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working on research investigating hormonal indicators of fertility. Fol-
lowing this, in 1984, the Unilever company launched a subsidiary firm
(Unipath) to develop their business on monoclonal human antibodies –
antibodies that could be used to identify hormone metabolites. Unilever
had also developed the ‘Clear Blue’ pregnancy test (based on monitoring
urinary hormones), pioneered the first ‘one step test’ stick for pregnancy
in 1988, and conducted research on hormonal profiles of fertility cycles.
In the 1990s these pieces of the jigsaw fell into place and the path for
Persona was set. Unipath, in addition, conducted research into women’s
attitudes to contraception and how the information provided by Persona
should be presented (e.g. ‘red days’ and ‘green days’). Aesthetics (the device
is portable and unobstrusive) was another input into Persona’s design but
‘perhaps the most interesting and challenging of all the knowledge inputs
required was understanding the nature of the interaction between persona
and its users’ (Fleck, p. 244). This relied on user education and involve-
ment and was an intrinsic part of the design process.
Persona proved extremely successful in the United Kingdom, with over
£100,000 worth of sales. But, the innovation process was not without
problems. For example, it was not approved in the United States and Uni-
path’s exclusive deal with Boots-the-Chemist to sell the Persona device
(and more importantly the urinary test sticks) had negative ramifications,
with other pharmacists refusing to stock Unipath products.

However, the fact that an object can mitigate boundaries does not mean that
actors need to understand it in exactly the same ways. As Boland and Tenkasi
(1995) noted, boundary objects ‘do not convey unambiguous meaning, but
have instead a kind of symbolic adequacy that enables conversation without
enforcing commonly shared meanings’ (p. 362). For example, religious groups
and producers saw the Persona object in very different ways – the former as a
vehicle for avoiding unwanted conception, thereby upholding Catholic values,
and the latter as a product providing an alternative, non-invasive, and therefore
safer, means of contraception. Once it was on the market, it also became clear
that some women were interpreting its use in rather different ways to those
intended by the manufacturers. As well as indicating which days a woman was
unlikely to become pregnant (as a ‘green day’) on the display, the device also
indicates ovulation (as a small ‘o’). As a result, some women began to use it to
plan, rather than avoid, pregnancy, leading eventually to the development of a
new product with similar technology – ‘Clear Plan’ (Fleck, 2003).
This is a good illustration of the different interpretation and meanings that
occur amongst actors at boundaries created by divisions in knowledge/practice
(Carlile, 2002). The Persona object served to mobilize interests and changes in
practice but people came to change their practices for different reasons. Indeed,

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