A persona is an archetypal representation of actual customers and their needs based upon research with real people.
Personas are foundational design tools that enable greater understanding of users, their goals and behaviors.
Personas have always been an important tool in my UX arsenal. At Organic I lead the NYC office's industry-best persona practice. At Geometry, I standardized the use of personas and in collaboration with Strategy, we have completed personas for Cialis, Berocca, Aleve and BRP.