00 What this study set out to learn
PADI Professionals were asked to sort 68 PADI content cards into groups of their own making and name each group. The question behind it: how do working PADI Professionals expect this content to be organised?
PROs organise around professional identity and the pro pathway
For PROs, the sorts organise PADI's content around professional identity and the pro pathway alongside recreational diving, travel and conservation. The recurring shape: core training → become a Pro → recreational diving & travel → ocean conservation → PADI brand & community. The pro pathway emerges as the single most cohesive group across the whole study.This is the third and final study in the PADI card-sort programme (after Potential Divers and Active Divers). With 6 valid PADI Professional sorts, the findings here are best read as directional — a single participant moves any figure by roughly 17 points. The data is exceptionally internally consistent (cophenetic r = 0.94, the highest of all three studies), so the structure that emerges is clean even though the percentages are coarse. The real value comes when these findings are synthesised across all three audiences.
01 At a glance
The headline numbers for the study and the structure that emerged from it.
| Measure | PRO Divers study |
|---|---|
| Participants recruited | 6 |
| Valid sorts analysed | 6 |
| Excluded (rate) | 0 (0%) |
| Language | English (all sorts) |
| Mean groups / participant | 6.5 (range 5–9) |
| Standardised categories | 6 |
| Cards sorted | 68 |
| Emergent clusters | 5 |
| Cophenetic r | 0.94 |
An exceptionally internally consistent structure
Five clean clusters emerged, with no singletons until k=6 — the dendrogram cut is unambiguous. The cophenetic r of 0.94 is the highest of all three studies, indicating the cluster tree faithfully represents the underlying agreements. With only 6 PROs the percentages are coarse, but the shape of the structure is unusually clear — PROs share a strong mental model.02Who sorted the cards
A profile of the six PADI Professionals who completed the sort. All are working in the industry — actively teaching or managing dive-centre operations — which shapes the mental models seen throughout this report.
How they use their Pro rating
Primary device for PADI portals
Difficulty of the sort task
Sample composition
All six sorted in English; no language separation needed.
An operating PRO audience — split across teaching and management
Half the sample are actively teaching divers and half are running dive-centre operations. This balance is reflected in the clusters: the Professional Pathway emerged as exceptionally cohesive (77%), while operational/recreational areas like Travel & Adventures show looser internal agreement — there's no single PRO mental model for the operational layer of the business.03 Category mapping
An open card sort lets people name their own groups, so the raw labels vary wildly. Every label was standardised into a consistent set of 6 themes. This is the one step that depends on wording, so it is published in full: each theme lists the exact labels participants typed and how many used each.
04 How the numbers are built
An open card sort: each participant sorted the same 68 cards into as many groups as they liked and named each group. Everything below is computed from those raw groupings.
The pipeline, end to end
- Co-occurrence (similarity) matrix — for all 2,278 card pairs, the share of participants who placed both cards in the same group. This reads only which cards were grouped, so it is language-independent.
- Hierarchical clustering — average-linkage agglomerative clustering on a distance of (1 − co-occurrence). Average linkage suits card-sort distances (which are not Euclidean). The tree was cut into 5 clusters (the natural cut — at 6 a single-card cluster appears).
- Cophenetic correlation — how faithfully the tree preserves the original pairwise distances: 0.94 for this study.
- Cohesion — a cluster's mean within-cluster co-occurrence; how tightly its cards travel together.
- Dominant placement — the only label-dependent measure: each participant's group names were standardised into 6 themes, and a card's "placed %" is the share of participants who filed it under its single most-common theme.
See it both ways
The two views the pipeline produces — the co-occurrence matrix and the clustering tree — shown for each study. Colours mark the seven clusters used throughout this report.
05 The five emergent clusters
Five clusters emerged from how the six PADI Professionals grouped the cards. The bar shows each cluster’s cohesion — how tightly its cards travelled together (mean within-cluster co-occurrence). Skills and the professional pathway form one large continuum; Travel and Conservation are the two tightest groups.
Professional Pathway Most cohesive
The full PADI professional career path — Divemaster, Open Water Scuba Instructor, Specialty Instructor, Master Scuba Diver Trainer, IDC Staff Instructor, and PADI Course Director. The most cohesive group of any study so far.
Conservation Most cohesive
Ocean conservation as a self-contained domain — AWARE Program, Conservation Activities, marine debris, shark & ray protection, and corporate responsibility.
PADI Brand & Club Most cohesive
PADI brand identity and the club membership layer — Our Mission & History, The PADI Difference, partners, club membership and benefits, ambassadors, and brand content.
