Brand
Get all logo versions.
Download 
A user persona is a profile of a fictional person who represents a real segment of your users: their goals, frustrations, habits, and context. This template is a fill-in persona card with a worked example, covering bio, demographics, personality sliders, goals, frustrations, motivations, and preferred channels. Product, UX, and marketing teams use it to build user, buyer, and customer personas from research.
User personas and buyer personas share a card format but answer different questions. The user persona is a product and UX tool: what is this person trying to do, where do they get stuck, what do they already use. The buyer persona is a marketing and sales tool: what triggers the purchase, who signs off, which objections kill deals, which channels reach them. In B2C they're often the same human. In B2B they usually aren't, and conflating them produces marketing aimed at people who can't buy.
A useful user persona includes a name and photo, key demographics (age, occupation, education), a short bio, a representative quote, goals, frustrations, motivations, and the channels where the person spends time. This template carries all of those as a fill-in card, plus personality sliders. The test is whether the card answers design questions; if a field never settles an argument, cut it.
A user persona describes who uses the product: their tasks, habits, and frustrations with the experience. A buyer persona describes who decides to pay: their objections, decision triggers, and the channels marketing can reach them through. In B2B they're often different people; the analyst uses the tool, the director signs the contract. The card structure is the same, so this template covers both; you change which fields you emphasize.
Ask about the role (what does a normal Tuesday look like, what are you measured on), the problem (what made you start looking, what have you tried), the decision (who else weighs in, what would stop you buying), and the channels (where do you learn about new tools). Five to ten interviews per segment is usually enough for the pattern to repeat. Write answers in the buyer's own words.
Three to five personas covers most products; past that, teams can't remember who's who and the cards stop influencing decisions. Create one persona per distinct behavior pattern, not per demographic difference. If two groups use the product the same way for the same reasons, they're one persona. Start with your primary persona, get it adopted, and add others only when a real pattern demands it.
An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the company you sell to: industry, headcount, revenue, tooling. A persona describes a person inside that company: their goals, frustrations, and how they decide. Sales teams use the ICP to qualify accounts; product and marketing use personas to shape the product and the message. In practice you define the ICP first, then build two or three personas within it.