
Summary: Personas have very practical value, not only as tools to unify organizational understanding of the end-user, but also as specific instruments to make your designs more precise. An important ultimate step in your persona research will be to translate user data into design requirements. Since design personas are representations of end-user or customer behavior, it is important to capture and continuously transfer user needs to the design team throughout the design phase.
In our experience, the design phase is usually where the most difficult decisions are made with regard to the intended user experience, and the one that actually results. Good persona research will help prioritize and manage constraints that are beyond the design, such as technology legacy issues that exist in large organizations.
The following 5 steps will help ensure your personas help by-pass organizational obstacles and transfer in-tact to your design outcomes: