Where to Next?
The workshop succeeds in churning up some great ideas, opens communication, and leaves everyone involved with a sense of direction. Features such as integrated calendar and content management are high on everyone's list, whereas as access to applications sounds cool, but has a less-perceived benefit.
After the workshop, I gathered up each team's notes and converted them into the same format as shown in the sample persona. I also documented the findings in the Product Specification. My documents, pictures, and news are always placed on the project Web site for feedback. Incidentally, the comments were pretty positive; looks like I'll live to fight another day.
From here, we head into the XP exploration phase using the feature list as raw input.
Take whatever ideas you can from this article and tailor them to fit your situation. You might be surprised at the results you can achieve with the use of personas and maps.
My son wants his toys back, so I better go.