Part of the role of a conversation designer is that of a screenwriter. Before you can write a dialog, you have to have a clear picture of who the characters are; personas are the design tool used for this. A good persona is specific enough to evoke a unique voice and personality, yet brief enough that it’s easy to keep top-of-mind when writing a dialog. It should be easy to answer the question, “What would this persona say or do in this situation?”.

System persona

The system persona is the conversational partner created to be the front end of the technology that the user will interact with directly. Defining a clear system persona is vital to ensuring a consistent user experience. Otherwise, each designer will follow their own personal conversational style and the overall experience will feel disjointed.

At Google, we’ve created the Google Assistant. Everything the Assistant does (e.g., says, writes, displays, suggests) and everywhere the Google Assistant appears (e.g., the look and feel of the software and hardware) were designed to evoke a consistent persona.

Developers of third-party Actions have to create their own personas. Typically, this starts with brainstorming adjectives (e.g., friendly, trustworthy) and narrowing them down to a short list. This list becomes a short description, often accompanied by images. For detailed guidance, see Create a persona.

User persona

Think of a few specific people you expect to use your Actions. Try to have 2-3 different types, e.g., a millenial vs a working parent. These user personas will help you avoid designing only for yourself and your goals. For detailed guidance, see Identify your users.