In the past, I have written about buyer personas and the role they play in building high-ROI products, but I’ve never provided a buyer persona template. There are of course hundreds of good templates available online, however, the template below is the one that I use. I developed this buyer persona template by piecing together parts from templates that I liked, as well as adding parts that I needed to make it games specific. The result is what I use to present the research I conduct to my clients.

Download the Indie Game Girl Buyer Persona Template (PSD)

Buyer Persona Template Elements

In addition the the actual buyer persona template, I’ve included an example of the template in action to better illustrate how it works when it’s filled in. Below you’ll find this example, as well as as a description of the template’s various elements.
 

1. Title: Giving your persona a clever title that incorporates key motivations, can help you easily identify which persona it is without reading the body text. This is especially helpful when you’re dealing with multiple personas per game. For example, in the illustration above, I have titled the persona “Socially Competitive Samantha.” This title jogs my memory instantly that Samantha is motivated to game by competition with real-world friends.
2. Demographic Data: In the upper, left-hand corner of the template is a cluster of lines (i.e., name, gender, age, etc.). This section represents your persona’s demographic data, helping you understand physically, socioeconomically and geographically who you are speaking with.
3. Photo: Adding a photo of a person’s face to your buyer persona can help humanize your research, making it feel like you are talking to someone instead of a bunch of data. (If you’re keeping the identity of your interviewees confidential, using stock images for this photo is acceptable.)
4. Motivations: Your persona’s motivations section is the most important section of the buyer persona template. This section is responsible for summarizing why your persona games, which will most likely have the largest influence over your game’s design and marketing campaign.
5. Criteria for Selecting Games: Understanding the factors responsible for driving your persona’s purchase or download of a game can be helpful for obvious reasons. Make sure you know them.
6. Frustrations with Games: It’s also important to understand what about games frustrates your persona to the point of not wanting to play anymore so you can avoid serious pitfalls.
7. Quotes: As you’re conducting your buyer persona interviews, try to record direct quotes from your interviewees that you feel sum up their feelings toward games. If you’re having trouble summarizing your persona’s motivations from your research, sometimes a simple quote can make it clear.