Learn to build data-driven, effective personas based on research
Online course:
Building data-driven personas
By Stefania Mereu, PhD,
Sr. Director User Experience @ HID Global
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Customer personas can really drive your business forward
If you base them on data, not fluff and subjective ideation.
This course will teach you to combine qualitative research with quantitative methods to build truly representative personas in a research-based method that is both fast and rigorous.
In just 8 sessions, you’ll be able to…
- Build truly representative and effective personas based on research.
- Quantitatively segment your customer or user base.
- Conduct successful interviews to integrate qualitative data into your personas.


Learn how to build strong personas and actually put them to use
In this course you’ll learn to identify elements of good personas, and provide you with actionable ways to incorporate them in your organization.
The course will also outline the difference between two different approaches in building personas—data-driven vs. hypothesis-driven. You will learn the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and understand which circumstances make one method more appropriate than the other. You’ll also learn to optimally combine qualitative research with quantitative data.
Lastly, you will learn how to package and market your personas in your organization.
Skills you will master

This course is right for you if…
- You’re involved in any customer or user centric effort in a medium to large organization.
- You own a startup of any kind, with or without existing customer or user base.
- You’re a UX designer or UX researcher looking to step up their strategy game.
This course is probably not for you if…
- You’re the user of your product (hint: this is an extremely rare circumstance).
- You already have your bullet-proof method to create personas.
- Your company’s monetization strategy exclusively depends on technology advancement.
Skills you should have before taking this course
- Domain expertise on your specific industry (e.g., Marketing, UX Design, etc.)
- Basic knowledge on how to use an electronic spreadsheet (i.e., data handling and graphs).
- Basic statistics understanding (probability, descriptive statistics such as mean and mode, data summary and visualization)is ideal, but not completely necessary.
Stefania Mereu, PhD
Sr. Director User Experience @ HID Global
Stefania is a UX Data Scientist, Strategist & Evangelist. She is the director of user experience at HID Global. Before then, she was Sr. Quantitative UX Researcher at Express Scripts and Vice President of Research at Vast, a medium size startup that raised $14 million last year.
Your full course curriculum
Building data-driven personas
1 Personas
2 Elements of good user personas
3 Hypothesis-driven vs data-driven personas
The third lecture will present two approaches in the creation of user personas, and will rationalize advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
4 Quantitative, data driven user segmentation
5 Qualitative validation of user segments
6 Examples of personas for different industries
7 Put it together and sell it
8 Practical examples and wrap-up
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Learn how to build personas: FAQ
Who is this course for?
This course is right for you if…
- You’re involved in any customer or user centric effort in a medium to large organization.
- You own a startup of any kind, with or without existing customer or user base.
- You’re a UX designer or UX researcher looking to step up their strategy game.
Some careers that will especially benefit from this course are UX manager, product manager, brand manager, digital marketing manager, and ecommerce manager.
What will you learn?
After taking this course, you will:
- Build truly representative and effective personas based on research.
- Quantitatively segment your customer or user base.
- Conduct successful interviews to integrate qualitative data into your personas.
What does the course include?
Our Data-driven Personas training includes 8 lessons, 8h 00min of video material, several assignments, and a final exam.
Are subtitles available for the lessons?
Lessons have English subtitles and transcriptions available.
Will I receive a certificate of completion?
After taking this course, you will receive the Data-driven Personas Certification from CXL, with credentials that you can add to your LinkedIn profile.
What is the refund policy?
All plans come with a 7-day no questions asked money back period.
How long will it take for me to finish it?
This is entirely up to you – it’s how many study hours per week you can put in. This course is 8h 00min long.