For-profit companies define user archetypes called “personas” before developing a product. A typical persona includes a face, a name and a problem description. “I’m Jamal, a premed student, and I need books for next semester. Can I find them on Amazon.com?”
In combination with quantitative research, personas offer a window into customers’ thoughts and feelings. It’s frighteningly easy to build something useless when you haven’t fleshed out the underlying problem.
Most nonprofits don’t have evidence-based personas for the communities they serve because the research is expensive and time consuming. This creates a chicken-and-egg problem: it costs money to gather stories about people who need your help, yet the narratives are essential to grant writing.
“provider” - a local government or not-for-profit organization that designs community service initiatives.
“participant” - a community member who benefits from a provider’s services
Create a digital platform that makes it easier for providers to curate personas for the communities they serve.
As a participant, I want to safely and anonymously describe a problem I’m having. This could be anything: substance abuse, obesity, depression, financial literacy. I may or may not want providers to contact me and offer help.
As a provider, I need personas to ensure my program addresses participants’ needs. I’m especially concerned about the quality and structure of this data. If the stories are trustworthy and well crafted, I can use them in grant applications. The platform should let me connect with willing participants.
- Accessibility: Providers can access personas anytime at no cost.
- Safety: Participants can safely share their stories because the platform lets them know what data is being collected.
- Privacy: Participant information will never be sold or shared with third parties except when the participant asks to be connected to a provider.
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Pay a consultant: Consulting companies offer market research services, and some of them cater to nonprofit organizations. This may be a superior option for providers with unique data gathering requirements who can stomach the cost.
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Do it yourself: Providers can craft their own evidence-based personas by combing through public datasets and interviewing participants. This is time consuming compared to the proposed solution, but first-hand research may be necessary if the problems you’re tackling are unique to a particular community.
- What’s the most appropriate technical design for this “digital platform”? Is it a website, a native app, an embedded device — or something different? The answer depends on how providers and participants intend to use it.
- What do participants need in order to feel safe sharing the stories?
- What data format would be most useful to providers for grant applications?
- What would be the regulatory restrictions on saving and sharing participants’ stories if the narratives involved medical info?
- Should the platform cater to all kinds of public interest programs (obesity, substance abuse, financial literacy, etc.) or should the focus be limited to specific issues? While a “one-stop shop” would be useful, it creates more complexity in terms of user experience design.