Vasectomy and condoms are the only current options for male contraception. The most popular form of long-acting male contraception is a vasectomy. Unfortunately, vasectomies are not considered truly reversible. Reversal of a vasectomy is often expensive, and requires a long surgery by a specialized provider.

​As men progress through their reproductive journey, it's important to consider how their reproductive health needs change with age. Personas are fictional characters that are useful for understanding the thoughts, interests, and needs of a specific target audience. MCI is using personas to contextualize the lived experiences of potential users, beneficiaries, and intermediaries with regard to male contraception. In doing so, we hope to gain a greater understanding of how novel male contraceptive products can serve the evolving needs of sperm producers.

Upon entering the second half of their reproductive journey, sperm producers are faced with having to make a concrete decision with regard to their family planning goals. Everyone’s reproductive health needs change over time, however, the evolving needs of sperm producers have not been contextualized to the same degree as egg producers. MCI has begun using personas in their ideation activities, in order to understand how men’s reproductive interests, change with age. Personas are fictional representations of potential male contraceptive users, beneficiaries, and intermediaries. Personas are creative tools that are incorporated into user-centered design exercises and allow organizations to identify user preferences and guide new product designs.

​As sperm producers grow older and progress through their reproductive journey, it becomes imperative to consider how their reproductive health needs change with age. Personas are fictional characters that are useful for understanding the thoughts, interests, and needs of a specific target audience. MCI is using personas to contextualize the lived experiences of potential users, beneficiaries, and intermediaries with regard to male contraception. In doing so, we hope to gain a greater understanding of how novel male contraceptive products can serve the evolving needs of sperm producers.

The future users of male contraception have a diverse range of needs, perspectives, and interests that are shaped by their own individual experiences. In order for male contraceptive researchers and advocates to better understand user perspectives, MCI has recently dedicated more attention to developing personas. Personas are fictional characters that are used to represent a certain type of user of a site, brand, or product. Personas are useful for understanding members of a specific type of market or target audience. Understanding the needs and interests of future male contraceptive users will aid in the development and rollout of new methods when they become available.

A persona is a fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way. They are incredibly useful tools in user-centered design, marketing, and other disciplines focusing on customers or “users”, and they are particularly useful during ideation activities for new products and services as they allow for the extrapolation of user preferences to inform attributes, thereby removing some of the ambiguity inherent in new product design.