The Technician or Technicians are generally not catalysts, they're geeks. They're the ones who think fiddling in Kumu is fun, who like learning a little code here & there, who have a sense of how data-bases work & have at least an inkling of what it means to talk about how data structured.

A pure Technician says 'just give me the survey questions & options to set up, but don't make me sit through the word-smithing'.

The Technician is the one who doesn't get overwhelmed when the technology doesn't behave, they just take it in stride and trouble-shoot their way to a solution. They'd rather do that than sit through debates about the ultimate purpose.

This doesn't mean a Technician can't wear other hats in an SSM project. It doesn't mean they aren't interested in SenseMaking either. But we find that the Vision-y & SenseMake-y types are often so much more focussed on people & process & meaning that they get a little overwhelmed & frustrated when dealing with the challenges of data & technology. That makes it crucial that you have at least one solid Technician involved in an SSM project.

If you're a Technician, the Mapping section of this knowledge base are for you. You'll need to have a sense of what the other hats are doing in the other phases, but everything the others will count on you for will be spelled out in detail in Mapping.