# Stina the Strategist - Designer Persona

> Primary target - The designer who becomes one of the 50 evangelists

![Stina the Strategist](resources/stina-the-desginer.png)

**Priority:** PRIMARY 🎯  
**Role in Flywheel:** Becomes evangelist → Spreads WDS → Drives all adoption  
**Created:** December 27, 2025

---

## Profile Summary

**Multi-dimensional thinker who loves systems thinking, aesthetics, functionality, and human psychology.**

Stina represents the designer who shoulders the leadership role - the linchpin between business goals and technical implementation. WDS makes her indispensable by giving her the methodology to carry this burden well. She becomes one of the 50 hardcore evangelists who drive everything.

---

## Background

### Education & Career Path

**University:** Studied psychology with a paper on cognition - this captured her curiosity about how people think and interact with systems.

**Learning Journey:** Took some courses in IT management, learning just enough about technology to bridge the gap between users and systems.

**First Break:** Made a website for her favorite band. One thing led to the next, and here she is.

**Current Role:** End of 1-year contract as the lone designer in a development team. Actively job hunting.

**Career Pattern:** No straight path - arrived through passion for the meeting between business needs and user needs. A chameleon who adapts to whatever the situation requires.

---

## Current Situation

### Professional Reality

**The Daily Struggle:**
- Works as lonely designer in a team of developers
- Fights every day for the users with her limited capacity
- Feels overwhelmed by the scope of responsibility
- Secretly works overtime sometimes just to be able to help more people at work
- Job hunting while maintaining full workload

**Skills & Tools:**
- Knows a little bit of everything - Figma, Lovable, office products, various ticketing systems
- Has coded some pet projects, uses AI extensively in hobbies
- Enough code knowledge to understand developers, but not enough to develop a whole product
- Open to new tools but not the first to jump on trends - appreciates hand-holding in the beginning

**The Confidence Gap:**
- Uses AI extensively in hobbies but lacks confidence to use it professionally
- There's a threshold to jump on using AI in actual projects
- Self-confidence just isn't there yet
- Curious to try but doesn't want to bang her head against a wall for no reason

---

## Psychological Profile

### Personality & Motivations

**Core Identity:**
- Multi-dimensional thinker
- Loves systems thinking, aesthetics, functionality, and human psychology
- Secret desire to "save the world" through design
- Believes in grand adventures and making real impact

**Work Style:**
- Chameleon - adapts to different situations
- Detail-oriented but keeps big picture in mind
- Passionate but sometimes overwhelmed
- Values structured approaches that reduce uncertainty

---

## Driving Forces

### ✅ Top 3 Positive Drivers (What She Wants)

**1. To be the go-to strategic expert**
- Valued by her team and asked for advice
- Recognized as more than a "pixel pusher"
- Seen as strategic partner, not just executor
- **WDS Promise:** Become the strategic leader your team needs

**2. To make real impact on the world through grand adventures**
- Design solutions that genuinely help people
- Work on meaningful projects that matter
- Feel like she's contributing something significant
- **WDS Promise:** Transform complexity into solutions that drive real product success

**3. To confidently use AI professionally and scale her impact**
- Bridge the confidence gap with AI tools
- Use AI as co-pilot, not feel threatened by it
- Scale her capabilities without working overtime
- **WDS Promise:** Structured, hand-holding path to professional AI mastery

---

### ❌ Top 3 Negative Drivers (What She Fears)

**1. Being replaced by AI or becoming irrelevant**
- The existential fear of the AI era
- Feeling like her skills might become obsolete
- Watching AI tools do design work
- **WDS Answer:** AI amplifies expertise, doesn't replace strategic thinking

**2. Wasting time/energy on tools that don't work**
- Banging head against wall for no reason
- Investing time in learning something that doesn't deliver
- Getting burned by overpromised, underdelivered tools
- **WDS Answer:** Proven methodology with Dog Week case study (5x faster)

**3. Being sidelined or not valued when she could save the world**
- Having the capacity to help but not being asked
- Being treated as order-taker instead of strategic partner
- Her ideas and expertise ignored or underutilized
- **WDS Answer:** Position as indispensable strategic leader

---

## The Transformation Journey

### BEFORE WDS

**Emotional State:**
- 😰 Overwhelmed, working secret overtime
- 😔 Feels threatened by AI
- 🤷‍♀️ Lacks confidence, fears wasting time
- 😤 Sidelined, not valued as strategic partner
- 📦 Just a "pixel pusher" executing others' vision

**Daily Reality:**
- Fighting for users with limited capacity
- Working overtime in secret
- Curiosity about AI but no confidence to use professionally
- Job hunting while feeling uncertain about future

