Writing user personas with Large Language Models: Testing phase 6 of a
  Thematic Analysis of semi-structured interviews
Stefano De Paoli
The goal of this paper is establishing if we can satisfactorily perform a
Thematic Analysis (TA) of semi-structured interviews using a Large Language
Model (more precisely GPT3.5-Turbo). Building on previous work by the author,
which established an embryonal process for conducting a TA with the model, this
paper will perform a further analysis and then cover the last phase of a TA
(phase 6), which entails the writing up of the result. This phase was not
covered by the previous work. In particular, the focus will be on using the
results of a TA done with the LLM on a dataset of user interviews, for writing
user personas, with the model building on the TA to produce the personas
narratives. User personas are models of real users, usually built from a data
analysis like interviews with a sample of users. User personas are tools often
used in User Centered Design processes. The paper shows that the model can
build basic user personas with an acceptable quality deriving them from themes,
and that the model can serve for the generation of ideas for user personas.