Frances Evans and Amy Strucko work for Structural Dynamics Research Corporation. They are in the process of introducing Patterns into their organization to use as tools for internal communication and training, best practice documentation and customer consulting.
Name: Selective Recruitment
Context:
You are an Evangelist hoping to reach others in your organization and encourage them to become Early Adopters. It is not possible to reach all potential early adopters at once. You want to generate solid interest among a selected group before attempting to reach the masses.
Forces:
In the absence of face-to-face event(s) where you can speak to a large majority of potential early adopters, how can you target likely candidates and get them interested and involved?
Solution:
Target a demographic within your organization that would be ideal early adopters (i.e. have a certain of experience in a particular area). Based on your "ideal" criteria, identify as many people within your organization that fit this profile. Tailor your message to be specific to this group. Contact them in a personal communication, by mail or phone. They will realize that they have been "hand picked" with their specific background in mind, and will be more likely to be interested and become involved.
Resulting Context:
You will have established a group of early adopters that is focused around a common set of interests or experiences. You have identified the group as being a likely source of identifying/authoring/workshopping similar patterns. You will eventually be able to use the achievements of this representative group to generate future interest within similar groups
Known Uses:
We are using this pattern within SDRC.