Equalit maps user groups by creating personas
Equalit is an ICT partnership of and for local governments. The organization facilitates 12 participants, including municipality of Zundert. By combining knowledge and strengths, building and Together, they develop digital solutions toservices to residents and businesses optimize. To perform a Sharepoint data migration, Equalit switched the expertise from PQR. To make this transition as smooth as possible, on the advice ofof PQR first established a number of personasTo provide direction for the transition process atthis upcoming data migration.
The importance of personas for successful data migration
Equalit received a request from the municipality of Zundert to perform a Sharepoint data migration, so PQR was contacted. PQR’s advice was to first initiate a process to define personas prior to the migration; fictional characters that represent the various user groups and provide insight into their needs and goals. This with the goal of properly anticipating the needs and expectations of the various user groups and providing targeted communication and support throughout the adoption process.
Lieke van Dongen, communications professional at Equalit explains, “Personas had already been drawn up earlier from our participating municipalities. However, these were numerous, incomplete and therefore unclear. On PQR’s advice, we decided to review and redefine the existing personas. In this way, we were able to clearly identify our target group and prepare for the upcoming data migration.”
Target group research for developing personas
Equalit, Zundert municipality and PQR then worked closely together to develop the personas. A research project was initiated and valuable insights were gathered through interviews and other means.
Lieke: “At Equalit, every employee was given the opportunity to join the working group. With a group of enthusiastic colleagues, we were closely involved and included in the entire process. We began with several sessions from PQR that clarified what the adoption process entails for Zundert municipality, and the importance of audience research and persona creation. Indeed, this was a new topic for most of our colleagues. It was nice to see this taking more and more shape for everyone, and we were able to contribute ideas throughout the process to flesh it out. PQR conducted interviews with a very diverse group of employees with different activities, digital skills and workplace locations, both working at Equalit and at Zundert municipality. Based on this, a number of personas were created.
This was followed by a workshop, where we were able to provide feedback on the personas and their core values. This ultimately resulted in six type personas that are used in the adoption process associated with the data migration.”
“A successful data migration depends not only on technical aspects, but also on understanding the users and their needs. It is essential to identify the different user groups within the organization, and identify what challenges they may face during the migration.”
Bas van Baalen, Adoption Consultant and Change Manager at PQR
Successful collaboration between Equalit and PQR
The collaboration between Equalit, Zundert municipality and PQR is a great example of how the creation of personas plays an important role in realizing a smooth data migration. Because Equalit has a clear picture of the different user groups, data migration can be carefully tailored to their needs. In addition, potential problems are identified and resolved early.
Lieke emphasizes the importance of this: “Creating personas definitely offers added value. First, it creates support by involving employees early in the process. In addition, it allows us to design the adoption process very precisely because we have insight into the specific characteristics and needs of our employees. In fact, we thought we knew our target audience well, but thanks to the interviews PQR conducted, we were able to really map this out.
One of the biggest advantages is that we can apply these personas to any project. Since our ICT services and products are constantly evolving, the elaborated personas help us to continuously keep in mind whether we are meeting all the needs of the different user groups. We plan to use the personas with the other municipalities in our partnership as well, carefully considering which personas are appropriate for each specific municipality. This approach certainly contributes to the success of our work.
We are therefore very satisfied with this project and the cooperation with PQR. They were very thoughtful with us and included and supported us in the process from beginning to end!”
