Persona creation

Question

I'm currently in the process of identifying ‘trading’ personas (still in the assumption phase). People who are actively engaged in the trading industry. I've never actively steered persona creation and want to ensure that I'm on the right track.

I haven't yet had the chance to do any quantitative/qualitative research (1-on-1 interviews/data analysis), but wanted to come up/identify overarching themes/questions I would like to clarify for our personas, areas that I feel are worth investigating at this stage.

Below is a list of questions/areas I think are worth identifying. Is there anything that you feel is fundamentally missing and/or areas that you feel would be misleading/not needed?

I'm a bit out of my depth here and thought it's worth asking…

General areas to investigate

• General
• Age
• Gender
• Nationality
• Geolocation
• Children
• Occupation
• Highest education

Technology

• Connectivity (Low/Mid/High bandwidth)

Mobile systems

• iOS

• iPhone

• Android Other

Devices

• Mobile devices (iPhone/iPad/Samsung etc.)
• Mobile screen dimensions
• Laptop (Laptop screen dimensions)
• Desktop (Desktop screen dimensions)

Digital literacy/tech savviness

• Internet usage (Frequency)

Preferred browser

• Safari

• Firefox

• Chrome

• Internet Explorer

• Other

Literacy/Reading level

• Competent reader

• Struggle to read (Problems reading English etc.)

• Non-native reader

Channels

• Social channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.)
• Networks (Trading forums, meetups etc.)

Accessibility/Impairments

• Colour blindness
• Dyslexia
• Hard of hearing
• Vestibular disorders (Motion sickness) etc.

Domain knowledge

• Frequently visited websites (Financial news portal etc.)

Usage frequency

• How often do they use our product

• How often do they use competitor products

Interest

• Hobbies, general interests…

Goals/Wishes/Motivations

Context

Context of use

• When do you usually use our/competitors products? (At what time/s)
• Where do you use them? (Living room/office/bed…)
• What are you usually doing while using our/competitors product? (Reading/watching the news etc.)
• What makes the experience of using our/competitor product so enjoyable?

Common frustrations

• What do you like about product X? Why do you think that is?

• What do you don’t like about product X? Why do you think that is?

~~ (Potentially identified personality/trading types… not sure yet)

General personality type

• Mainstreamer (Part of the mass, not afraid of change as long as it’s safe). Often favouring big and well-known value for money. Aspirer (Striving for status and recognition.) Often younger, clerical/sales type occupation.
• Succeeder (Strong work ethic, well-defined goals. Brand choice based on reward, prestige – the very best . Usually attracted to ‘caring’ and protective brands … stress relief) Often in top management position.
• Resigned (Living the good, quite, traditional life – sticks to the safe and familiar. Brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and economy.) Often older.
• Explorer (Always taking the path not taken before. The first to try something new.) Often younger.
• Struggler (Always looking for escapes, no power to move in, disorganised, gambler. Brand choice involves impact and sensation.)
• Reformer (In constant personal growth, socially aware individual.) Often of higher education.

Trading personalities TBD (Not yet fully defined)

• Practical (Reliant of facts, numbers, specifics Present-oriented, concerned about problem at hand)

• Rational (Governed by rational reasoning Objective, cold, impersonal Logical analysis and objective methodologies to solve problems and make decisions)

• Intuition (Insightful and inspirational Relies on insights, theories, trends Future-orientated)

• Emotional (Governed by emotions and feelings Sympathetic Concerned Supportive of others Makes decisions and solves problems based on ‘gut feelings’, ‘values’, ‘good/bad’ etc.)

Answer 1

I'm surprised that you have already identified some potential persona personality types without having done any actual user interviews, first of all. Rule #1 of persona creation (I think it should be, anyway) is don't assume too much. You might be making too many assumptions here on all these different personality types. Don't even create categories like this without first doing the user research.

As for other question types to ask, I don't see anything here about context of use, i.e., their environment while interacting w/ the product(s). Inquire about that when doing the interviews and you might find some interesting info that can impact design decisions. Good luck.

Answer 2

So, going by Alan Cooper who basically was the first UX practitioner to talk about Personas, you should focus on their Goals, Motivations, Behaviors, Needs, Current Pain Points, and anything that comprises a human-being. It looks like you are mostly into the demographical details, which related more with Segmentation research, and not Persona research. Also, as people above already stated - you cannot just assume things. Personas should be based on user interviews, contextual inquiries, or any other large scale qualitative research. if you don't have the time or efforts to do so, start online. look for places you can find your target audience (e.g. FB Groups, forums, etc.) and start engaging with the community. good luck!

Answer 3

I find that understanding the typical day in this case, typical trading day, is useful. Before you draft questions for your interview, you could do some pre-research by learning about the workflow for a trader, both full-time and part-time traders. You can get info from instructions, how to become a trader (what knowledge/certification is required), job descriptions and job analysis... e.g. what does a full-time trader do during the trading day.