"When in doubt, map it out."
One of the simplest (and best) tools available to kick off the user research process is the affinity map (a.k.a. affinity diagram.) Put simply, it’s a way to cluster ideas in a visual way — one which informs how you think about what you should do next.
In the adjacent affinity map, I wanted to more simply and visually see the small universe of characteristics describing those who will a) answer the survey(s) I publish and/or b) eventually constitute my userbase/market. Given that we’re employing the term “alumni” in a somewhat unusual (though still fairly intuitive) way. I decided three major gravity wells of information I wanted to map out/populate included
1) Identities/Roles/Company Relationships: What did they actually do with/for the company?
2) Dimensions/Characteristics (i.e. Demographics): What are some of their key qualities?
3) Sentiments: How do they generally feel about things relative to the opera company?
General thought process:
I used a bit of color coding: for the “Sentiments,” green=good/positive, red=neutral or bad/negative; otherwise gold for demographics, and green under identities, as well.
For “Sentiments,” I was concerned primary with four areas of positive/neutral/negative inclinations:
a) their time at the company, b) what they thought of the work in particular, c) what they think about the future prospects of the company, and d) what they think about the future prospects of the opera industry overall.
Roles are grouped roughly by department or by most frequent interaction (singers, conductors, pianists, music staff, young artist instructors); (backstage production staff); (directors/designers/stage management); (administration/employees); (volunteers/volunteer leadership like the board, the guild)
For the demographics/dimensions/characteristics, the following were important to me, broadly speaking: age, where people are based, whether they’re on the YAP (young artist program/apprentice training) circuit, whether they’re still active in the industry, the degree to which they’re still involved in academia as students or teachers, whether they’re union (as unions are hugely important to many American opera houses, including this one.)