Working with personas
Adding a new persona
You can add a persona to your library by clicking Add persona to create a persona from scratch or Import personas to import from a library.
Personas are fundamental to how Conducttr builds the information environment so there are a lot of fields, but you don't necessarily need to complete them all! At a minimum a persona must have a name and unique handle. The handle isn't seen by your players but it's important to you as the designer.
Name
The persona's name
Handle
This is a way to uniquely refer to a specific persona.
The handle is used in the following situations:
Replacing with another persona from a library - personas with the same handle are recognised as potentially being the same
Used in smartwords to access the persona's other attributes. See the section on swartwords
Faction
This is a convenient grouping of personas but also affects how the AI generates content
Bio
This is for designers to know who the persona is supposed to represent
Location
This is used to geolocate social media and website article posts (important for the InfoMap channel)
Impersonation
This allows human players with the matching position to impersonate this persona.
"All positions can edit" means website articles on this persona's website can be edited by any player with a position (i.e. not just a specific position)
Matchers player
This allows a player to log in and inhabit a persona without creating a position.
The player will need to use the same email address as the persona to log in as a team member.
Persona attributes
Persona attributes shape how personas behave, communicate, and interact when used with our AI.
Please don't feel you to have to manually enter all these details! Use the AI to auto-populate.
Where personas have no attributes defined, they inherit context from their faction. Below are all the attributes available for defining a persona. They fall into the following categories:
Identity – stable characteristics defining who the persona is, including background, role, affiliation, and narrative identity
Cognition – the persona’s beliefs, knowledge, values, and mental models used to interpret events and information
Motivation – goals, incentives, and priorities that drive decision-making and behavioural intent
Affect – emotional and psychological state variables such as morale, anger, fear, vigilance, and stress
Social – relationships, influence roles, group membership, and the persona’s position within social or factional structures
Memory – stored experiences, learned information, and evolving narrative context that shape future interpretation and behaviour
Physical – operational and situational attributes of the persona such as location, activity, capability constraints, and physical condition
Why do these attributes matter?
With richer attributes, personas can become more than just text descriptions. Defining personas' communication styles, tones, voice preferences, and language etc. transforms them into functional data models that our AI can act upon.
This leads to more authentic, consistent content generation across all formats (audio, image, text). The more information our AI has about the persona, the more realistic the result will be when you ask it to generate content.
You'll find all essential fields in the Core tab when editing a persona. For deeper personalisation/direct JSON editing, you'll find more attributes in the </> Expert section:
System Information
Handle
Social media handle/username for the persona and a way to uniquely refer to a specific persona
The handle is used in the following situations:
Replacing with another persona from a library - personas with the same handle are recognised as potentially being the same
Used in smartwords to access the persona's other attributes
Classification
Information classification: Open, Restricted, Confidential, or Internal
Is Organisation
Indicates whether this persona represents an organisation rather than an individual (activates the Website channel)
Matches Player
Links the persona to a player role in the exercise
Positions to Impersonate
Defines which player positions can impersonate this persona
Tags
Freeform tags for filtering/classification (max 30 characters per entry)
Identity
To autofill all attributes for a persona with the help of AI, fill out the Bio (this will also give the persona an image and name). Include information like:
Who they are
What they want
Where they are (geographically and politically if appropriate)
And click Generate:
To find example prompts/inspiration for persona bios, visit the page below:
Name
Full name of the persona
Gender
Gender identity: Female, Male, or Non-binary
Bio
Biography and background description
Character Pitch
A short, punchy snapshot capturing the persona's core identity and tone (max 130 characters)
Age
Age in years
Job Title
Current professional title
Cultural Identity
Affiliation
This is a NATO categorisation of actors - it's used for some Pulse widgets
A3E
A military categorisation used in some Pulse widgets
Disposition
This is used in some Pulse widgets and reflects the persona's disposition (negative to supportive) towards the training audience
Tags
Searchable field to make it easier to find personas with similar tags. This can be very helpful during design but also running
Established
Convenient means for filtering but not used by the simulation
Nationality
Country of nationality
Ethnicity
Ethnic background
Accent
Spoken accent
Narrative
Role
Functional role in the scenario
Archetype
Relationship to the player: Boss, Sidekick, Antagonist, Subordinate, Colleague, Expert, Customer, or Neutral
Affiliation
Affiliation
Alignment category: Friendly, Hostile, Enemy, or Unknown
Faction
A way of organising personas (can be selected from existing factions/created new)
A3E
Role classification: Audience, Actor, Adversary, or Enemy
Communication Style
These attributes determine how the output (i.e. published content) of your persona will be presented. Use targeted autofill here by editing the Examples field.
Click Preview to hear a sample of the persona's voice (from 11labs). This will be used for any phone calls you use in your exercise.
