 I lost my own start-up to $250,000 by not doing proto-personals. I'm Chris, a designer-turned-entrepreneur. And let me help you understand what is a proto-persona and why you need it. So what is a proto-persona? A proto-persona is a fictional character, each representing real users' goals, needs, behaviors and pain points, based on what we know or think we know about the users. Conducting a proto-persona workshop can serve a few goals. Introduce your team to the concept of personas. Start thinking from a customer-centric point of view. Get them to debate and agree upon value propositions that serve the needs and goals of that audience. Steer, inform and justify design decisions. And finally, help stakeholders feel more empathetic to user needs. It gives UX designers the information they need to understand users' intentions and create an ideal experience for these users. Here's the story.