Instagram” but how they use it. What accounts do they follow? Do they read comments? Do they click links in bio? Where do they discover new things?

9. Sources

List two or three things you looked at to build this person, such as reviews, comments on the organization’s posts, a conversation, or your own observation.

The customer persona assignment is the checklist for what to submit.

What a finished persona looks like

Here’s a complete example:

Bio: Maya is finishing her first year of Montclair State’s strategic communications MA program. She moved from Hackensack six months ago and is still finding her footing in Montclair. She handles social media for a boutique clothing store and a local chiropractor — work that keeps her plugged into trends but doesn’t pay enough to live comfortably without watching her spending.

Material conditions: No car; walks or takes the bus. Works freelance hours around her class schedule, so her afternoons are flexible but her budget is not.

Daily rhythm: Long campus mornings, afternoon work blocks in coffee shops or the library, evenings at home. Heavy Instagram and TikTok user; checks Twitter/X occasionally for media industry news. Gets most product and place discoveries through social media.

Goals: Find a reliable afternoon work spot. Finish her thesis on time. Build a portfolio strong enough to get a full-time job before graduation. Feel more settled in Montclair.

Pain points: Can’t tell from Instagram whether a café is actually work-friendly. Starbucks is reliable but she feels like she’s losing something by going there. Limited budget means a bad café experience genuinely stings.

Our opportunity: Maya is exactly the customer we want — she’d come every afternoon and she’d talk about us online if she loved it. Right now she doesn’t know we exist. The barrier isn’t product quality. It’s discoverability and trust signals.

Sources: Google reviews that mention studying or working, comments on the café’s last 20 Instagram posts, and conversations with two graduate students.

How many personas?

The final project requires at least three: your core customer (the largest, most likely group), a potential customer (interested but unsure, or not yet aware of you), and a Hail Mary customer (unlikely, but worth testing your ideas against). Each one should be distinct — not slight variations of the same person. Think about different use cases, different motivations, different demographics.

For Grounds for Change, a second persona might be a commuting professional in their 40s who wants quick, excellent espresso before the 8:15 AM train — completely different needs, timing, and content triggers from Maya.

Common mistakes

• Personas based on assumptions, not research. If you haven’t talked to anyone or looked at actual reviews, engagement data, or observation notes, you’re writing fiction. Personas should be grounded in something real.
• Goals that are too abstract. “Wants to be successful” is not a goal. “Wants to finish her thesis before the April deadline so she can focus on the job search” is a goal.
• Pain points unconnected to your org. If the pain point has nothing to do with the problem your organization solves, it doesn’t belong in this persona. Stay focused.
• All personas being the same age. Push yourself to understand more than one type of customer. If all your personas are 22–25, you’ve probably missed someone.