Note: this article is a work in progress.
Not as dramatic as Nietzsche’s exclamation of “God is Dead” but I would like to declare the way we have developed personas over the last 25 years, dead, well at least broken.
My first encounter with the concept of personas came in the early 90s, embedded in creative briefs. It was a tool to summarise users or target audiences, a very shorthanded way of understanding who the creative work was meant to resonate with. Then came the digital revolution, and with it, a renewed interest in personas. The digital world thought it was clever, rediscovering and repackaging an old idea. But personas, as they were used, often came with inherent flaws:
- Frequently developed in the absence of meaningful data.
- More of a guess—a guesstimate by an account manager or client—than a reflection of reality.
- Narrow and singular in focus: e.g., “Glenda, Female, 30s, drives a Mazda.”
- Rife with racism and stereotyping.
- Lacking or assuming empathy or emotional depth, assuming “pain points” without understanding lived experiences.
- Most significantly for me, they failed to account for the dynamics of time, space, and the richness of lived experience.
Despite these shortcomings, I have continued to use personas in my work. Something, after all, is often better than nothing. But my personas have evolved. They are never singular; they are rooted in the concept of “micro moments” or “lived experience potentials”. Even so, this approach remains a stopgap, still shackled to a Western Cartesian and linear way of thinking.
A Departure from Western Worldview
What if we disrupted Cartesian methods? What if we introduced concepts of time and space, not as linear constructs but as interconnected and dynamic forces? What if we abandoned the rigidity of Western phenomenological perception to embrace a worldview that acknowledges lived experience as cumulative and evolving?
This is where I’ve found inspiration in the concept of song spirals—an Indigenous way of knowing that offers profound insights into time, place, and the interconnectedness of life. Song spirals are not static or linear. I’m far from an expert here (being white/male of colonist heritage). They layer experience and knowledge, building upon themselves over time. They reflect a relationship with the world that is dynamic, alive, and deeply rooted in lived experience.
What If…
- We disrupt Cartesian methods. Instead of starting with rigid definitions and assumptions, we approach understanding audiences as dynamic and evolving.
- We consider time and space as fluid. Lived experience doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It’s shaped by temporal and spatial contexts, by the interplay of history, environment, and community.
- We acknowledge that lived experience builds upon itself. Personas could reflect layers of identity, evolving through experiences, relationships, and the passage of time.
- We integrate these ideas with traditional persona methods. By merging these philosophies, we might develop personas that are not only more nuanced but also more empathetic, inclusive, and reflective of the realities we seek to understand.
The Concept: Continuum Loops
Continuum loops are my reimagining of personas through the lens of interconnected lived experiences. Rather than static snapshots, continuum loops focus on the dynamic and evolving nature of identity, shaped by time, space, and context. They are inspired by the fluidity of song spirals but adapted to work within a more universal framework that respects diverse cultural philosophies.
A continuum loop represents multiple dimensions of an individual or group, considering layers of experience that build upon one another. It avoids linearity and rigidity by embracing the nuances of change, complexity, and unpredictability. This concept integrates empathy, inclusivity, and adaptability, creating personas that can evolve and expand as understanding deepens.
This approach is still evolving, a work in progress. I think it’s an exciting path—one that challenges the norms of how we see and represent the people we aim to connect with. By embracing these shifts, we might finally move beyond the limits of outdated personas and toward something far richer, far more human.
