Agent skill · product strategy · deanpeters
proto-persona
Create a proto-persona from current research, market signals, and team knowledge. Use when you need a working customer profile before deeper validation.
Why this skill is useful
Codifies the process of creating proto-personas to align teams early in product development, which the AI could infer but now has a structured approach.
What it needs
About 8k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-17. 6,302 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
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 Proto vs. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills deanpeters/proto-persona