This paper explores the use of personas in co-designing learning experiences for students. It reviews existing literature about the use of personas within the design process and then presents a case study of a group of teachers (N = 15) and designers collaboratively designing (co-designing) a term-long learning experience for a group of digital technologies students in a high school. The paper draws upon theory and results from the exploratory case study to suggest that there is significant value in using personas early in the design process when a group of co-designers are designing for a group who are absent--in this case, students. The paper shares a description of the co-design process and the use of personas, as well as an analysis of the personas created and the participant perceptions of the value of the activity. It outlines a three-step activity framework for using creative personas effectively in similar situations where a group of teachers-as-designers are co-designing for absent students. It proposes that personas are valuable for groups of teachers co-designing for students as a way to evoke empathy, aid in problem framing, and set up a space for creative thinking as part of an iterative design process.