Plan | Synthetic persona interviews are available on the Free plan and above.
What is a synthetic persona interview?
A synthetic persona interview divides consumers into segments based on data, creates virtual consumers who represent the segment you choose, and lets you talk with them directly.
It supports both individual interviews, where you have an in-depth conversation with one persona, and group interviews, where you ask several personas the same question and compare how their reactions differ.
How are synthetic personas created, and how do they answer?
Opensurvey's synthetic personas are built on real consumer data. You can also use data accumulated in your Space or data you've imported as a source. You need to know which data a persona came from to judge how much to trust its answers, so every step starts from data.
Persona creation logic
Data search : Data highly relevant to the description you entered is selected as the source.
Segment analysis : AI suggests segments that fit the market, and the analytics engine cross-validates them so that only meaningfully distinct groups remain.
Persona creation : Traits that stand out in the segment compared with general consumers are extracted to create a persona that represents that target, not an average consumer.
Persona response logic
Alongside the persona that answers like a consumer, an analytics engine keeps the answers consistent with the characteristics of the consumer group in the data. When the data contains a direct answer, the persona shows that evidence. When it doesn't, the persona infers an answer from its profile and shows which traits the inference was based on.
When should you use it?
Synthetic personas generate answers based on real data, so how refined the answers are depends on how much data has been accumulated. Check the recommendations that fit your data situation and purpose.
⭕ Recommended uses
🙆♀️ When you want to dig into reasons that survey numbers alone can't explain (most recommended)
"People in their 20s who often drink zero-sugar beverages like this new product, but those who drink them only occasionally don't. The numbers show a difference, but not why."
Once you've found where reactions split in your survey results, you can ask synthetic personas directly about reasons that were hard to ask in a survey, such as "You said you didn't like this drink. What disappointed you most?"
If you compare the answers of several personas in a group interview, you can also see why reactions split. For example, a persona who drinks it often may say they like the clean taste, while one who drinks it occasionally may say it isn't sweet enough.
🙆♀️ When you want to gauge consumer reactions before starting full-scale research
"This is an unfamiliar category, so I want to run qualitative research, but I don't know what to ask first. I'd like to gauge consumer reactions before starting in earnest."
You can use these conversations to build initial hypotheses or explore early reactions, such as which selling points might work and which concerns might remain. Exploring in advance makes it easier to decide which questions to validate in the main research.
What if you don't have data on the topic you want to explore?
The more source data synthetic personas have, the more of their answers are backed by evidence and the more refined the personas you can create. If there isn't enough data related to your topic, personas answer by inference more often, and [Response basis] may show a high inference rate.
In that case, we recommend securing customer data through quantitative research first. Run segmentation research with the Agentic Solution or our professional research team, then create synthetic personas from that data and interview them.
❌ When real consumer research is the better choice
🙅♂️ When you need "real customer quotes" in reports or other documents
"I need to include what real customers said in my report. Can I use synthetic persona answers instead?"
Synthetic persona answers are not statements made by real customers, so we don't recommend quoting them in documents that require real customer statements. Please obtain real customer quotes through research with real consumers.
🙅♂️ When you want to finalize figures such as price acceptance or purchase intent
"I want to check right away with synthetic personas what percentage of people would buy at this price."
Synthetic persona interviews can't finalize statistical figures such as price acceptance or purchase intent, because the number of synthetic persona responses doesn't represent actual consumer proportions.
Use persona answers to form hypotheses about how consumers react to price and purchase intent and why, and verify exact figures through surveys with real consumers.
Curious about what your customers really think? Create your own synthetic personas and start interviewing!