Quarry's Expertise

Quarry was one of the first marketing and design agencies to embrace personas as part of our design process, back in late 1999. Since then, we've created dozens of personas to help clients with design or marketing projects across a variety of industries. Our casework includes assignments for PerkinElmer, MDS Sciex, FedEx, Blue Coat Systems, Bell Canada, BLJC, Nortel Networks, BASF and Sprint PCS.

Research methods for persona development

The emphasis on goals explains the close connection between the practice of using personas and the practice of building them through ethnographic research methods. Ethnographers do not assume that people are either articulate or candid about their goals. Consequently, a good deal of the skill in persona development comes in triangulating between what people say and what they do. A viewpoint on customer goals achieved this way tends to generate the fresh thinking that creates competitive differentiation.

As use of personas branches out from the original application of informing design to use in product innovation strategy, marketing and sales, we have found that qualitative and quantitative research methods can and should be integrated to give personas the best "legs" over time. Several factors come into play in getting this integration right. Our solutions include assisting our clients with research process designs suited to the intended persona application.

Our network and resources

Fueling this work, Quarry maintains active connections with ethnographic researchers, including those at the Anthropology department at University of Waterloo.

For our years of experience in creating personas and teaching the technique, Forrester Research recognized Quarry as industry experts in creating "personas" in the report "Where To Get Help With Persona Projects."

We regularly speak on the subject at conferences and have contributed chapters on personas to two books:

• The Persona Lifecycle, by John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin (Elsevier 2006). You may download excerpts from our chapter on "Marketing Versus Design Personas."
• User-Centered Design Stories: Real-World UCD Case Studies, edited by Janice James and Carol Righi (Elsevier 2007).

Want to know more?

For more information on our persona services, contact Glen Drummond by email or give him a call at 519.570.2020 or toll-free in North America at 888.570.2020.