Aligning Team Understanding of User Personas with the KJ Method

During the early stage of a new NetEase incubated project, the interaction designer faced divergent views on user personas because interview data were extensive and interpretations varied among team members.

To resolve this, the team applied the KJ method (affinity diagram) to standardize understanding and produce a consensus user persona.

Preparation

Send a meeting email the day before to explain the KJ process and its goal, ensuring researchers, planners, and designers attend and review the collected materials.

On‑site Practice

Provide each participant with a marker and a pad of sticky notes, asking them to write every user feature they consider important.

Set a 15‑minute timer for participants to place their notes on a whiteboard, then pause to let everyone browse the existing notes before adding more.

After the supplement phase, each participant briefly presents the content of their notes, clarifying any unclear descriptions.

Allocate 10 minutes for rapid clustering: participants intuitively group similar notes without predefined categories, handling disagreements through brief discussion or majority vote.

Label the resulting clusters (e.g., demographic traits, specific scenarios, purchase motivations). Larger clusters can be further sub‑clustered.

Use storytelling to combine features from each cluster into vivid narratives, turning abstract traits into concrete user stories.

Combine the stories into three to five comprehensive personas, present them, gather feedback, and refine until the team reaches a unified understanding.

Key Considerations

Use the KJ method when collected data exist but the team still lacks a clear, shared view of the target user.

Involve key stakeholders (researchers, project leads, planners) to ensure high acceptance of the resulting personas.

The core of the method is writing sticky notes, clustering them, and summarizing the clusters with stories, providing a platform for integrating diverse perspectives.