On Wedneday, June 19, ProductCamp Atlanta held it’s very first UX Workshop on creating Personas. The folks at Hypepotamus were nice enough to let us hold our experimental workshop at their digs, and refreshments were provided by The Network.

Hypepotamus is a co-working space put together to serve the thriving Atlanta tech startup community. If you ever get a chance, be sure to stop by and check out the hip digs for yourself!

The Network is a metro Atlanta based provider of integrated governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions that help companies create better, more ethical workplaces. Check out their career opportunities!

Who showed up?

We chose Hypepotamus for a reason. Our goal was to gather different perspectives and backgrounds so participants could learn from one another. Roles ranged from product managers, marketers, interaction designers, and even a few entrepreneurs with their own startups who call Hypepotamus their residence.

The intro
Astrid Paris, a Sr. Interaction Designer at Daxko, started us out by giving a brief overview what user experience is. She then went through a few examples of where UX can make a difference, and why personas are important. Alex Sherman, a product manager at Daxko briefly went into why personas are helpful in product environments.

The Workshop

The workshop began with Astrid setting the stage for creating mock personas based on who would visit a ProductCamp. Teams were formed at each table and began to follow the instruction left on the screen. There were healthy arguments and different ideas on the types of people that would attend a ProductCamp.

The Outcome

Each group presented one of their personas to the group and provided their perspective on one of the common types of people that attends a ProductCamp. Instantly you could see similarities in the characteristics and names across teams.

What type of workshop would you like to see ProductCamp Atlanta do next?