persona

A persona is a named, role-typed placeholder character from .abcd/development/personas.json. Personas (Alice, Bob, Carol, etc.) represent real user archetypes in press releases and design documents without embedding real names or PII. Each persona has a role hint (e.g., "product lead", "solo founder") and is selected by matching the role the document needs.

When to use

Use a persona whenever a press release, intent document, or design fiction needs a human voice or quote. Always pick from the registry — never invent names. Selection is by role, never by name: the document's audience determines the role, and the role's registered name is used.

When NOT to use

Do not call a persona a "user" (too generic and erases the named-character framing) or an "actor" (UML connotations). Do not use real names or team member names.

Examples

• "Said Iris, product lead: 'The planning interview caught the ambiguity in three minutes.'"
• "Alice (product engineer) would run the planning interview (abcd intent interview) before every plan submission."

Related terms

• record families — the one page that maps the record families and how they relate
• brief — personas appear in briefs as the primary audience
• intent — persona quotes anchor the press-release section of intents