They did it again. A perfect little soundbyte to forever change my design perspective on the purpose and value of user personas.
“Creating personas is not the goal. Personas are merely a good repository of user research that aids in communicating those insights.”
I've been searching for a better way to describe the idea and importance of Outcomes > Outputs to those used to the traditional delivery model of making stuff that somebody thinks is a good idea, slapping a due date on it, and hope it all works out. And by that, I mean most everyone. No, I’m not feeling cynical today. Why do you ask?
It’s quite a world changing concept when you think about it, and it doesn’t just apply to the things we’re making. If we rewrite roles and responsibilities with an outcome-centred lens rather than talking about the tools or processes we use to get our jobs done, it feels… different? Intriguing. Compelling. Inspiring.
Being able to grill and serve five burgers per minute shouldn’t be the goal. Satisfying more people’s hunger cravings as quickly as possible is what turns them into repeat fast food customers.
Capturing user stories isn't a goal; successfully communicating problems to our team is.
Tracking sprint velocity isn't a goal; confidently being able to plan and estimate work to meet deadlines is..
Running an ideation workshop isn't a goal; collaboratively understanding what ideas are worth further development and testing is.
Making a product isn't a goal, but reducing someone’s time, effort, or pain so they can better focus those energies elsewhere is—this is what makes them OK to part with their money
It's recognising that what we do and what we use are not the target outcomes to aim for (or boast about). If your journey map, user persona, customer research, or released solution didn’t fundamentally change how people do what they do, does it really matter that you did it?
This is like the designer’s version of asking if a tree fell in the woods and nobody was around to hear it, did it make a sound? Find the root cause of why you're doing the work you do, and reframe how you recognise it's value.
Empty picture frame (image courtesy of Marco Verch, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)