Who the draft personas describe

Source: NCSIM Personas, Confluence draft v4. Edited October 5, 2026 by Anthony Cala; exported October 25. This is first-pass PruTech material for BA review, explicitly not reviewed or approved by SUNY. All 22 pages were read, including the crosswalk, every profile, assumptions and source list. No images are embedded.

What we can use

E-006, source-derived profiles: the 21 profiles come from requirements, the RFP checklist and PruTech's response. They do not report interviews, observed behavior, sample sizes, or usage data. Their priority labels describe the draft's view, not demonstrated audience importance. Confidence is strong about the stated method and approval status. Treat goals and problems as requirements-based ideas to investigate. [Pages 1, 22.]

The six main roles describe access and responsibility: PUB public visitor, LRN signed-in learner, EPR employer/contract trainer, INS instructor, CAD campus administrator, NAD central administrator. Four campus subroles sit inside CAD through campus permission sets. These are not yet behavioral personas. [Page 1.]

The draft cites an October 2 FRD, while the supplied current FRD is October 22. Later decisions may have changed these descriptions. [Page 22; supplied file names.]

Crosswalk and detailed profiles

The draft's PRIMARY, SECONDARY and CANDIDATE labels are retained below so they can be checked later. They are not our recommendation.

Learners and visitors

• Non-Credit Learner, P-LRN, LRN, primary (crosswalk page 2; detail pages 5–7). Seeks one profile, suitable learning, registration/payment confirmation, credentials, credit/career links and accessible language/device use. Tasks cover discovery, aid, waitlists, payment/refunds, orientation/LMS, progress, transfers, messages, support, appointments, feedback and sharing controls. Proposed problems include campus differences, repeated data entry, handoffs, separate systems and disconnected records. Open: account holders versus participants in headcount; required fields and SSN policy; simultaneous campuses and visibility; voluntary wage/employment surveys and consent; showing refund amounts before confirmation. Mapped to all ten modules.
• Prospective Learner, P-PRO, PUB, primary (page 2; pages 7–8). Seeks a suitable offering across campuses and clear cost, time, eligibility, funding and credential/credit value before deciding. Tasks include filters, printable details, maps, prerequisites, fees/deadlines/waitlists, saved searches/alerts and questions. Existing-process problems are registrar contact, separated aid information and separate campus catalogs. Open: anonymous browsing; which activities require application review and who reviews; tours/information appointments; prospect records and outreach before registration. Draft imagines choosing account creation or guest registration. Maps to catalog, registration, communication and support.
• Guest Enrollee, P-GST, PUB, primary (page 2; page 8). Seeks a short registration without creating an account, confirmation and later access to past activity if an account is created. Tasks include minimal details, payment, identity matching, receipt and conversion. The claimed account-creation barrier comes from the proposal, not measured abandonment. Open: who sets guest eligibility; required fields/headcount; secure withdrawal/refund access; credentials; aid or sponsorship. Some assumptions are explicitly unsupported. Maps to registration, finance and credentials. The onboarding guide later describes browsing only.
• Employer-Sponsored Learner, P-SPL, LRN, secondary (page 2; pages 8–9). Seeks low-administration participation, personal credentials and control over employer visibility. Tasks include linking an organization, receiving change notices and tracking completion. Duplicate records from employer uploads are a stated risk. Open: claiming an account, employer consent/default access, shared identity for personal study, and partial sponsorship balances. Maps to profile, registration, finance and credentials.
• Existing SUNY Student or Alumnus, P-SUL, LRN, secondary (page 3; pages 9–10). Seeks reuse of identity, combined records and credit links. Tasks include sign-in, profile checks, prior credential transfer and equivalence review. Open: alumni without active single sign-on, campus record exchange, and reporting movement in both directions between credit and non-credit. Maps to profile, catalog, registration, credentials and reporting.
• Youth Participant and Parent/Guardian, P-YTH, LRN, candidate (page 3; page 10). Seeks age-appropriate learning and registration/payment. The source explicitly has no youth/guardian pain-point evidence. Open: guardian action and communications, consent/privacy policy, identity for minors, and whether youth enrollment is online or handled outside the service. The FRD has no separate minor persona. Maps to catalog, registration and reporting.

