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Persona Method

Method

Persona Method

Method to focus on your group of parents that you want to reach and specify on what they need

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2026 media.eduskills.plus

Overview

  • Target group:
    Kindergarten teachers
  • Group size:
    Individual, Small group, Group
  • Duration:
    1.5–3 h
  • Materials:
    • Flipchart
    • Paper
    • Markers

Goal

Parents are a very heterogeneous group and can not all be reached with the same offer. When developing a product, advertising and selling it, personas are a common tool to make sure the needs of a specific target group are met. The idea is to take this method from advertising experts and apply it to your work with parents in order to better reach them with your offers. The method leads to a more nuanced understanding of what shapes parents' needs, that language is very important and how different settings can target different types of parents.

Steps

1

You can form groups of 2–3 people or work alone.

2

Develop a fictive persona with these profile informations: Name, age, job, number of children, family situation (married/separated, stress level, further aspects), What is important for x? Which role does digital media play in this family? What support would x say he/or she needs regarding media education? What would motivate x to come to an event on media education in kindergarten?

3

The profile can lean on real parents but should be anonymized with a fake name.

4

Write down a profile and a picture of x if you like.

5

Exchange with the whole group about your ideas to reach these parents personas and what would be important for them.

6

Keep in mind a positive, welcoming and non-judgmental attitude.

Parents Persona — Examples

These personas were created including existing research on parents' media education. They can help to inform you which resources and barriers to keep in mind when targeting parents. Be aware that personas use stereotypes and generalizations to find access to different perspectives and are not representative of individuals.

All four personas have different approaches to media education, different challenges and therefore different needs for support.

Laura

Laura 40 years, separated, 2 children, less active media education

“I think children need to learn from early on how to deal with digital media. This should also take place in kindergarten”

Family situation
  • Laura has a daughter (3) and a son (5) with her ex partner
  • She is a freelancer working in marketing part-time
  • Her new partner has a son (7) and they spend time together with all three children on the weekends
  • Laura lives in a city and relies on her parents to support her during the week
Media use in the family
  • The children have a tablet and a bluetooth box: they listen to podcasts, the son is allowed to play on the tablet and they sometimes watch videos on YouTube, Netflix, Disney etc.
  • At the grandparents' house the TV is always on
  • Laura is on social media for work and also uses Instagram to relax in the evening
Attitude towards digital media
  • Laura has a positive and open attitude towards digital media and sees its opportunities
  • She is not focused on the risks but rather keeps an eye on her kids' development and would interfere if she thinks that there is a problem
  • She thinks children should learn from their mistakes and make their own experiences also with digital media
Challenges
  • Laura sometimes does not have a lot of time and energy to focus on her children and their needs next to working and organizing their day to day life
  • Laura would like to foster her kids' education but does not have information on child appropriate contents
  • Laura fears to be judged by other parents due to her open approach to media education

What kind of support (events, setting, methods) would Laura need? What would be important for her?

Feride

Feride 34 years, married, 2 children, protective media education

“Education is very important for my family. I think digital media is doing more harm than good so I try to keep it away as much as possible.”

Family situation
  • Feride has two sons (4) and (6) with her husband
  • She is trained as teacher but is currently not working
  • The family is living in a small city
  • The family has immigrated lately due to her husband's job (engineer working full-time in an international firm) and has not developed many contacts to locals yet
  • The family language is Turkish and Feride is currently participating in language courses
Media use in the family
  • Feride is often reading to the children
  • She is often communicating via FaceTime with friends and family at home
  • The children have limited screen time (they are allowed to watch one episode at the weekend)
  • Feride's husband is often on his phone due to work and she calls him out to be a better role model for the kids
Attitude towards digital media
  • Feride has a critical attitude towards digital media and mainly sees its dangers
  • She wants her kids to grow up without using digital tools as long as possible
  • She thinks kindergarten should not include digital education and rather focus on basic skills like reading and writing, learning numbers etc.
Challenges
  • Feride does not take into account the opportunities that digital media could have for her kids' education
  • Her approach towards digital learning is driven by fear of the dangers and she is not open to her kids' interest in the digital world
  • Feride feels a bit isolated and insecure due to being new in the city and not speaking the language yet

What kind of support (events, setting, methods) would Feride need? What would be important for her?

Lukasz

Lukasz 30 years, married, one child, active media education

“Digital media is part of our world and I try to be an active role model and teach my daughter how to use these technologies for our life.”

Family situation
  • Lukasz has a daughter (5) with his partner
  • He is working as a graphic designer
  • The family is living in a village
  • Lukasz and his partner are both working part time and travelling a lot
Media use in the family
  • Lukasz's daughter has a favorite series that they watch together
  • The family is regularly taking pictures and making videos that they edit and watch together
  • Lukasz likes to play video games and sometimes they play together as a family (age appropriate games)
  • As a designer Lukasz uses technology to be creative, experiment and learn
Attitude towards digital media
  • Lukasz has a positive attitude towards digital media but also sees the complex challenges linked to social media and technologies like AI
  • He takes time to engage with his daughter and play with possibilities technology has to offer
  • Lukasz is listening and observing closely what his daughter communicates when they watch movies or series together
Challenges
  • Lukasz sometimes argues with his partner because she thinks that it might be too early for their daughter to engage with digital technology
  • He is still a relatively young dad and is not sure whether his education choices are the right ones especially when reading alarming articles about the negative influence of media use for kids

What kind of support (events, setting, methods) would Lukasz need? What would be important for him?

Ruben

Ruben 37 years, 3 children, less active media education

“Family life can be stressful. With digital tools the kids can have a little fun and it gives us as parents a well deserved break.”

Family situation
  • Ruben has three children — two sons (3) and (5) and a daughter (5) — with his wife
  • He is trained as an electrician working full-time
  • The family is living in a village
  • Ruben's wife Lidia has chronic illness
Media use in the family
  • Most of the time the TV is on because the parents are used to it
  • The kids are using a tablet to play, watch videos or listen to stories
  • The parents do not enjoy reading
  • The family enjoys to take pictures when spending time together on the weekend
Attitude towards digital media
  • Ruben has a practical attitude towards digital media and mainly sees its opportunities
  • He wants his kids to have fun and play
  • Growing up Ruben liked to play computer games and was allowed to watch TV — he has positive memories about that
Challenges
  • Ruben does not take the time and has limited resources to deal with the media use of his children
  • His wife is not able to handle stress due to her illness but she thinks they could do more to offer the kids more age appropriate content
  • Ruben and his wife use digital media mainly as a babysitter to handle their day to day life

What kind of support (events, setting, methods) would Ruben need? What would be important for him?

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