Unsucking Personas - A step-by-step Tutorial.

It’s no secret—I’m not a fan of traditional personas.

After speaking with colleagues, peers, and business owners, I’ve found that many share the same frustrations. Personas are often expensive, quickly become outdated, rely on assumptions, and are inherently static. You’ve probably encountered personas like “Tech-Savvy Tom” or “Busy Mom Betty”—overly simplified, one-dimensional caricatures that offer little real insight or actionable value. Despite the time and money invested, the return on these personas is often questionable.

At Dinghy, we’ve reimagined the persona process to address these common concerns. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through our step-by-step approach to creating personas that are dynamic, research-driven, and genuinely useful.

Starting with Secondary Research Link to this headline

At Dinghy , our persona creation process begins with a deep dive into secondary research. This is where we look at existing, peer-reviewed data, such as industry reports, market research, and academic papers.

Why start here? Because it’s critical to understand the broader landscape in which our clients' products or services exist. By tapping into this wealth of published insights, we identify key trends, behaviors, and market gaps.

This step is crucial because it forms the backbone of our personas, ensuring they are grounded in solid data. Starting with secondary research allows us to gain a framework for understanding how various factors—like economic conditions, market shifts, or psychological motivations—affect customer decisions. It’s about laying a data-driven foundation that helps us move beyond assumptions and ensures that the personas we create are not only insightful but relevant to the current market dynamics.

Literary Review Link to this headline

Next, we take a deeper step into the research phase by conducting a literary review. Here, we go beyond general market data and delve into the specific academic and professional literature that sheds light on the nuances of the audience we're targeting. This involves analyzing case studies, white papers, and academic research that explore similar markets, products, or user behaviors.

The goal of this step is twofold: first, to enrich our understanding of customer behavior using proven theories and models, and second, to provide a transparent, well-documented source of insights for future reference. A well-constructed literary review gives us a comprehensive summary of relevant findings, complete with citations. This means the product team can easily return to the original context of any specific persona attribute or insight. Moreover, it saves us from "reinventing the wheel" by allowing us to build upon already proven behavioral patterns and market strategies, ultimately making our personas both credible and insightful.

User Interviews Link to this headline

While secondary research and literature provide a solid theoretical framework, nothing beats talking directly to your audience. That’s why user interviews are at the heart of our persona-building process. Armed with insights from our research, we conduct in-depth interviews with real users to uncover their daily routines, challenges, goals, and motivations. These one-on-one conversations offer us a front-row seat to the real-world experiences of the people who matter most—your customers.

During these interviews, we dig deep. We ask not just what products users engage with, but why they choose them, how those products fit into their daily lives, and what challenges they’re trying to overcome. It’s in these interviews that we capture the subtleties that no amount of secondary research can reveal. We’re able to identify pain points, desires, and the emotional drivers behind purchasing decisions. This stage also acts as a validation process, allowing us to test and confirm the insights gathered from the secondary research and literary review, making sure we are on the right track.

Designing Interactive Personas Link to this headline

Once we’ve gathered a wealth of data, the next step is to transform it into interactive personas that not only provide insights but also engage your team. At Dinghy, we believe personas shouldn’t just be static documents or slide decks that gather dust. Instead, we design them to be dynamic and interactive, allowing teams to explore the persona’s world in a much more immersive way.

Our interactive personas are more than just a summary of who your audience is. They show how we arrived at each insight. For example, if you want to trace back a particular behavior, you can click on the related data point and see whether it came from a user interview, a market report, or a case study. This transparency ensures that everyone—from marketing to product development—fully understands the rationale behind each persona. It eliminates ambiguity and promotes confidence in the decision-making process.

Moreover, these personas aren’t just lists of traits. They map out the customer journey in rich detail. Teams can explore their target audience’s daily lives, emotional triggers, and decision-making processes. By interacting with these personas, you get to see not just who your customers are, but how they think, what motivates them, and where your product fits into their narrative.

The Power of Interactive Personas Link to this headline

What truly sets our approach apart is how we bring personas to life. Traditional personas often feel like one-dimensional caricatures—“Tech-Savvy Tom” or “Busy Mom Betty”—that do little more than list demographic details. At Dinghy, we turn this approach on its head. Our interactive personas allow your team to step into the shoes of your customer, offering a window into their emotional and psychological landscape.

By making personas dynamic, we allow your teams to stay engaged with them long after the initial presentation. Whether it’s marketing fine-tuning their messaging or product development prioritizing features, our personas keep everyone aligned and focused on the user. They’re designed to foster empathy, helping your team understand not just what your customers want, but why they want it and how your product can meet those needs.

This immersive, empathy-driven approach ensures that your personas are not just theoretical constructs but practical tools that can guide real, actionable strategies across the organization.

Conclusion Link to this headline

Dinghy’s approach to persona creation is different because we address the core issues that make traditional personas fail. We start with in-depth research, build on a solid literary review, and validate insights through direct user engagement. Most importantly, we turn those insights into interactive personas that bring the customer’s world to life.

With Dinghy’s interactive, research-driven personas, you get more than just a static profile—you gain a deep understanding of your audience that helps your team make smarter, more informed decisions. Whether it’s marketing, product design, or customer success, these personas serve as living, breathing guides that keep everyone aligned and focused on the people who matter most: your customers.