Proto-persona
Also known as Provisional persona, Assumption persona
A proto-persona is a provisional customer profile built from a team's existing assumptions and knowledge, used as a starting point before primary research is done.
When should you use a proto-persona?
Proto-personas are a good first move when you have little or no research budget yet, or need to align a team quickly. They surface what everyone already believes about the customer, so those beliefs can be tested rather than silently assumed.
What is the risk of proto-personas?
They are guesses. The danger is treating a proto-persona as fact and building a roadmap on it. The point is to replace assumptions with evidence over time, promoting it into a research-based persona.
How do you turn a proto-persona into a real persona?
Connect it to actual customer signal: interviews, support tickets, sales calls and surveys. As evidence accumulates, confirm, correct or drop each assumption until the profile reflects reality.
Proto-persona, in brief
- What is a proto-persona?
- A proto-persona is a provisional customer profile built from a team's assumptions and existing knowledge, used to align quickly and as a starting point before primary research replaces the guesses with evidence.
- What is the difference between a proto-persona and a persona?
- A proto-persona is based on assumptions; a customer persona is based on research. The goal is to graduate the former into the latter as evidence arrives.
Put the theory to work.
Corha turns your calls, tickets and surveys into living personas and evidence-backed insights, so these ideas become part of how your team works, not just definitions.