Employers and other outside parties

• Employer/Third-Party Sponsor Representative, P-EMP, EPR, primary (page 3; pages 10–11). Seeks efficient group enrollment, continuity when employees change, participation/completion reporting and combined billing. Tasks include organization accounts, manual/CSV enrollment, payment/discounts, replacements, withdrawals/refunds and reports. Open: invoices/purchase orders; multi-campus scope; permitted fields; non-employer sponsors such as workforce agencies; account approval; replacement cutoffs; multiple representatives. Maps to profile, registration and finance. Proposed time savings are unmeasured.
• Third-Party Instructional Provider, P-TPP, EPR, candidate (page 3; pages 11–12). A contracted delivery partner should be identifiable for reporting. No source establishes that providers directly use the portal or describes their problems. Open: user role versus data record; limited access to content/rosters/completion; costs/revenue share; instructor records. Mapping to EPR is an assumption. Reporting is the mapped module.
• External Credential Verifier, P-CVR, PUB, candidate (page 3; page 12). Seeks to confirm a shared credential's authenticity and validity. The role comes from the supplier response; RFP 6.5 concerns SUNY verification. No pain-point evidence is cited. Open: public verification page, badge standard/provider, learner consent and whether external verification is an integration rather than a screen. Maps to profile, learner center and credentials; anonymous access is assumed.

Campus staff

• Program and Catalog Administrator, P-CAT, CAD, primary (page 3; pages 12–14). Seeks accurate shared listings, campus identity, capacity/fee/eligibility management and simple communications. Maintains metadata, schedules/locations, instructors, taxonomy, funding, prerequisites, transfer/credential information, seats, guest eligibility, completion rules, orientation, announcements and surveys. May manage content here or sync a campus source. Open: publishing approval; which synced fields are editable; communications ownership; equivalence approval; instructor record source. Manual/inconsistent data claims come from institutional source material. Maps to catalog, registration, learner center, communication and feedback.
• Registrar/Registration Staff, P-REG, CAD, primary (page 4; page 14). Seeks accurate places/waitlists, approved exceptions and reliable identity/campus records. Tasks include quick registration with logged overrides, capacity, withdrawals/replacements, duplicate resolution and confirmation that campus records updated. Open: allowed overrides and roles, counter payment responsibility, duplicate-resolution owner and phone/walk-in withdrawals. Maps to registration and credentials.
• Finance/Bursar Staff, P-CFN, CAD, primary (page 4; pages 14–15). Seeks reliable campus payment/refund handling and revenue/receivables reporting. Tasks cover payment methods, manual payments, receipts, policy-based refunds, reports and external-finance sync. Open: refund approval thresholds, employer invoicing, ledger integration, registrar versus bursar payment confirmation and discount ownership. Maps to finance and reporting.
• Financial Aid/Funding Administrator, P-FAD, CAD, primary (page 4; pages 15–16). Seeks clear funding information, rule-based awards and source reporting. Sets programs, criteria/deadlines/allocations, reviews requests, disburses aid and flags accepted funding. Open: where TAP eligibility is decided; the unnamed state system; workforce-agency sponsorship; foundation integration; remedial-study eligibility. Maps to catalog and finance.
• Non-Credit Instructor, P-INS, INS, secondary (page 4; pages 16–17). Seeks rosters/progress, attendance/engagement, useful feedback and less routine administration. Proposal adds attendance, LMS assignments, observations and dashboards beyond limited RFP direct tasks. Open: NCSIM versus LMS access, in-person attendance capture, grade/completion authority, feedback anonymity and profile editing. Maps to learner center, feedback and reporting.
• Support Services Staff, P-SUP, CAD, secondary (page 4; page 17). Seeks issue resolution in familiar tools, conversation context and appointment management. Tasks include tickets/status, chatbot handover, tutoring/support availability, knowledge and language/access support. Open: actual campus helpdesk inventory; central support tier; knowledge/answer ownership; whether tours and tutoring share scheduling. Maps to communication and support.
• Non-Credit Leadership, P-CLD, CAD, primary (page 4; pages 17–18). Seeks evidence for portfolio decisions, funding and comparison. Uses enrollment/completion, satisfaction, outcomes, finances, unique learner counts and allocation reports. Open: cross-campus benchmark access versus campus-only privacy, and role-specific measures. Maps to finance and reporting.
• Workforce/Contract Training Coordinator, P-CWD, EPR, secondary (page 4; pages 18–19). Seeks simpler employer service, accurate sponsored records and workforce reporting. Oversees accounts, registration/replacements, participation and billing. Open: whether this is campus or employer staff; if employer staff, draft suggests merging with P-EMP. Hidden/priced-by-contract offerings, account approval and contract storage are also unconfirmed. EPR mapping is an assumption, possibly combined with CAD access. Maps to profile, registration, finance and reporting.
• IT/Integration Administrator, P-CIT, CAD, secondary (page 4; page 19). Seeks reliable links, monitored exchange and flexible campus adoption. Tasks cover data maps, migration, identity, student/learning/payment/support systems, errors and reporting exchange. Open: system inventory, campus opt-outs, error-support ownership and readiness by rollout wave. The claim that no inventory exists is itself marked an assumption. Maps to finance, learner center, communication, support and reporting.

