Split “the User” Into the Kinds of People the Workflow Serves
The “Who Is the User?” Worksheet
Companion to You Are Not the User · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this when a workflow serves more than one kind of person and someone has written “the user wants” as if there were only one. Worked in “There Is No Single User.”
The “Who Is the User?” Worksheet, part one: what each party needs and does.
| Party or user role | What they need | What they decide | How often they touch it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer | |||
| Customer | |||
| Administrator | |||
| User role: | |||
| User role: | |||
| User role: | |||
| Affected party |
The “Who Is the User?” Worksheet, part two: cost, observation, and conflict.
| Party or user role | What it costs them | How we’d observe them | Where their needs conflict with another party’s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer | |||
| Customer | |||
| Administrator | |||
| User role: | |||
| User role: | |||
| User role: | |||
| Affected party |
The “Who Is the User?” Worksheet, part three: deciding each conflict.
| Conflict | Who decides | On what evidence |
|---|---|---|
Every conflict in part two needs a row in part three. The usual answer is to design for the most frequent role without breaking the most consequential one, but the point of the table is that someone named makes that call, on evidence someone can point to.