Examples
Sample text illustrating the faction's typical voice (used by AI to generate communications in the appropriate style)
Text Alignment
Layout direction for text content: Left or Right
Style
General writing style (e.g. formal, casual, witty, technical)
Tone
Emotional flavour of messaging (e.g. neutral, upbeat, critical)
Language Register
Formality level (e.g. slang vs professional, jargon vs plain language)
Delivery
How messages are presented (e.g. concise, story-like, authoritative)
Channels
Where the persona/faction communicates (select up to 4 channels)
Writes In
Language
Uses Emojis
Whether the persona/faction uses emojis or not
Avoids
Words, topics, or styles the persona/faction deliberately avoids (max 30 characters per entry)
Location
Location
Geographic location of the persona (supports What3Words for precise location selection)
GPS
Coordinates (can be entered manually or selected via a map interface)
Cognitive Profile
Empathy
Empathy shapes the tone of voice for personas with the range -3 to +3 indicating confrontational style to conciliatory style respectively
Beliefs
Belief tags connect the persona to beliefs in the belief library
Influence
Influence determines how much engagement a persona gets on their social media posts
Content & Social Graph
Check the checkbox if you want to hide this persona from all social media
The cognitive attributes define how the faction thinks, decides, and behaves. These are based on the COM-B behaviour model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation).
All the following details in the </> Expert tab feed into the core Beliefs, Goals, and Knowledge Base you see in the Core tab.
🔥Capability
Psychological
Skills, knowledge, and mental abilities that help the persona/faction act (max 30 characters per entry)
Limitations
Known constraints/weaknesses that hold the persona/faction back (max 30 characters per entry)
🔥Opportunity
Social
People and networks that enable or hinder action (max 30 characters per entry)
Environmental
Contextual or physical factors that enable or block action (max 30 characters per entry)
🔥Motivation
Automatic
Habits and impulses that drive behaviour without conscious thought (max 30 characters per entry)
Reflective
Deliberate goals and reasoning that drive behaviour (max 60 characters per entry)
Goals
What the persona/faction wants to achieve (max 60 characters per entry)
Fears
Risks or outcomes the faction wants to avoid (max 30 characters per entry)
🔥Mindset & Disposition
Empathy Level
How easily the persona understands and cares about others' perspectives
Disposition Level
Overall stance toward the training audience, from hostile (−5) to supportive (+5)
Traits
Stable personality traits shaping behaviour
Mental State
Current mental outlook or cognitive state
Mental State Trend
Recent pattern in mindset (e.g. improving, declining, volatile)
Emotional State
Current emotion influencing decisions: Fear, Anger, Outrage, Dread, Grief, Sorrow, Betrayal, Humiliation, Shame, Envy, Jealousy, Joy, Hope, Optimism, Relief, Trust, Compassion, Empathy, Love, Pride, Resentment, Disappointment, Gratitude, Regret
Morale
Confidence and willingness to persist under pressure
🔥Beliefs & Standards
Beliefs
Core statements the persona holds to be true (max 100 characters per entry)
Attitudes
Leanings or feelings toward an issue, actor, or behaviour (max 60 characters per entry)
External Standards
Public values the persona claims to uphold, judged by media and the general public, the breaking of which triggers public disappointment or shame: Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Honesty, Harm Avoidance, Duty, Lawfulness, Reciprocity, Accountability, Transparency, Honour, Solidarity, Innovation, Profitability, Competitiveness, Vision, Sovereignty, Representation, Stability, Caregiving, Trust, Tradition, Discipline, Courage, Sacrifice
Internal Standards
Private values guiding decisions within close circles, judged by allies or staff. Upholding them earns loyalty or admiration, even if the public disapproves (same options as External Standards)
External vs Internal Standards
External Standards
The values a persona claims to uphold publicly.
These are the standards by which the general public, media, and wider audiences judge the persona.
Violations here trigger public-facing emotions like reproach, disappointment, or shame.
Example: A politician professes fairness, transparency, accountability. If caught lying, the public feels reproach because external standards were violated.
Internal Standards
The values that truly guide the persona’s decisions within their close circle or loyal base.
These are used by allies, party members, staff, or inner circle to appraise the persona.
Upholding these standards can generate admiration, pride, or gratitude, even if external standards are being broken.
Example: That same politician may privately value loyalty, competitiveness, authority. If they protect allies or win a power struggle, insiders admire them even if the public condemns them.
Why This Split Matters
Many personas - especially leaders, executives, or public figures - operate under dual appraisal systems:
External lens: how the crowd/media react.
Internal lens: how allies/juniors/backers react.
This allows the same event to produce contrasting emotional outcomes across audiences.
Example:
External → “He broke the rules” → reproach.
Internal → “He protected the team” → admiration.
🔥Behaviour
Expected
Behaviours anticipated from this persona given context (max 60 characters per entry)
Constraints
Rules/limits restricting behaviour (max 60 characters per entry)
🔥Memory
Events
Notable life or scenario events that shape this persona's outlook (max 100 characters per entry)
Knowledge Base
Specific knowledge known only to this persona
Facts
Discrete facts known by the persona (max 30 characters per entry)
To find more information about giving personas a unique voice, visit the page below:
Influence
Influence Category
Degree of online influence (see table below)
Comments (Low / High)
Expected range of comments per post (auto-populated based on influence category but can be manually overridden)
Likes (Low / High)
Expected range of likes per post (auto-populated but overridable)
Shares (Low / High)
Expected range of shares per post (auto-populated but overridable)
Influence Category Defaults
Influencer
400k+
200 – 2,000
8,000 – 40,000
500 – 5,000
Commentator
100k – 400k
100 – 800
2,000 – 15,000
200 – 2,000
Geek
5k – 10k
5 – 50
150 – 800
10 – 80
Entertainer
400k+
300 – 3,000
10,000 – 50,000
1,000 – 6,000
Regular
Up to 1k
0 – 10
5 – 50
0 – 5
To find more information about influence, visit the page below:
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