How To Craft Research That Resonates With Real People

The secret powers of “personas”

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Here's a question that keeps many researchers up at night: Why do some research projects generate rich, meaningful insights while others struggle to get participants engaged or yield shallow, generic data?

It would be easy to assume that it’s just luck of the draw - some research topics are naturally more interesting than others, right? But after delivering hundreds of projects, I have come to realise that the difference often isn't in the topics themselves, but in how well the research connects with participants as individuals.

The projects that generate deep, actionable insights aren't necessarily better designed or more professionally executed. They're designed with specific people in mind. The researchers behind them understand that their "typical participant" is actually a myth and and they have learned to design for the real, diverse individuals they are trying to reach.

In this context, the most common (but also easiest to misunderstand) tool is personas. Personas - detailed profiles of your key audience segments - can help you tailor your research to its audience, in such a way that questions will feel like they have been handcrafted for them.

However, many researchers either skip personas entirely or create superficial profiles that miss the point. Today, I want to show you how to use personas strategically to improve your research outcomes independently of the method you choose.

What Makes a Persona Effective

A persona is a profile of a fictional individual that represents a key customer, client or user type. Personas summarise the key features of your audience, but they are not intended to stereotype or oversimplify real human experiences. They are - quite the opposite - meant to build empathy and understanding.

A well-developed persona typically covers a mix of these topics:

• Demographics (age, gender, occupation, income level)

• Behaviours (shopping habits, technology usage, preferred channels)

• Goals and motivations (what they want to achieve)

• Pain points and challenges (what frustrates them)

• Typical scenarios (things that the persona does or situations they might experience in relation with your target products/services)

The mix of the above aspects that you should include (and the depth of each in your personas) should be tailored to your research, and you can of course add to these as required.

Either way, once your research is live, remember that personas are mainly conversation starters and design guidance: the key is remaining flexible and responsive to each actual participant's individual situation.

Brief Personas vs. Detailed Personas

The level of detail in your personas can vary depending on your needs and context. Brief persona snippets work well for quick discussions and workshop activities where the goal is to quickly establish relatable situations that participants can immediately grasp.

For example, you might introduce these very brief profiles as the basis for exercises in a workshop where participants are trying to improve a retail shopping experience:

• "A busy parent trying to purchase a new device while managing four children" (suggests someone with limited time who needs a quick buying experience)

• "A recent graduate browsing the online store while visiting the shop" (represents digitally native participants used to blended shopping experiences)

• "A small business owner with pressure on their budget and growing responsibilities" (suggests someone who values their time highly and wants to clearly understand the benefits of their purchases)

These brief personas help make exercises more concrete and relatable, as they move beyond generic "users" to specific types of people with distinct needs and behaviours.

However, personas are often used as part of research design, so as a tool for you rather than for participants who only have limited time to grasp them. Personas used for research design are longer and more detailed, reflecting the fact that they have to provide insight into real people rather than just a ‘flavour’ like the bullets above.

Here's what a full persona profile might look like (button below!). The profile is based on a hypothetical scenario in which your project is investigating people’s choices when it comes to getting a pet.

Such a detailed profile can help you understand not only someone’s pet preferences, but how their demographics, behaviours, goals, pain points and typical interactions all influence their decision-making process and research participation patterns.

Note that typically you would have 3-5 personas (give or take), to make sure that you can compare and contrast a sufficiently broad range of target individuals in your work. The key is making sure you don’t create too small (i.e. missing out on relevant profiles) or too big a number (i.e. overwhelming yourself with too much detail). Most often, it’s helpful to speak with one or two experts in your target area (e.g. pets, as above), to validate your hypotheses before you get started.

How Personas Inform Research Design

Once you have well-developed personas, they will help you improve research design decisions across any methods. Here are some considerations across survey design, interview planning and the delivery of group sessions, based on what you could infer from Alex’s persona above (to fully grasp the narrative that follows, do take a look at the persona example first!).

