So as we think about the persona,
let's talk about how we applied it.
When we were at SensAble, the persona
was a really important part of how we were so successful,
and how we got so much done on so little resource.
I remember when Andrew Holley came
in, and said, "Hey, we should use this thing called a persona."
And I said, "Wow, what are you talking about?"
And we talked a lot about it, and I said, well,
I'll give it a try.
And we did.
A persona we used was Ed Champ, which is an alias.
And he was actually a manager of the designers.
But he was a perfect persona for us,
because we got along very well with him.
He was a local, he was here, down in Rhode Island.
He worked at Hasbro.
And Hasbro was a good designer of toys.
And he was someone who communicated well.
While he was 10 years older than the typical designer,
he was a young at heart, he really understood them well.
While he was a manager of them, he was more like one
of the guys.
But he did have some perspective that when we ask questions,
he could give us a more reflective response than some
of the designers themselves.
I guess the point is that even many, many years away
from this, more than 10 years now,
I can still remember this guy so well.
He was part of our family, he was part of our company,
even though we didn't work for our company.
And whenever we need to break a logjam as
to what feature it should be, you know,
well, sales always wanted all the features,
and development couldn't do them,
and so we'd have to intervene and say,
what features are the most important?
And we could just pick up the phone and call him.
And it got to the point where we knew
without even having to call him.
The persona really was that north star for us
that got us all on the same page, and kept us focused,
efficient, and effective to produce what turned out
to be an award-winning product for the sculptures
in the design area.