Hillel: User Journeys
All user personas have something in common, but with different goals in mind — they all need to do some level of cyclical discovery or monitoring to continue participating or supporting Hillel. I separate “Discovery” from “Monitoring” in that the latter has slightly different activities associated with it and also comes with a different mindset than the initial discovery.
All personas need to review the Hillel information and programming around student activities. Beyond this, there is specific content and activities for Parents and Donors that do not concern Students.
Student
Figure 1: Student Journey
Figure 2: Student Details
The Student persona begins as a Prospective Student, where they discover what Hillel is all about, through family, friends, and directly. There is an experience registering for some events before they attend. After attending, they may join Hillel (Current Student). They may like to see pictures (Hillel takes lots of photographs at events) to reminisce.
Whether or not they join, they go back to discovering what else to do.
Figure 2 (click to enlarge) shows details on goals, methods, and activities for the Student through their journey.
Parent of Student
Figure 3: Parent Journey
Figure 4: Parent Details
The Parent for this persona either wants their child to be part of Hillel, or if the child joins independently, wants to understand Hillel. If the former, it is “Parent of Prospective Student”.
This kind of Parent may be more inclined to research the organization itself, the staff, and anything Hillel has to say to them. Otherwise, they may just want to see what is going on. This is why I separate the “Initial Research” stage from the general “Discover” stage. Once the Parent of Prospective Student does that initial research, they likely don’t have to do it again.
Encouragement can include pointing to their findings on social media or the website, to increase their student’s engagement with these media.
Monitoring activities are very similar to the Discover stage, but likely with different emotion, since what their child thinks may be far more salient. Also, they likely wouldn’t want to have regular communication with Hillel if their student has not joined.
Figure 4 (click to enlarge) shows details on goals, methods, and activities for the Parent through their journey.
Donor to Hillel
Figure 5: Donor Journey
Figure 6: Donor Details
The Donor may or may not have a student in Hillel at the moment or ever. They may just want to support Jewish institutions.
Similar to the Parent, they need to understand what Hillel is doing for students. And like parents, understanding of the organization itself is likely a one-time activity. Analysis of the student activities and opportunities may be more in-depth, since money is attached to the next step of the journey.
Once they decide the want to donate, there is a step to determine what their options are and what fits best for them. Then going ahead and giving money.
As with most donors, they need to continually be convinced they should keep giving. The donor can do this themselves or be “reminded” by Hillel staff. Should their donation or desire to become involved be significant enough, a donor can attend annual events, where they will be reminded once again why they should keep giving, or actually join Hillel’s board of directors and be fully immersed. Even this immersion does not stop the cycle of the journey.
Figure 6 (click to enlarge) shows details on goals, methods, and activities for the Donor through their journey.
