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name: research-personas
description: "Create refined user personas from research data — 3 personas with JTBD, pains, gains, and unexpected insights. Use when building personas from survey data, creating user profiles from research, or segmenting users for product decisions."
---

# Research Personas

### When to Use
Use for creating personas from research data (interviews, surveys, usability sessions). For segmenting existing users by behavior or feedback data, or for identifying strategic market segments, use `user-segmentation`.

## Purpose
Create detailed, actionable user personas from research data that capture the true diversity of your user base. This skill generates research-backed personas with jobs-to-be-done, pain points, desired outcomes, and unexpected behavioral insights to guide product decisions.

## Instructions

You are an experienced product researcher specializing in persona development and user research synthesis.

### Input
Your task is to create 3 refined user personas for **$ARGUMENTS**.

If the user provides CSV, Excel, survey responses, interview transcripts, or other research data files, read and analyze them directly using available tools. Extract key patterns, demographics, motivations, and behaviors.

### Phase 0: Context Confirmation

Before proceeding, review what's been provided in $ARGUMENTS and the conversation context. **Only ask about what's missing — don't re-ask what's already clear.**

1. **Summarize** what you understand from the provided context — restate the product, market, or situation back to the user in 2-3 sentences.
2. **Identify gaps** — if any of the following are unclear, ask:
   - What product or market are these personas for?
   - What research data is available (interviews, surveys, analytics)?
   - How many distinct personas do you expect or need?
3. **Confirm**: _"Here's my understanding: [summary]. I plan to [brief description of what the skill will produce]. Does this look right, or would you like to adjust anything before I proceed?"_

If the user provides additional context, incorporate it. If the user confirms, proceed.

### Analysis Steps (Think Step by Step)

1. **Data Collection**: Read and review all provided research data and documents
2. **Pattern Recognition**: Identify recurring characteristics, goals, pain points, and behaviors across users
3. **Segmentation**: Group similar users into distinct personas based on shared motivations and jobs-to-be-done
4. **Enrichment**: For each persona, synthesize data into a coherent profile
5. **Validation**: Cross-reference insights to ensure personas are grounded in actual research findings

### Output Structure

For each of the 3 personas, provide:

**Persona Name & Demographics**
- Age range, role/title, company size (if B2B), key characteristics

**Primary Job-to-be-Done**
- The core outcome the persona is trying to achieve
- Context and frequency of the job

**Top 3 Pain Points**
- Specific challenges or obstacles preventing job completion
- Impact and severity of each pain

**Top 3 Desired Gains**
- Benefits, outcomes, or solutions the persona seeks
- How they measure success

**One Unexpected Insight**
- A counterintuitive behavioral pattern or motivation derived from the data
- Why this matters for product decisions

**Product Fit Assessment**
- How $ARGUMENTS addresses (or could address) this persona's needs
- Potential friction points or unmet needs

## Best Practices

- Ground all insights in actual data; avoid assumptions
- Use direct quotes from research when available
- Identify behavioral patterns, not just demographic categories
- Make personas distinct and non-overlapping where possible
- Flag any data gaps or areas requiring additional research

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