Personas

A testing persona is a fictional character that represents a typical user group of your product. They are built, where possible, using real data about your users’ demographics, behaviour, goals, and pain points. Think of them as a quick way to step into your users’ shoes when testing. 
For example: 

Testing with these personas helps you cover a wider range of potential user experiences.

Why use testing personas?

Testing personas help you go beyond just checking if features work. They let you see things from the user’s point of view. They make it easier to understand what real users, especially those with disabilities, might struggle with. This helps testers make sure everyone can use the software and have a similar experience. By bringing these user stories into testing, you can focus on what matters for each user group. 

A fictional character constructed to represent a specific type of user, used by testers to deliberately shift their perspective and test from a viewpoint other than their own. 

Where dogfooding asks "does this work for me?", a testing persona asks "does this work for someone who thinks, behaves, and needs differently to me?" 

They are especially useful when access to real users or beta testers is limited, as they give a tester a structured way to consider different mental states, technical abilities, accessibility needs, and usage contexts. 

For example: creating a persona of a first-time user with no technical background to guide exploratory testing of a new signup flow; or defining a persona of a user who is rushing and makes frequent typos to test form validation.