These personas are for use at a feedback workshop where everyone gets a fake character sheet and has to have a conversation with other characters. This, I hope, lets the participants practice the skill of feedback as a pure skill without the concern of real-world repurcussions during the practicing process.

The workshop is “360” style, where everyone spends 5-10 minutes talking to each other person.

You can use these rounds, or have three participants draw a name from a hat each round.

Participants should have paper and pen with them during the feedback rounds to take notes.

Round 1: Casey-Pete Vivek-Sarah Julie-Arkya

Round 2: Casey-Sarah Vivek-Arkya Julie-Pete

Round 3: Casey-Arkya Vivek-Pete Julie-Sarah

Round 4: …

This session should always end with a 5-minute retrospective, where all participants write on sticky notes labeled smiley face, sad face, or question mark. The organizer should quickly group and read these stickies aloud, then incorporate them into the next version of the workshop.

Pete: Role: Lead (lateral hire) Background: Pete is a doesn’t take well to people criticizing his teamwork style. He privately thinks of most soft skills as optional fluff. He prefers git-flow version control, and for everyone on the team to have an use a great deal of autonomy. Leisure: jogging Family: Pete has two daughters, who are 12 and 14 years old. His wife is a lawyer.

Casey: Role: consultant developer (previously associate developer) Background: Casey strongly believes in TDD and pair programming and has trouble respecting developers who don’t use these practices. He frequently debates agile methodology. Leisure: board games, video games Family: Casey’s parents live in France. Every year he takes off 2-4 weeks to go visit them.

Vivek: Role: BA/PM (Previously associate BA/QA) Background: Leisure: Family: Vivek’s family lives in Minnesota. He is going to be married this year.

Sarah:

Julie:

Arkya: Role: Client developer