personas

Persona 1 - James

29 year old male in Sacramento, California Full time mechanic in A-1 Auto Repair at Sacramento Part-time free-lance mechanic James grew up with a dad who owned an auto repair shop near Downtown Sacramento and he used to help his dad build numerous cars for customers. He dreamed of opening his own auto repair shop in Sacramento, however around Covid when he was in his dad’s auto repair shop, his dad got foreclosure notices on his auto repair shop for not getting enough revenue. After a year of working for a different auto repair shop, he decided to take up a second job where he would freelance other cars to help him make more money for his own auto repair business. With his experience in freelancing, he decided to build his own website in helping people try to contact him in trying to get him as a freelance mechanic. He commutes to the A-1 Auto Repair from his home in Arden when he has work on the weekdays. When he is home on the weekends, he goes onto his website to see if there are people who request him to do some freelance work for their cars.

Goals:

• Ask for advice and techniques from other mechanics who had experience in working on electric cars and how to open an auto repair business.
• Find more mechanics that are willing to work under him when he opens a new auto repair business

Persona 2 - Paco

55 years old male from Los Angeles Ca.

College Drop out. Works the family business with his oldest son, as a car metal fabricator. Even though he spends most of the time metal working, he also enjoys spending time on his own projects; as for now one of his projects is to restore his dream truck, and create a little sand buggy for his grandkids.

While Paco has spent most of his years working in vehicle chassis as a metal worker, his main focus is welding, cutting metal, machinist, frame mods, restorations and alignments. He is not in fact a mechanic, when able to put main components together, he is naive when it comes to the deeper understanding of how a vehicle actually works. Thanks to his lack of Mechanical knowledge, he is helped by a friend who is a mechanic in town. Since his friend works as a mechanic, he does not have the time to help him each and every time Paco gets stuck. So after the years, Paco has learned a thing or two by trial and error.

Goals:

• Help others the same way he has been helped.
• Tries to share his mistakes so others can avoid them.

Persona 3 - Briella

22 year old female in San Jose, California Full-time student, part-time barista Briella is a Vietnamese-American college student living in the South Bay Area, where owning a car isn't optional, dense freeways and limited public transit make it the only reliable way to get to school and work. After a recent accident left her car drivable but damaged, she found herself in unfamiliar territory. The men in her household and neighborhood were sympathetic but couldn't tell her what was actually wrong or what a fair repair should cost. Without that knowledge, she walked into every mechanic interaction feeling vulnerable and unsure whether she was being quoted a fair price. On a student budget with rent, tuition, and daily expenses to manage, an unexpected repair bill isn't just inconvenient, it's a genuine crisis.

Goals:

• Understand what is actually wrong with her car in plain, non-technical language
• Get a realistic cost estimate before speaking to any mechanic so she isn't caught off guard
• Avoid being overcharged due to limited automotive knowledge
• Find a trustworthy repair option quickly so she can get back to school and work

Scenarios

James

He finds himself at home, performing repairs on other people's vehicles. He reaches a point in repairing someone's vehicle where he is at a knowledge impasse. Normally if he was working at the shop he would run over and consult with one of his co workers or possibly read one of the many shop manuals that they paid for long ago. Sadly he can’t consult any of these as he is doing freelance work. In this case our persona has a particular need for a portable consultation service.

Paco

After a couple of months working on his grandkids buggy project, he finally got it to a point where he can take a test ride around the block and check that everything is ok to go, sadly the buggy does not want to start. Paco’s friend “the mechanic” is busy at the moment and cannot help Paco until next month.

Briella

Three days after her accident, she finally gets a call from the body shop with a repair quote. The number is far higher than she expected for what looked like minor damage. She has no frame of reference for whether this is reasonable and no one at home who can help her evaluate it. She needs to make a decision before the end of the day or the shop will move on, and she needs her car fixed asap. With photos of the damage already on her phone, she needs someone knowledgeable to tell her whether the quote is in the right ballpark, what she should push back on, and whether it's worth getting a second opinion all within the next hour.