**Self-Perception:**
- Task-doer who executes
- Not quite technical enough
- Not quite strategic enough
- Somewhere in the middle, fighting for recognition

---

### AFTER WDS

**Emotional State:**
- 🎯 Strategic leader who shoulders complexity
- 🚀 AI as co-pilot amplifying expertise
- 💪 Confident with structured path and hand-holding
- ⭐ Go-to expert asked for advice
- 🌍 Making real impact through grand adventures
- 🔥 Treating design as a CALLING, not a burden

**Daily Reality:**
- Leading strategic conversations
- Using AI confidently in professional work
- Delivering complete, logical specifications
- Becoming sought-after for WDS expertise

**Self-Perception:**
- Strategic leader
- AI-empowered designer
- Indispensable team member
- One of 50 evangelists spreading WDS

---

## Role in Strategic Triangle

```
STINA (Designer)
Strategic Leader
Shoulders complexity
      │
      │ Creates specs for
      ▼
FELIX (Developer)
Gets logical specs
Life gets easier
      │
      │ Delivers quality for
      ▼
 LARS (Entrepreneur)
 Gets business value
 Trusts the process
      │
      │ Hires/values
      └──────────────► STINA
                      (Loop closes)
```

**Stina's Role:**
- Shoulders the complexity and breaks it down
- Bridges business needs and technical implementation
- Creates specifications that make Felix's life easier
- Delivers value that makes Lars's business succeed
- Becomes so valuable that Lars hires more WDS designers

---

## Role in Flywheel: Creating Awesome Designers Who Become Evangelists

Stina represents the designer who WDS empowers to become truly awesome - and awesome designers naturally become evangelists.

**The Natural Evolution:**
1. Stina discovers WDS and sees herself in the methodology
2. Learns structured approach with hand-holding
3. Builds real project using WDS - sees results
4. Transforms from overwhelmed to empowered
5. Naturally shares what worked with others
6. Becomes one of the 50 evangelists - not because we asked, but because she's excited

**1. Hero Section**
- Immediate acknowledgment of AI replacement fear
- "Guiding light for designers in AI era" positioning
- Leadership opportunity, not threat

**2. Methodology Section**
- Clear structure (addresses confidence concerns)
- Dog Week case study as proof
- Hand-holding approach explained
- Course modules visible

**3. Benefits Section**
- "Make designers indispensable" message
- AI as co-pilot, not replacement
- Strategic leader positioning

**4. Course/Installation**
- Clear, structured path
- Low barrier to entry (free, open-source)
- Worth the time investment

**5. Social Proof**
- Testimonials from designers like her
- Real project case studies
- Early evangelists emerging

---

## Success Metrics

**Stina Becomes Evangelist When She:**
1. ✅ Completes WDS course (at minimum Module 01-02)
2. ✅ Clones repository and starts using methodology
3. ✅ Builds real project with WDS (not just learning)
4. ✅ Actively shares and teaches WDS to others
5. ✅ Contributes feedback and helps improve methodology

**Impact on Business Goals:**
- Becomes one of **50 hardcore evangelists** (PRIMARY GOAL)
- Spreads WDS to other designers through speaking, testimonials, case studies
- Creates demand by delivering better results
- Lands better job opportunities because she's WDS-trained

---

## The Battle Cry (For Stina)

**"Shoulder the complexity, break it down using AI as your co-pilot. Not as a burden, but with excitement. Not as a task, but as a calling!"**

This is Stina's transformation: From overwhelmed task-doer to empowered strategic leader.

---

## Related Documents

- **[00-trigger-map.md](00-trigger-map.md)** - Visual overview and navigation
- **[03-Lars-the-Leader.md](03-Lars-the-Leader.md)** - Secondary persona
- **[04-Felix-the-Full-Stack.md](04-Felix-the-Full-Stack.md)** - Tertiary persona
- **[05-Key-Insights.md](05-Key-Insights.md)** - Strategic implications

---

## Visual Representation - Image Generation Prompt

**Prompt Used:**

"Professional headshot photograph of a 34-year-old Central European female designer with mixed heritage (Mediterranean and Nordic features), warm olive skin tone, shoulder-length wavy dark brown hair with natural texture, wearing distinctive round glasses, bohemian-chic style with layered clothing and artistic accessories, sitting at modern minimalist desk with laptop and design sketches, looking thoughtful and determined with creative energy, natural morning light from window, shallow depth of field focusing on face, contemporary creative studio office background with plants and whiteboard visible, photorealistic style, warm natural color palette, 4K quality, professional portrait photography"

---

_Back to [Trigger Map](00-trigger-map.md)_

