SAMPLE AUDIENCE PERSONAS

This is Jane and she enjoys raising awareness about the Axe FX guitar processor (used by musicians to create different guitar sounds.)

CAPABILITIES:

• Raising awareness about products and services.
• Online promotion across social media, content, and beyond.
• Producing content such as blog posts, fact sheets, marketing materials, and more.
• Coming up with creative ideas to raise awareness of the community.

EXPERIENCE:

• Hands on experience of the Axe FX, features, and capabilities.
• Experience of being in a band and the needs of recording and gigging guitarists.
• Experience of the Axe FX community, the company behind it (Fractal Audio Systems) and key staff members.

MOTIVATIONS:

• Connecting to and engaging with other guitarists (and getting them excited about new products.)
• Recognition by the Axe FX community.
• Recognition by Fractal Audio Systems.
• Seeing their content and material consumed and used.

FEARS:

• Failure in their work.
• Lack of experience of expertise.
• Doing work that generates a negative result (such as low quality work.)
• Frustrating other community members.

REWARDS:

• Recognition by the community and Fractal Audio Systems.
• Guitar equipment and digital content (such as guitar presets/packs.)
• Meeting artists and musicians who use the Axe FX.
• Meeting other community members in person.
• Going to gigs and shows.

This is Shia and he contributes to the GNOME open source project (which produces an open source desktop environment.)

CAPABILITIES:

• Creating desktop applications.
• Creating and participating in open source projects.
• User interface design.

EXPERIENCE:

• Development experience with GNOME technologies (Python, GTK, Glib.)
• Familiarity with engineering tools (GitHub)
• Experience using community communication channels (mailing lists, wikis.)

MOTIVATIONS:

• Producing software that other people use and enjoy.
• Adding to a growing collection of desktop applications.
• Working together with other developers on fun and interesting projects.
• Creating technology that is freely available to use.

FEARS:

• Writing bad code that breaks a system.
• Being labeled a ‘poor quality developer’.
• Lack of experience of a particicular engineering component.
• Taking on too projects that are too big and he runs out of time.

REWARDS:

• His code being recognized and enjoyed by users.
• Recognition in blog posts, social media, and elsewhere.
• Attending and speaking at the annual GNOME conference.

Jayor is an application developer who builds apps for Divos (a fictional fitness platform for wearables). They want to build apps easily and get a lot of usage and recogition.

CAPABILITIES:

• Experience building wellness apps (potentially for other platforms.)
• Expertise in the science behind key wellness algorithms.

EXPERIENCE:

• Ideally, programming experience in the Divos platform, but experience in other platforms is likely too.
• Expertise in building apps for devices.

MOTIVATIONS:

• Seeing their app shipping on the platform.
• Seeing their app getting positive reviews and recommendations.
• Making money.
• Press awareness of the app.

FEARS:

• Investing time in an app that isn’t successful.
• That the Divos platform may be slow and cumbersome.
• Writing code that breaks a user’s device.
• Divos changing their monetization approach and the app developer losing money.

REWARDS:

• Financial rewards.
• Recognition.
• Promotion of the app.
• Event participation perks.
• Swag.

This is Riya and she enjoys solving problems in the Acme Platform community (you guess right; this is a fake example.)

CAPABILITIES:

• Deep knowledge of the product.
• Experience of the product in a variety of scenarios and configurations.
• Effective problem-solver. Has experience solving other people’s problems.
• Good communicator and able  to provide guidance easily in written form.

EXPERIENCE:

• Familiar with online and community support.
• Product experience will be variable, but fairly experienced in using it to solve practical problems (not a newbie.)
• Some limited experience in online communities.

MOTIVATIONS:

• Product discounts.
• Exclusive access to early features or unique material, content, or experiences
• Helping people.
• Recognition in the community.
• Broader awareness of her business.

FEARS:

• Providing inaccurate information.
• Providing answers that may cause problems or break something.
• Imposter syndrome (fear that you may not be as talented as other people think you are.)

REWARDS:

• Swag.
• Financial (e.g. gift cards.)
• Recognition and validation of her contributions.

This is Miguel and he enjoys coordinating events, conferences, and meetups for the Acme Platform community.

CAPABILITIES:

• Coordinating and running events.
• Putting together content, speakers, and other material for an event.
• Working with venue, food/beverage, and other vendors.
• Handling and working with sponsors and sponsorship funds.

EXPERIENCE:

• Has run a number of small local meetups.
• Was a volunteer for a local conference.

MOTIVATIONS:

• Loves to bring people together.
• Enjoys face-to-face engagement and in-person discussion.
• Enjoys working with knowledgeable and notable speakers and sponsors.
• Enjoys being in the lmelight when running the event.

FEARS:

• That no one will show up.
• That speakers are not interested in speaking at his events.
• That he embarrasses himself and the community with a poorly run event.
• That an event loses money (not covering costs.)

REWARDS:

• Acknowledgement of running great events.
• Building career experience and edxpertise.
• Appreciation at the end of an event for putting it together.
• Awards and recognition.