Survey Design

Personas can help you explore how different audience segments will interpret and respond to questions. Alex's persona tells us they value practical information and prefer straightforward communication. This might lead you to:

• Use concrete examples rather than abstract concepts when asking about pet preferences

• Structure questions around real scenarios and contexts they can relate to

• Include options that acknowledge busy lifestyles and practical constraints

• Offer "not sure yet" responses for people still in decision-making phases

Interview Planning

Different personas thrive in different interview formats. Alex might prefer structured conversations that don’t take too much time, but would welcome the opportunity to explore decision-making factors in some depth. They might respond well to:

• Scenarios that explore trade-offs between competing priorities

• Questioning approaches that help develop informed and responsible decisions

• Clear explanations of how their insights will help others in similar situations

Group Sessions and Workshops

Personas help you plan for expected group dynamics and design activities accordingly. Alex might engage well in groups with other working professionals facing similar pet ownership decisions. You might:

• Group participants by lifestyle factors rather than just demographics

• Design activities that explore practical constraints and solutions

• Structure discussions around shared experiences of balancing work and personal commitments in the context of pet ownership

Timing and Context

Personas also help you understand when and how to engage different audience segments. Alex's persona reveals they're a thoughtful researcher who needs flexibility due to travel. This insight might lead you to:

• Offer multiple participation options (online, phone, in-person)

• Provide research materials in advance for review

• Recognise that their decision-making process may be ongoing rather than completed

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Let’s start with the basic principle: make sure you consider personas in most projects, unless there are very obvious reasons why this would not be necessary.

Then, if you have decided that personas will be appropriate as part of your work, I recommend you avoid these mistakes:

Mistake 1: Making personas too generic. "John is a 35-year-old manager who values efficiency" doesn't help you design better research. You need to include specific details, for example about John might think, communicate and make decisions.

Mistake 2: Focusing only on demographics. Age and income matter less than understanding how someone processes information, what builds their trust and what motivates their participation.

Mistake 3: Creating too many personas. Three to five personas usually provide sufficient insight without making research design unwieldy. More personas are more likely to create complexity without proportional benefit.

Mistake 4: Making personas unrealistically positive. Include realistic challenges and concerns. A persona might be thoughtful and experienced, but they might also be anxious about technology, concerned about privacy or skeptical of how her input will be used.

Mistake 5: Treating personas as rigid rules. Remember that real participants are unique individuals who may share some characteristics with personas but will always have their own distinct preferences and needs. It is especially important to ensure that personas are culturally sensitive.

Moving Forward

The beauty of personas is their versatility across research methods. Whether you're designing surveys, planning interviews or facilitating a workshop, the same personas can help you:

• Choose appropriate approaches or communication styles for different audience segments

• Anticipate potential barriers and plan solutions in advance

• Design activities and questions that resonate with different thinking styles

• Create inclusive environments where all participants can contribute effectively

I am sure that you could easily think about a number of services or products that you might have tried and felt ‘Uhm… this is not for me’. That’s likely to be because they were made for users with other characteristics in mind. After all, you wouldn’t buy a fishing rod if you didn’t intend to go fishing, or wouldn’t sign up to Instagram if you found image sharing terribly boring.

I can tell you that, personally, I’m not a big fan of watching videos online: I find this to be rather stressful, as videos often take too long to get to the point, and much prefer reading content. This is obviously not criticism of the enormous number of people who watch YouTube videos - it just shows that my persona is definitely not part of the most likely users of video sharing platforms.

What platforms or products have you found most difficult to engage with, and why? Share your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll explore whether their targeting (and, as a result, personas) might be part of the explanation!

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I'm Andrea, a management consultant with over a decade of experience across industry and academia. I work with commercial, non-profit, academic and government organisations worldwide, helping them capture meaningful insights through mixed methods research.

I write about practical frameworks to help you discover what others miss. My main goal is to translate complex concepts into techniques that readers can use immediately.