# Proto Persona

Create a proto-persona from current research, market signals, and team knowledge.

- Repository: https://github.com/deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills (7825 stars)
- Category: Writing
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-10-16
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill proto-persona -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill proto-persona -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill proto-persona -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill proto-persona -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills`

## Description

Create a proto-persona from current research, market signals, and team knowledge. Use when you need a working customer profile before deeper validation.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

## Purpose
Create an initial, assumption-based persona profile that synthesizes available user research, market data, and stakeholder knowledge into a working hypothesis about your target user. Use this to align teams early in product development, guide initial design decisions, and identify gaps in understanding that require validation through research.

This is not a validated persona, it's a "proto" (prototype) persona that evolves as you learn more. Think of it as a structured placeholder that prevents design-by-committee while acknowledging you don't have all the answers yet.

## Input

**Works best with:** The target user or segment you need a working profile for.
**Also useful:** Whatever signal exists, support themes, sales anecdotes, analytics, prior research, plus the decision the persona will guide.

Anything supplied with the invocation itself, text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line, counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.

**Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The skill asks who you think the user is and what you already know, then structures it and flags the assumptions needing validation.

**Example invocation:** `Proto-persona for solo bookkeepers adopting our receipt-scanning app, signal: 30 support tickets and 4 sales call notes.`

## Key Concepts

### What is a Proto-Persona?
A proto-persona is a lightweight, hypothesis-driven persona created from:
- **Existing research:** User interviews, surveys, analytics (if available)
- **Market data:** Industry reports, competitor analysis, demographic trends
- **Stakeholder knowledge:** Sales, support, and team insights
- **Informed assumptions:** Best guesses that need validation

The rest: https://github.com/deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills/blob/HEAD/skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md