Part II - The 4 Personas of Domain Expertise

The four personas

Moving ahead from Part I this post will focus on the personas and how I see them defined.

Layer of Expertise	Persona	Index	%-age	Brief Description
Communication / Vocabulary	Jargonist	1%	90%~	Knows definitions terminology. Shallow outer knowledge,  junior assistant, or support function personnel
Customs / Practices	Machinist	10%	9%~	Knows to execute transactions, process. In Training within industry in lean, these are the operators, can do but don’t exactly know why.
Context	Strategist / Cognist	50%	.9%~	Knows the context in which the industry plays, How the market place delivers value to the end customers, Nuances of competition and their relative positions.
Connects	Protagonist	100%	.1%~	Knows and has the connects with key people who are getting things done and has information on future state of the industry before the industry gets there. They are the people who shape the industry into the future

 

Communication / Vocabulary  - Jargonist

The preliminary level where a person understands the jargon / vocabulary of the industry and can talk through a conversation about their industry. This is the outer most layer of an Industry Domain , It is shallow, my hunch that ~90% of the folks reside here.

Going a bit deeper , the person may also be aware of definitions of key terms, Ratios, KPIs etc.. that are critical in the running of the industry.

Most people we run into, some-one who works in a specific industry, and throws their weight behind a lot of terms, definitions, KPIs etc.. , probably are Jargonist. They are, unless proven otherwise with more depth of understanding. This persona is like a beach goer who takes a few steps into the ocean and returns with claims of being mariner/ sailor. The Jargonist has but a little bit of true domain experience. They have typically gone through a 101 refresher course on the industry and is very excited about their new found knowledge and ability to understand converse regarding that specific industry. My Hunch is that ~80- 90% people are at this level regarding their industries especially seen from support functions and services companies.

The Jargonist are useful as junior resources, working at a transaction level of executing tasks. From the Training within Industry [TWI]  framework these are people who are at a career level of Job Instructions. Complete tasks given without much understanding of the process that the task is a part of. They run the risk of becoming obsolete with automation and robotic AI taking over the world in the next few years.

Self Interests / Focus Proving capability knowledge to Others, Ability to converse and not being left out Inquisitiveness of an outsider, to accumulate facts Transactional level, Day To Day Activities	How others perceive Junior profiles can be helping hands Exaggeration , need ground experience Unreliable to hand over large responsibilities
Limitations Unaware of Risks / Challenges and Intricacies Inability to commit / Achieve outcomes	How does one Get here? Through 101 Course Material Online - Videos, reading Job instruction training on specific processes, Internships

Customs - Practices - Machinist

The Next level of domain expertise is a machinist. The Machinist has worked in a process / function area and has understanding of that process to good detail. This person now has an experiential sense of the process that they are in, and the dynamics of that process. Within the TWI framework a machinist can be considered to be is at the Job Methods and Job Relations levels . The person understands the value stream of the process, intricacies and are typically called upon to help manage and improve a process domain or function. They are operational leadership.  Like a Machinist, they can work the process and also tweak and improve the process. Their experience is still restricted to one or 2 organizations where they have experience and have a good understanding of the benchmarks and best practices required of that process. Machinist form 10-15% of the population and are highly valued for their experience and proactive involvement in change and improvement.

Their understanding is still limited to their process realm and their organization. Most process consultants and trainers belong to this level. Most managers and leadership too belong to this level. While they may not look like classical definitions of machinists working on processes, they end up being status quo incremental change and resource management focused

Self Interests / Focus Deep knowledge 1-2 processes, their process realm Focused on understanding improvements, details of the process Value extraction, Efficiency through various frameworks Process level short term incremental changes Resources Management and Execution for outcomes After many years, interested in lateral movement to other areas / or other industries for same function	How others perceive Trust Worthy execution , know their job Operational leadership, confidence on getting things done Recognized for their attitude towards change and  improvement Unreliable for new areas, need exposure The more the experience, Machinists come across as not explorative in mindset and having settled in a zone of comfort.
Limitations Full understanding of the business process involved in End to End View of Customer Value and Experience Lack the understanding of market dynamics.	How does one Get here? Through experience and time within a process / function Having a mind set to view end outcomes, question Embrace change and be actively involved in explorative thinking. Developing deep technical skills of the process / function TWI - Job Methods and Job Relations practices

Most operational frameworks help build deeper and better machinists, but do not go further to get a full view of the business and the market place. Over time frameworks have recognized this gap and moved towards design and managing customer experience as key life cycle aspects of long term evolution.

Contexts - Strategist / Cognist

The Machinist limits themselves to a process and incremental internal optimization. They fall short of understanding 2 things

1. Wholesome view of the business
2. The Dynamics of the market place

The next level of expertise is a level of leadership that comes from aggressive involvement in the industry across participants,

To start appreciating the dynamic nature of the market place and thereby getting to see how things are unfolding as various stakeholders make their moves. The Cognist / Strategist is the next level of realization, where the person now is deeply entrenched in understanding end  to end perspective of the business value derived by end customers and their experience in that process. Here I use  the term strategist as a execution networking centered person who like an army general can drive the moving parts of their business the compete and influence outcomes and change. The Strategist definition is not an allusion to the closed room thinker / dreamer and vision maker.

