Roo Loft Project Team Learner Profile v2
2.3. Personas
Interview 1:
Alan Smith is the Roosevelt director of network initiatives who builds up local resources
for students with good project ideas. He expressed some challenges in his current
communication methods due to the different timelines and management of chapters and
his expectations for the new platform to be a better tool for soliciting feedback and foster
interactions. He also foresees the Loft platform to be utilized for people outside of
Roosevelt to engage in the ongoing projects and take advantage of crowdsourcing as well
as to develop storytelling skills.
Gains:
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students are passionate and committed about civic issues
progress of student leaders in their comprehension and management
promotional value of the platform to engage the public
Pains:
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using emails to solicit feedback / information
getting everyone on the same page
having good projects but not excellent storytelling
The key insight is that Roosevelt Institute needs Loft as a platform for not only
information sharing but also storytelling and public participation.
Interview 2:
Dominic Russel works at the Roosevelt’s University of Michigan chapter. He choose to
work at Roosevelt because he is very interested in their vision.He has never actually used
the LOFT software; however I he gave me some insight into what it is like working with
the Roosevelt organization.
Gains:
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People he works with
Networking opportunities
Interesting projects
Pains:
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The communication of the network is not very good
Getting in touch and responses from chapter heads is often very difficult
The quality of work needs improvement
The key insight that I got from Dominic is that there definitely needs to be a way to
improve the spread of information among Roosevelt.
Interview 3:
Emma Copeland is the Roosevelt Chapter Lead at George Mason University. Her project
on ABC’s funding concerning alcohol policies and campus sexual harassment is an
excellent example of Roo’s impact. We have been in touch with her in order to
understand the process she worked on the project to organize our Loft worked example.
In our email communication, she was having a very packed week and then went on
vacation for another week. The disruptances in our communication also reflects the
challenge of school schedule on collaborating with outside resources or on the
consistency of project progress.
Gains:
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Making an impact on campus and the issues that she cares about
Better instructions on how policy change projects are run
Pains:
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Disruptions in communication through emailing
Limited time and resources to pour in as a student
Additional commitment to access and learn about a new platform may be a
barrier
Interview 4:
Bryan Young is the co-president of Roosevelt Institute Northwestern chapter. He pointed
out the problem that many students from our class has reached out to the 3 existing
members of NU chapter already. Bryan also expressed his vision to expand NU chapter
as a very young chapter and mature the way projects are run.
Gains:
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Potentials
There are a lot of people at NU who are interested in policy change and taking
initiatives
Pains:
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Young chapter, lack of experience
Ambiguity in starting a new project
2.4 Existing solutions
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For guidance on project management, currently there is a Loft page explaining
the different steps of setting up a project, but a lot of the conception phases are
more targeted toward technology design projects, which doesn't cater to the focus
of Roo on policy writing and campus campaign. Our project management maps
and worked example on Loft point out the processes of Roo projects are more
visual and relevant to their interests.
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For guidance on how to use Loft, currently there is a downloadable pdf file
explaining the different functions in text and occasional illustrations. It doesn’t
necessarily follow the sequential order of project management process and may
cover too much content. Our solution - slides or video would be more interactive
and relevant to the nature of Roo projects.