Metaphors are an important tool when communicating with project members or customers who don’t have strong knowledge of UX and usability methods.

Here two of my favorite metaphors, both from the book Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin

Personas are “the bright lights under which we do surgery”. They help us to see more clearly, but they’re no replacement for a sharp scalpel and a skilled surgeon. No patient was ever healed by sitting under the lights in the operating room.

This should make it clear that persona’s don’t solve design problems by themselves. They are a tool to see more clearly, but cannot replace the experience of the designer.

[…] Prototype code is kind of like the illusion of automatic doors on Star Trek - it looks like it’s working, but it’s really a guy standing behind the wall pulling a rope.

This should make it clear that software prototypes should not be used to build the final product.

Use these two analogies the next time when you try to explain what Personas and Prototypes should be used for and hopefully your counterpart will understand you better.