The introductory information systems course has been a challenge to deliver for business school faculty members. One part of the challenge is to clearly understand the students who will take the class. An extension of user-centered design (UCD) called a persona has been used to gain understanding and develop empathy for target users/consumers of product design efforts. Extending the use beyond product design, personas were used to revise and design the introductory operations and information management class at a major western university. The use of personas led to a number of class innovations including the use of a blog, the selection of practitioner oriented book, and the use of recent students who had completed the class as recitation leaders. Preliminary results have included increased enrollments in advanced elective classes in operations and information management