The Strategist / Cognist is able to see the moves by competition, suppliers and government and are able to play within those rules of the industry. Has a topology view of the market , like a general with a telescope in hand. The Strategist other primary interest is movement of labor and capital within their industry, in a sense the strategist also becomes a financier / portfolio manager

Such folks are very difficult to come by , and are seen as champions within their organizations and the industry for their deep insights of how to compete and succeed in their market place

Such folks have little time for jargon and conversation and spend their time networking within the industry, typically drive execution but rarely directly involved in the execution. Some are hands on though especially in change and innovation.

Self Interests / Focus Large Scale Execution and change Networking and understanding which stakeholder is doing what Industry wide Benchmarks and KPI Portfolio, Finance and Playing the Market place	How others perceive Seen as leadership within their Business and Industry Special privileges and access to resources and capital Significant respect for the ability to solve complex problems Last line of decision making
Limitations Not involved in disruptions or true innovation Play the game to optimum but cannot change the rules of the game for the future They can become obstacles to disruptive innovation iven the amount of resource and capital control they have	How does one Get here? Deep experience in the industry across functions Multiple organizations and even external industry knowledge Strong sense of self and ability to think and drive change Involvement in multiple aspects of business, ready to take on responsibility of new types and forms Networking and learning from others Delegation and learning to control and use others rather than just do

Combined the first 2 levels forms 98-99 % of the people one comes across  theoretically there are a lot of people with ideas but the true personas with experience, capability and influence to get industry level changes done are very difficult to come by. I would be surprised if there is >1% of the industry who can claim to be true strategists.

As this is an evolving conversation and the personas I am defining are fluid, I felt the term strategist also applies well to this stage of domain expertise, as long as it is not understood in its abused form of pure thinking and no action

Connects - Protagonist

The final persona is the epitome that every should aspire for. It is rarefied excellence, so rare that rather than calling it persona, we should focus on personality, given that there are very few examples, in each industry. The occurrence is close to PPM levels [ part per million] . I am calling this protagonist, because in the long run they are heralded as heroes that changed industries and economies, ultimately going beyond the given boundaries of a domain and creating new boundaries.

People like Steve jobs, Bill Gates, google founders, Zuckerberg, or Edison would be easy names to think of, each industry has its templates. What these people have, beyond the strategist is the courage to go totally into the unknown and build dream an alternative reality and make that come to life during their life-times. Such people are hard-core disruptive thinkers and doers

Rarely have they not come from the Strategist and Machinist molds as those are foundation for this persona. They have to be deeply entrenched in their domain, both in terms of understanding the foundational reasons of value for which the industry exists and also strongly network across the industry and the economy to see fissures that exist and can be exploited.

Interconnectedness, knowing who is doing what and influence or reach out to them and get things done in ones favor. Get things done at large scale

Self Interests / Focus Networking and understanding  what each stakeholder is doing what in their industry Overcome Psychological inertia of their industry and think different, Look into the future and carry out bold executive decisions to redefine value, rules of the game Influence other people to follow into the unknown Highly courageous mindset	How others perceive As life time heroes and immense respect With a sense of hatred for their level of disruption and different thinking especially from peers
Limitations The main limitation is the complexity of nature / unknown that many times strikes such people with failures and bring them down The Friction they cause in  others' lives intentionally or otherwise	How does one Get here? Over and above a strategist, the persona is so rare that it looks like a gift rather than a skill It surely has a strong combination of observation, deep technical expertise and creative thinking Very difficult to define

I want to leave with a thought that these 4 levels are not about organization hierarchy , they can be found everywhere within the organization. Its natural bias to think that the personas are correlated with organizational seniority but in reality they are not , in each layer, one would find all the 4 personas manifest. 

Where do you stand? or Where do I stand? some self introspection would help oneself. 

Happy to hear your thoughts 

Comparative view of the 4 personas

Finally a table to visually appreciate the 2 personas.. I have looked at various levels of expertise and know-how quick definitions of the same

• Vocabulary ] Definitions, Key focus areas of the domain, KPI,
• Execution ] Working towards outcomes, Incremental Change, Improvement, Efficiency
• Value ] Delivering Cost, time and Quality Efficiencies, Ensuring priority on the most important things
• Customer Experience ] how users interact with a service and dynamics there-in
• Market Dynamics ] Movement of various stakeholders in a industry , and across the globe, Strategies, best practices and confluence and influence coming out of them
• Disruption / Innovation ] What are the rules, how to change them, making bold changes to experience, technology and activity. Thereby changing the contours of the industry. 

Legend