Central SUNY roles

• Reporting and Analytics, P-SRA, NAD, primary (page 5; pages 19–20). Seeks trustworthy statewide counts, outcomes, pathways and evidence for funding. Tasks cover data exchange, unduplicated counts, activity/industry statistics, credit transitions, wages, compliance and demographic/effectiveness reporting. Open: survey versus matched employment records; reporting platform/schema/frequency; deadlines/formats; credit-data source and identity key; precise metric definitions. Maps to catalog, finance and reporting.
• Platform Administrator, P-SPA, NAD, primary (page 5; pages 20–21). Seeks consistent policy with campus flexibility, one identity and protected data. Tasks cover permissions, matching, standards, credentials/pathways, translations, compliance and report access. Open: central owner; delegated campus controls; remedial-course approval workflow; systemwide announcements. Maps to catalog, registration, credentials and reporting.
• Credential Verification Reviewer, P-CRV, NAD, secondary (page 5; pages 21–22). Seeks trustworthy transferred credentials and efficient historical checks. Tasks include queues/batches, supporting evidence, legacy checks, approval/flags and audit records. Open: central versus issuing-campus owner; required evidence and turnaround; learner transfers versus bulk migration; non-SUNY credentials. NAD mapping is an assumption; CAD is possible. Maps to credentials.

What this leaves us needing to learn

The draft provides a useful role and question inventory. It does not explain how common each need is, how people currently choose an offering, which tradeoffs matter, or where behavior differs within one role. Youth/guardians, providers and verifiers have especially explicit gaps. Campus differences and employer visibility could change whole journeys. Keep these distinctions when planning research; do not turn the 21 profiles into 21 confirmed design priorities.

The crosswalk uses Jira epics SUNY-84 through SUNY-93 for the ten modules. Its module links provide traceability, not proof every listed task has an accepted story. See onboarding notes for the later snapshot and RFP notes for the original requirements.

Coverage: PDF pages 1–22 read in full. Export says document-tracking and governance sections were omitted, and embedded Jira items became keys. Those omitted Confluence sections were not supplied or reviewed. Approval status and research-method limits are preserved here.

Related topics: cross-source findings.