AAPG Wiki:Personas

Some existing demographics (check):

• Average age of employees in the industry is 50-52.
  • The average age of the geophysical department in Houston is 58 years.
• Technical professionals tend to retire early. The average age of retirement of technical professionals at ConocoPhilips is 59.
• Therefore in less than 10 years, most of these technical professionals will be gone.

The idea of the personas is to describe various archetypes, for example:

• Basic information
  • Demographics: age, gender
  • Job: manager, engineer
  • Primary work location: office, field (stationary or mobile)
  • Membership type: non-member (general public), member, subscriber
• To develop use cases based on personas
  • Why do I need the wiki? To look up data? To understand emerging areas?
  • How will I use the wiki? For example, to search for technical information on a just in time, just enough basis; to contribute to technical information?
  • How will I access the wiki? Desktop/laptop, mobile (smart phone, iPhone, Android, etc.), tablet (iPad, Microsoft tablet, Samsung galaxy, etc.)
• Use cases will help drive requirements for the pilot and beyond
• A user survey could inform and validate the personas

Range of users

The idea is to synthesize fictional characters representing a range of 'types'. For example, it might be useful to cover the young, and the near-retirement. It's important to represent industry and academia.

Draft personas

Alice
Job	Development geologist.
Age	25
Education	BSc Geology
Membership	4 years
Tenure	3 years, plus internship
Skills	Her skills.
Use cases

Bob
Job	Senior exploration geologist.
Age	40
Education	PhD Geology
Membership	18 years
Tenure	New hire, 14 years experience
Skills	His skills.
Use cases	Likes to have a solid background before starting a new project Often needs to validate cite books and research Runs a training course for young geologists Often presents a paper at the ACE, publishes articles Trying to build a network in a new company, and maintain old ties

Carol
Job	Chief geologist.
Age	55
Education	MSc Geology
Membership	30 years
Tenure	24 years
Skills	Business aspects of geoscience; mentoring.
Use cases	Not tech savvy particularly. Extremely busy, needs everything quickly. Retiring in less than 5 years.