> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.percio.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Persona strategy

> How many to keep, how to mix them, and what makes a signal-rich set

You have limited persona slots (5 on Indie, 10 on Pro). Here's how to get the most signal out of them.

## The core principle

**Personas earn their slot by being different from each other.** Two personas who evaluate the same flow the same way use up a slot without adding insight. Aim for personas that would reliably disagree.

## A good starter set (3 personas)

If you're running tests on a single product, this mix works for most cases:

1. **First-time visitor** — never used your product before, tech level 2–3, needs trust signals and clear copy.
2. **Core user** — the persona your product is built for, tech level 3–4, focuses on efficiency and completing their main job.
3. **Skeptical power user** — tech level 4–5, impatient, picks up on inconsistencies and missing shortcuts.

These three contradict each other in useful ways. A feature that delights the power user may frustrate the first-timer; a change that clarifies things for the first-timer may feel patronizing to the power user.

## Expanding to a richer set (5 personas)

On Indie, add:

4. **Mobile-only user** — accesses the product primarily on a phone. Surfaces responsive, touch-target, and small-screen issues.
5. **Persona specific to a segment you care about** — accessibility-focused user, international user, decision maker vs. end user for B2B, etc.

## Expanding on Pro (up to 10)

With Pro's 10 slots you can cover:

* Multiple device contexts (desktop, mobile, tablet).
* Multiple expertise levels in the same role.
* Multiple intent modes (researching, buying, using, troubleshooting).
* Stakeholder personas for B2B (decision maker, end user, admin/buyer).

Avoid creating "the same persona but slightly different." That's a sign the slot would be better spent on a genuinely different segment.

## When to rotate personas

Personas aren't permanent. Rotate when:

* A persona's reports feel repetitive across tests.
* You've shipped fixes for the issues that persona used to catch.
* Your product has shifted to a new audience.
* You want to probe a new segment for a specific project.

## How to cover multiple perspectives

Every test runs with a single persona. To evaluate the same flow through more than one lens, run separate tests with different personas and compare the reports side by side in your test history. A common workflow:

* **Iterating on a flow:** run one test with the persona closest to the segment you're worried about.
* **Standard review:** run the same scenario twice with two contrasting personas (e.g. first-timer vs. power user).
* **Pre-launch or cross-functional review:** run three or more tests, each with a persona representing a different segment you want covered.

Each test consumes credits. See [Credits](/billing/credits).

## What's next

* [Creating personas](/personas/creating-personas)
* [Picking a persona for a test](/tests/picking-personas)