Lene Nielsen

Lene Nielsen serves as a Lecturer at IT University of Copenhagen specializing in Digitalisation, Democracy, and Governance. With over 20 years of research experience, she pioneered the first PhD on personas globally and maintains active research in human-computer interaction and service design methodologies. Her work bridges academic theory with practical applications across public and private sectors.

Dr. Nielsen's research centers on persona development across multiple dimensions including global personas, quantitative data-based personas, and their application in agile development and service design. Her work explores persona descriptions as communication tools for diverse target groups, the relationship between persona data and descriptions, and ethical considerations in persona usage. This research portfolio demonstrates consistent evolution from foundational persona theory toward contemporary applications in digital democracy and cooperative governance systems.

Her publication trends reveal a strategic shift toward sociotechnical frameworks for democratic governance, with recent works focusing on employee-owned business models, digital citizen participation, and non-human persona design. These publications show increasing interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly with organizational theorists and governance specialists, while maintaining core expertise in human-computer interaction and design research methodologies.

Dr. Nielsen has secured significant research funding including multiple projects with Innovation Fund Denmark, notably the Kundeprofil Matrix (2014-2016) and AMSI: Videnkupon (2011-2012). Her project portfolio demonstrates consistent external funding for translating persona research into practical organizational tools, with recent emphasis on democratically owned businesses and digital governance systems. She actively collaborates with industry partners through initiatives like InfinIT's Summer School program connecting Copenhagen students with Bornholm businesses.