Personas are fictional descriptions of a person whose goals, feelings, perceptions, experiences, etc. are relevant to the work group it is designed for. It is a commonly implemented design method to make the design team emphasize user experiences.
The Persona method can be used in order to focus participants on gender experiences, for example, in order to not expose a particular person within a work group or to expose the participants to implicit equality issues.
The following description is the deep-dive into the Persona tool, which consists of gathering material through several sources to develop personas. An alternative approach is for a facilitator to gather the material beforehand to be used in a two- to three-hour workshop within a work group.
Personas is a collaborative practical tool for discussions and reflections. It is not meant to be a poster on a wall, as that might contradict the purpose of using the Persona method and instead contribute to gender and diversity stereotypes. Present the persona and all the data behind the description to all stakeholders and use the following questions to encourage discussion:
This is a tool for gender mainstreaming collaboratively created by two universities and some industry stakeholders, a gender mainstreaming checklist. The tool is designed to facilitate the integration of a gender and diversity perspective in projects and other activities. The app contains a checklist of practical gender mainstreaming in projects or other activities.
Gender observations is a tool to explore and bring to life differences in how women and men act and react in everyday interactions.
Despite a growing awareness of gender inequality there are still obsolete structures and practices within e.g. innovation systems. Acker for this reason proposed analysing gender systems in relation to structures, interactions, symbols, and identities.
Value exercise is a tool that encourages a discussion about your values, your team’s values, your organization’s values, and society’s values. The exercises can be a good way to begin a seminar or session, as an “ice breaker”, and as a way to stimulate new thinking. It can be varied in a number of ways, depending on issues, what statements are important to explore, and what prior knowledge and understanding participants have.
World café is a tool that invites stakeholders and other interested parties to explore questions and issues.
Developed by Flanagan in 1954, the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) is originally a technique for collecting observations on human behaviour to identify a particular event that somehow has been critical, either positively or negatively. The technique can be used in interviews, in focus groups, or in workshop settings within a work group.
Personas are fictional descriptions of a person whose goals, feelings, perceptions, experiences, etc. are relevant to the work group it is designed for. It is a commonly implemented design method to make the design team emphasize user experiences.
An action plan helps us go from visions to reality. It describes the way your team will use its knowledge, strategies, and competences to meet the objective of a gender equality and diversity aware innovation system. An action plan consists of a number of short- and long-term actions.
