As part of the Steering Council’s work to improve the contribution experience, we’ve created a set of contribution personas. We’re planning to use these personas to identify which areas of the community are currently well-supported and which are not. We will then use this information to guide changes to the contribution process, so more people are able to contribute successfully and to hopefully reduce the burden where it is too high.
We would appreciate some feedback on whether these are the right personas and some help filling in any gaps we’ve missed. Please also feel free to let us know if you think we’ve got something wrong here.
Personas
I have a particular itch
I want one thing changed and I’ll be happy
I use Django for work
I want credit / recognition
I want to be involved so I can put it on the resume?
I tend to be new to OSS
Regular OSS contributor
I could be involved in several projects
I may have a particular area of focus
I might use frameworks other than Django regularly.
Django Library Maintainer
I will keep coming back with bugs and issues.
I really want Django to keep running.
Django evangelist
I convinced my company to use Django
The company I work for may be willing to fund a new feature
Django Subject Matter Expert
I contribute frequently
I can be relied on as a subject matter expert
Translator/ Helper
I want to help with someone else’s project.
I might have a particular interest like translation.
Linux Distro maintainer
I want to provide Django in my distribution
Content creator?
I’m an author, podcaster, tutorial creator, video creator or tiktoker, etc
I will need to update my materials when Django changes
People who are talking about relevant software
I may prefer for Django to not have major changes.
I have to worry about differences between versions and informing my readers. Sometimes nothing changes with a new version and the tutorial is still applicable, sometimes it’s not.
Business owner/employee
I usually do not want Django to change.
Every change, I have to pay time or money whenever there is a significant update.
Djangonaut / GSoC Mentee
I have a support network to contribute to Django
I am motivated to work on Django right now
Educator?
Does this include Djangonaut Space and Django Girls educators?
This is a great initiative! Defining these personas will definitely help in making Django contributions more inclusive and accessible.
A few thoughts on the list:
“I use Django for work” – Maybe differentiate between casual users (who contribute occasionally) and enterprise users (who need long-term stability and features).
“I want to be involved so I can put it on the resume” – Some might not just be looking for a resume boost but also structured learning or mentorship. Maybe an “Aspiring Contributor” persona would fit here?
“Business owner/employee” – This is an important persona. A small business owner and an enterprise team might have very different concerns. Could breaking this down further be useful?
“Django evangelist” – How about a separate category for “Community Builders” who actively organize meetups, engage in forums, or promote Django beyond just their workplace?
“Django Subject Matter Expert” vs. “Fellows” – There seems to be some overlap. Maybe it helps to clarify the difference between core maintainers and independent experts who contribute but aren’t officially part of the core team?
Overall, this is a well-thought-out list! Looking forward to seeing how this evolves. Thanks to the Steering Council for working on this.
Arguably, that’s already done with the existing personas that indicate the type of contributor they are and then the “Business owner/employee” persona. The way we looked at it is that an individual may adopt various personas at any time.
I think this is what we categorized as GSoC Mentee / Djangonaut
Would you be willing to suggest a starting place for the new personas?
Good idea! I suspect they were left out because we were focused primarily on the contribution process. However, those spaces tend to also have sprints or host discussions about Django’s development.
I think those roles have a lot of overlap. There’s more responsibility on the Fellows though.
However, that leads me to wonder if there’s an appropriate “Student” / “Trainee” category that may be considered distinct from the “I want credit” category.
A person who is a “Student” / “Trainee” could be in any of a number of the other categories.
You cover one broad grouping in the “Djangonaut / GSoC Mentee” group, but by the definition provided for that group (i.e.: I have a support network to contribute to Django), it excludes the “lone wolf” who doesn’t have that support readily (or identifiably) available.
I’ve got the feeling that the needs for such an individual tends to be different than a more experienced developer in many of these personas, yet be common needs across all the categories in which those individuals may be found.