Founded in 2024, Persona Design aims to shape the future of design by allowing Designers to really understand the people that they are designing for.  

Based in Newcastle, the organisation recently celebrated its first birthday. We caught up with the Founder of Persona Design, Dan Foster-Smith, to chat more about the last year, the wins and the challenges, and key insights for other businesses that are ​​starting​​​​ up or growing in the North East.

Tell Us About Persona Design

Persona Design was created to make it easier for designers to connect with the audience that they are designing for.  

After working with several different design agencies, I ​​realised​​​​ that too many creative decisions are made without truly understanding the audience. That disconnect often means wasted time, misaligned designs, and outcomes that miss the mark. This wasn’t because the work was bad necessarily, but because it lacked the audience insights shared in the right way.  

To solve this problem, we have created a space for clients to upload their user research, interviews, reports, questionnaire data, blogs and articles. The AI system then automatically transforms this data into a persona document to summarise the audience. With this persona, designers can ask questions, test ideas, and get feedback, all grounded in real data, not assumptions. Because this is all based on the client's data, the answers can be traced back and creative decisions are more accountable.  

What Is One of Your Current Challenges?

​​​One​​​​ of our current focuses is integrating AI into the creative process, without losing the human touch. The rapid evolution of AI can make this space exciting, but also overwhelming. With the rise of synthetic data, which can be useful but may also be irrelevant or inaccurate, the process can become risky and may lead to misguided decision-making.  

The key is ensuring AI supports, not replaces, our creativity by making research more accessible and relatable for designers to use. We’re hoping to promote empathy and understanding through interactive, research-based tools too helping genuine human creativity augmented by AI advancements.

What Have Been Your Recent Wins?

Recently, Persona Design has hit some exciting milestones, least of which is hitting our first year in business. We secured financial backing from Innovate UK's BridgeAI fund for a feasibility study, was a huge validation of our work. We have launched our persona tool, an essential step in helping businesses truly understand their audiences. We were also successful in receiving support from data scientists at the Hartree Centre North East Hub to develop a sophisticated segmentation approach to break down and analyse audience insights. Our beta product testing is now live, involving several agencies as well as master's and PhD design students from Northumbria University.  

It’s been a bit manic, but it's incredibly rewarding to see everything come together and make an impact!  

What Do You Think of the North East’s Tech Sector?

The North East of England has a really impressive and lively tech sector for its population size, perfect for launching new ventures. Events like Thinking Digital and TechNExt really help innovation and entrepreneurship in the region by creating visibility and connections.​

The region is particularly well-suited for AI design companies, with many creative agencies and supported by great universities specialising in design and AI. The region is also home to the Policy and Evidence Centre for the Creative Industries and the National Innovation Centre for Data, making it especially relevant for companies operating at the intersection of AI and design.​

We have also received fantastic support from several North East organisations. Ignite has been invaluable with their pre-accelerator programme, providing guidance and resources kick starting us, (although sadly it doesn't exist anymore). Newcastle University START UP has also been a great support, offering assistance as part of an initiative to help student entrepreneurs in partnership with Santander. The Royal Academy of Engineering's Regional Talent Engine has provided excellent business mentorship and recently set up their Enterprise Hub Newcastle. Through the Hartree Centre North East Hub, we have accessed data science support in developing our unique approach to data segmentation. And, we have received some fantastic support from the team at Sunderland Software City, including desk space at 5G Immersive Lab.  

There are a lot of skilled people, top academic institutions, support organisations available, and if you need to travel to London, it is only 3 hours away by train.  

What Advice Do You Have for Startups or Organisations in a Similar Position?

There is a lot of support available out there, just make the most of your network!

I started doing a PhD and used this as a stepping stone, so there's always a way to double up, bootstrap for as long as possible.  

Make sure you hold on to your IP, that's crucial.  

I would recommend getting people to help with what you're good at; that way, you know you are getting good people, and it gives you time to learn about the next part of the journey.  

Listen to lots of people, it’s good to understand other people perspective, but don't necessarily feel you need to follow all the advice.  

The North East ecosystem is incredibly supportive, and connecting with others has been invaluable for us. But everyone's journey is different, and finding your own path is part of the adventure!

To Conclude

Thank you so much to Dan for giving us a glimpse into the present and future of Persona Design.  

If you would like to learn more about Persona Design, check out their website, follow them on social media and sign up to their monthly newsletter.

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