proto-persona

Proto-Persona

Overview

Proto-personas are lightweight, hypothesis-driven user profiles built from what you already know — before investing in formal research. They align the team around who you're building for, surface assumptions, and create a shared target to validate (or disprove) through real research.

When to Use

• Starting a new product or feature with limited user research
• Aligning a cross-functional team on target users
• Identifying assumptions to validate in upcoming research
• Quick stakeholder alignment without a full research project
• Don't use for: already-well-understood user segments, regulatory/compliance contexts requiring validated research

Instructions

1. Identify Segments

Brainstorm 2-4 distinct user types for your product area. Ask:

• Who uses this product or could use it?
• What different jobs are they trying to accomplish?
• What makes them behave differently?

Each segment should have distinct goals, behaviors, or contexts.

2. Build the Proto-Persona Canvas

For each segment, fill out:

## [Name/Archetype]

**Tagline**: One-liner capturing their relationship to your product

**Demographics** (hypothesized):
- Role, experience level, company size, industry

**Goals & Motivations**:
- What are they trying to achieve?
- What success looks like to them

**Pain Points**:
- What frustrates them about current solutions?
- What workarounds do they use?

**Behaviors**:
- How do they currently solve the problem?
- What tools do they use?
- What triggers their behavior?

**Needs from your product**:
- What would make their life better?

**Assumptions** (critical!):
- List 3-5 things you're assuming about this persona
- Mark which are most uncertain

3. Map Assumptions

For each persona, write down:

• Confident assumptions — things you're fairly sure about (backed by some evidence)
• Uncertain assumptions — things you're guessing (need validation)
• Rate each assumption: 🟢 confident / 🟡 some doubt / 🔴 pure guess