TABLE OF CONTENTS The best time to start the persona conception and gestation phase is when your last product is fully out the door and your product team is poised to begin a new development effort. There s no solid direction for the new product yet, so competing visions, misinformation, rumors, and team-wide anxiety may exist. False starts are likely to occur as the product strategy and vision settle into place. Anyone involved in the early stages of planning would clearly benefit from the data you have amassed about users, customers, and the broader market. Typical activities during this phase of product development include:
The executive staff wants to provide high-level direction, a vision, for the entire team. They will be interested in market trends, emerging technologies, and the competitive landscape. They are eager to get the ball rolling.
Product and project managers are trying to figure out what to build into the next product, working with lists of cut features from the last cycle or investigating what customers are saying about their current products.
The development team at large is still supporting the previous release fixing bugs, training support engineers, or cleaning up unfinished code for a point release. But they are eager to be done with the old stuff. Some may be exploring new technologies or working on pet projects.
Like the development team, the QA team is recovering from the previous effort.
Usability specialists, technical writers,...
