proto-persona

Structured template for creating hypothesis-driven user personas from available research and stakeholder knowledge. Create an initial, assumption-based persona profile that synthesizes available user research, market data, and stakeholder knowledge into a working hypothesis about your target user. Use this to align teams early in product development, guide initial design decisions, and identify gaps in understanding that require validation through research. This is not a validated persona—it's a "proto" (prototype) persona that evolves as you learn more. Think of it as a structured placeholder that prevents design-by-committee while acknowledging you don't have all the answers yet. A proto-persona is a lightweight, hypothesis-driven persona created from: Use template.md for the full fill-in structure. Before creating a proto-persona, collect: If missing context: Don't fabricate—note gaps and plan research to fill them. Give the persona an alliterative, memorable name (makes it easier to reference).