Revolutionizing Persona Creation: How ChatGPT is Changing the Game for Designers

Creating useful personas has been a popular practice in the design world for quite some time now. But, as with any popular practice, there are always some negative aspects that we need to be aware of.

One of the biggest issues with personas is that they can become too rigid and simplistic. Designers often create personas based on assumptions and stereotypes rather than actual research and data. This can lead to a narrow and biased view of the user, which ultimately harms the user experience.

This is where ChatGPT comes in. As a large language model trained by OpenAI, ChatGPT has the ability to generate realistic and nuanced personas based on real data and user insights. By using ChatGPT to create personas, designers can ensure that their personas are based on accurate and up-to-date information. Note: Always make sure to fact check the data thats used.

Here are seven prompts for more effective and actionable personas, lets use a National Hockey League (NHL) fan as an example:

1.Generate 4 detailed personas for NHL Hockey fans that are based on these 4 segments: Gen Z Gamer, Engaged Fan, Causal Fan, Avid Fan

2. For each persona create a table of entry points into NHL and their key channel touchpoints.

3. List pain points and challenges for each persona and put it in a table

4. Give the purchasing process for each persona

5. Create a user journey map for each persona, put it in a table

6. Give the level and interest in loyalty programs for each persona

However, even with the help of ChatGPT, personas still have their limitations. One of the biggest limitations is that they are still just a representation of a user and cannot fully capture the complexity of human behavior. This is where actor ecology maps come in.

Actor ecology maps are representations of the relationships between different actors in a system, including users, stakeholders, and external factors. By combining personas with actor ecology maps, designers can better understand the context in which their users operate and design more effective solutions that take into account the broader ecosystem.

7. Create an actor map for these personas, and add others as needed, Use the axis' Power and Knowledge to suggest actors with different power and knowledge, Arrange them according to their level of relative power and their knowledge about the issue, for each actor give a short description about their power and knowledge.

Bonus Prompt: "Now suggest relationship between actors in the actors map Assess the quality of the relationship by adding relationship types, functional or dysfunctional; strong or weak; unbalanced, oscillating or balanced; conflicting, broken, or ad hoc; informal or emergent etc. Support the suggestion with data"

But, just like personas, actor ecology maps also have their limitations. They can become too complex and difficult to understand, leading to confusion and frustration. It's important for designers to strike a balance between the level of detail in the map and its usefulness in informing design decisions.

While personas and actor ecology maps have their limitations, they can still be incredibly useful tools in designing experiences that meet the needs of users. By using ChatGPT to create more accurate and nuanced personas, and by combining them with actor ecology maps to understand the broader ecosystem, designers can create more effective solutions that have a positive impact on users and stakeholders alike.

Next up: The technique of "Context Stuffing" with ChatGPT to enable a full on interview conversation with your personas!