Jen, a UX researcher at BECU and creator of Blatz Chats, discusses why traditional user personas fail to serve teams. She explains how her frustration with personas drove her to create her own framework - Scenario Alignment Canvas (SAC). She also shares how this method facilitates productive discussions, surfaces assumptions, and helps prioritize research opportunities, ultimately leading to more user-centric and effective design solutions.

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🔎 Do you want to know more? Check out this episode at:

https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/jennifer-blatz-why-user-personas-fail

Episode highlights

00:01:14 - About Jen

00:02:27 - Jen’s journey to UX research

00:05:26 - Why user personas fail

00:09:26 - How many teams struggle to use personas

00:13:00 - Jen’s Scenario Alignment Canvas

00:18:18 - Running a Scenario Alignment Workshop

00:20:40 - Jen’s tips on running a UX workshop

00:25:16 - Final advice

About our guest

Jen Blatz is a Principal UX Researcher at BECU (Boeing Employee Credit Union), one of the largest credit unions in the United States. Jen's path to UX started in journalism and graphic design, progressed to UX design, and finally landed in UX research and strategy. She has worked in a number of fields, including finance, mortgage, cloud storage, security, and pet health.

Jen loves being active in the UX community and is the co-founder of the UX Research and Strategy group, one of the largest UX groups in the world. Jen is a seasoned conference speaker who has spoken at several UX International conferences. She spends her free time interviewing UX pros and creating videos for her YouTube channel called BlatzChatz.

🔎 Where to follow Jen

LinkedIn

👉 Did you know that UXtweak also offers a series of webinars packed with practical knowledge for UX professionals? Check out the episode with Stéphanie Walter, where she talks about overcoming the challenges of enterprise UX: https://www.youtube.com/live/d9p4ShC_fMA?si=eYEl_S0UErpJiT4B

About this podcast:

Welcome to UX Research Geeks, where Tina Ličková, a researcher and strategist, talks with researchers from around the globe about topics that matter to them.

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