Persona Model Template
Creators: name: Hollmann, Susanne
name: Regierer, Babette
name: Hollmann, Christiane
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025

description: A Persona Model [1,2] is a fictional yet data-driven representation of a target user or customer, built from research, real-world data, and insights. It is used to understand the needs, behaviors, goals, and pain points of a specific audience segment. Personas help businesses, researchers, and innovators tailor their products, services, or strategies to better meet the needs of their intended users. 

Persona modelling is a powerful tool that helps researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs to develop solutions that are both user-centric and market-ready. By using personas, for example as part of an innovation boot camp, teams can improve their creative problem-solving process, increase their understanding of user needs and increase the chances of their innovations succeeding in the real world.
description: Understanding your target audience is essential for designing effective solutions. A Persona Model provides a structured representation of a user group, helping researchers and businesses gain insights into their characteristics, needs, and behaviors. By creating detailed fictional profiles, teams can develop user-centered strategies that better align with real-world expectations.

What is a Persona Model?

A Persona Model represents a target user or user group, allowing researchers and companies to develop tailored solutions based on their needs and behaviors. The concept of using Personas as fictional representatives of relevant user groups was first introduced by Alan Cooper in 1999 [1].

A Persona Model helps understand a target user’s needs, behaviors, and goals.  It usually includes the following elements:

Name, age, profession, interests, values, leisure time activities, problems, wishes and desires.

The following text describes how to work through the template using Maria's example:

Follow these steps to create a structured, relatable Persona:





Basic Information






Assign a name, age, and profession to create a relatable identity.




Example: Maria, 22, University Student (Environmental Sciences)





Living Conditions, Family, Daily Routine






Describe their home environment, family situation, and typical day-to-day activities.




Focus on aspects that shape their lifestyle and time availability.




Example: Maria lives in a shared flat in Madrid, supported by her family, attends university lectures, works part-time, and researches in the evenings.





Interests and Values






Define the Persona’s passions, values, and motivators.




Include what drives their decisions and lifestyle.




Example: Maria is passionate about sustainability and ethical consumption. She values community-driven change and environmental protection.





Leisure Activities






Describe how they spend their free time (hobbies, social activities, relaxation).




Example: Maria enjoys hiking, volunteering for clean-ups, and following environmental influencers on social media.





Problems






Identify challenges or obstacles the persona faces, especially ones your solution should address.




Example: Maria struggles to find affordable, non-allergenic, eco-friendly cosmetics. She also finds it difficult to get internships in sustainability.





Wishes and Desires






Define their short-term and long-term goals in life and work.




Example: Maria wants to continue her eco-friendly lifestyle, access sustainable products, and secure an internship in environmental sustainability.





Conclusion






Review the Persona’s profile to align solutions with their needs.




Use this structured insight to refine your project, product, or research focus.




By following this process, you create a detailed, research-driven persona that supports user-centered decision-making.

Draw your conclusions

Creating a Persona Model allows for a structured understanding of the target user’s lifestyle, motivations, and pain points. By outlining key aspects such as daily routines, values, challenges, and aspirations, the model provides a clear foundation for designing solutions that directly address the user's needs.

Maria’s Persona Model effectively captures her daily life, goals, and challenges, offering a detailed perspective on her experiences. These insights enable researchers and companies to tailor products, services, or strategies to meet her specific requirements. A critical review of the persona ensures that any new product, approach, or project aligns with real user expectations.

Ultimately, the information gathered helps identify specific customer needs, leading to a more user-centered, impactful, and successful implementation of new solutions.