To ensure that Next-Best-Action Designer configuration is correct, configure and run persona tests. With persona tests, you can check that you are getting the expected results for a specific user persona, and in this way validate your engagement policies and arbitration settings.

In addition to manually running these tests, Pega Marketing automatically adds all persona tests to a suite of tests, which you can use to manage regression testing for your application.

Configuring persona tests

Persona-based tests use customer personas with specific characteristics to evaluate your Next-Best-Action strategy results. You can design these personas according to your requirements and the strategy that you are testing. For example, to verify that a Retention action is prioritized for a customer who are at risk of terminating their contract, you can design a customer persona with specific characteristics and check which action the Next-Best-Action strategy selects for them.

1. On the Engagement policy tab, click the name of any group, or click All groups to run the simulation for all issues and groups in your business structure.

2. Click Actions > Persona testing.

3. If you did not previously configure a persona test, click Create test.

4. In the Persona (Data transform) field, enter the name for the customer persona, for example, Retention Customer, and click the Open icon.

5. On the Definition tab of the data transform, specify the characteristics of the persona.

   The persona characteristics are defined as properties of the customer, their journey, and other related data. For example, if you have a specific test customer contact that you want to use as a test persona, enter their ID in the Set.ContactId equal to row. You can add new properties by right-clicking on a row and selecting Add child.

6. Click Create.

7. In Next-Best-Action Designer, continue with the persona test configuration, as described in Testing Next-Best-Action configuration with persona testing.

Testing Next-Best-Action configuration with persona testing

You can design persona-based test to verify that the Next-Best-Action Strategy gives the expected results. For example, design a customer test persona, and then run a test to verify that the customer receives a specific action with high propensity.

1. On the Engagement policy tab, click the name of a group, or click All groups to run the simulation for all issues and groups in your business structure.
2. Click Actions > Persona testing.
3. If you did not previously configure a persona test, click Create test.
4. In the Create test window, configure the conditions for the test to pass.

   For example: Select the action and treatment that you expect the test persona to receive according to your Next-Best-Action Strategy.

5. In the Persona (Data transform) field, select the persona against which you want to test the strategy.
6. In the Next-Best-Action scope section, select whether the test should only check engagement policy configuration, or also include additional elements, like constraints and arbitration.
7. Click Create.
8. Select the test and click the Run selected tests icon.
9. After the persona test finishes, analyze the results to see whether the result matches the expected outcome.