"Everyone" is not a customer. A customer persona is a realistic portrait of one typical buyer, built from what students learned when they talked to real people. Personas keep a team honest: when an argument starts about a feature, a price, or an ad, the question becomes "would Maya want that?" instead of "what do I like?"
Many businesses have two personas: the user and the buyer. In the TagBack example, the student uses the sticker, but a parent pays for it, so a smart team builds a persona for the parent first. For a deeper look at how companies write personas, share our Personas for Product Development article with older students.
| PART | WHAT STUDENTS INCLUDE | EXAMPLE: TAGBACK BUYER |
|---|---|---|
| Name and Picture | A made-up name, a character, and a one-line description. | Maya, 41, parent of two middle schoolers, "the family's lost-and-found department." |
| Situation | Job, schedule, family, and money situation. | Works full time, shops online at night, has a tight back-to-school budget. |
| Goals | What they are trying to get done. | Keep her kids' things from disappearing; spend less on replacements. |
| Frustrations | What gets in the way, in their words. | "I've bought three water bottles since August." Marker names wash off. |
| Where to Find Them | Where they shop, what they read, who they listen to. | The school's parent newsletter, back-to-school night, class group chats. |
| What Makes Them Buy | Price, proof, or promise that would make them say yes. | Under $10, works on clothes, and doesn't show her child's phone number. |
Grades 9–12: build a second persona for the user (the student) and list one way the two personas disagree. Then decide which one the business must win first and why.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Create a customer persona for your business idea using what you learned in your interviews.
Give each student the three starter questions and have them talk to at least three people who have their problem, writing down real quotes.
Add the activity to your Teacher Dashboard and assign the spider map template. High school classes can make a second copy for the user persona the extension asks for.
Students name the persona, choose a character, and fill in situation, goals, frustrations, where to find them, and what makes them buy, using at least one interview quote.
Open each storyboard from your dashboard and confirm each detail comes from an interview. Comment on any part that sounds like a guess.
Teams present their persona in one minute, the way Maya is introduced in the TagBack example, and keep it handy for the journey map and pitch activities.
Score the six parts (name and picture, situation, goals, frustrations, where to find them, and what makes them buy) 0–2 points each for a 12-point total. Award 2 only when a detail traces back to an interview, like Maya's line about buying three water bottles since August. Add a bonus point for including the required real quote.
About 45 minutes of class time, but only after the interviews are done. Give students two or three days to talk to at least three people who have the problem. Students who skip the interviews tend to describe themselves instead of the customer, so check that interview notes exist before anyone opens the template.
Grades 6–8 can build one persona for the person who has the problem, often the student user. Grades 9–12 should separate the user from the buyer, as TagBack does: Jordan wears the label, but Maya pays for it. The extension asks older students to build both personas, name one disagreement, and decide which to win first.
Spider maps suit English learners because each part needs only a phrase. Provide a word bank for goals and frustrations, let students choose a character before they write, and accept interview quotes in the language the interviewee used, with a short English summary. Maya's persona works well as a model to read and label together first.
Ask teams to settle a decision using only their persona: would Maya pay $10 for a family pack? Would she trust a label that shows her child's name? Then have teams swap personas and spot any detail that sounds like a guess. Each guess becomes an interview question for the next round of customer conversations.