Travel & Adventures
Recreational diving and the wider community/social layer — travel inspiration, dive sites and shops, liveaboards, the Adventures app, community forums, and local events.
Courses & Training
Foundational diver training — Open Water through Master Scuba Diver, the full specialty range (Deep, Wreck, Photography, Nitrox), Emergency First Response, plus Freediving and Mermaid.
Cluster by cluster
Each cluster in full — every card with its dominant-placement % and strongest grouping partner, beside the cluster’s cohesion. Cards are ordered by how confidently participants placed them.
Professional Pathway
Most cohesiveCohesion 77%| Card | Placed | Top theme | Strongest partner (co-occurrence) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Divemaster Prerequisites & Requirements | 100% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 100% |
| Divemaster Responsibilities & Leadership | 100% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 100% |
| From Divemaster to Instructor: The IDC Path | 100% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 100% |
| Start Your Pro Journey | 100% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 100% |
| What is a PADI Professional? | 100% | Professional Pathway | Start Your Pro Journey 100% |
| Divemaster | 83% | Professional Pathway | Open Water Scuba Instructor 100% |
| Find a PADI Course Director | 83% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 83% |
| IDC Staff Instructor | 83% | Professional Pathway | Open Water Scuba Instructor 100% |
| Open Water Scuba Instructor | 83% | Professional Pathway | IDC Staff Instructor 100% |
| PADI Professional Ratings | 83% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 83% |
| What is a Divemaster? | 83% | Professional Pathway | What is a PADI Professional? 83% |
| Divemaster Internship Opportunities | 67% | Professional Pathway | Find a PADI Course Director 83% |
| Master Scuba Diver Trainer | 67% | Professional Pathway | What is a Divemaster? 83% |
| Speciality Instructor | 67% | Professional Pathway | PADI Professional Ratings 83% |
Conservation
Most cohesiveCohesion 75%| Card | Placed | Top theme | Strongest partner (co-occurrence) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adopt The Blue | 100% | Conservation | Shark & Ray Protection 100% |
| Conservation Activities for Beginners | 100% | Conservation | Shark & Ray Protection 100% |
| Find Conservation Activities | 100% | Conservation | Shark & Ray Protection 100% |
| Global Plastics Petition | 100% | Conservation | Shark & Ray Protection 100% |
| Shark & Ray Protection | 100% | Conservation | Global Plastics Petition 100% |
| Conservation Courses | 83% | Conservation | PADI AWARE Grants 100% |
| Marine Debris Initiative | 83% | Conservation | Why Dive Responsibly? 83% |
| PADI AWARE Grants | 83% | Conservation | Conservation Courses 100% |
| PADI AWARE Program | 83% | Conservation | Shark & Ray Protection 83% |
| Why Dive Responsibly? | 83% | Conservation | Shark & Ray Protection 83% |
| Corporate Responsibility | 33% | Conservation | Why Dive Responsibly? 50% |
PADI Brand & Club
Most cohesiveCohesion 70%| Card | Placed | Top theme | Strongest partner (co-occurrence) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our Mission & History | 83% | PADI Brand & Club | The PADI Difference 100% |
| PADI Club Member | 83% | PADI Brand & Club | What is PADI Club? 83% |
| Partners & Partnerships | 83% | PADI Brand & Club | The PADI Difference 100% |
| The PADI Difference | 83% | PADI Brand & Club | Partners & Partnerships 100% |
| Access Your Benefits | 67% | PADI Brand & Club | PADI AmbassaDivers 100% |
| Blogs & Stories | 67% | PADI Brand & Club | The PADI Difference 83% |
| Join PADI Club | 67% | PADI Brand & Club | What is PADI Club? 100% |
| PADI AmbassaDivers | 67% | PADI Brand & Club | Access Your Benefits 100% |
| What is PADI Club? | 67% | PADI Brand & Club | Join PADI Club 100% |
Travel & Adventures
Cohesion 62%| Card | Placed | Top theme | Strongest partner (co-occurrence) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adventures | 100% | Travel & Adventures | Travel Planning Tips 83% |
| Dive Travel Guides | 100% | Travel & Adventures | Travel Planning Tips 83% |
| Liveaboards | 100% | Travel & Adventures | Travel Planning Tips 100% |
| Travel Inspiration | 100% | Travel & Adventures | Travel Planning Tips 100% |
| Travel Planning Tips | 100% | Travel & Adventures | Travel Inspiration 100% |
| Dive Sites Nearby | 83% | Travel & Adventures | PADI Adventures App 100% |
| PADI Adventures App | 83% | Travel & Adventures | Dive Sites Nearby 100% |
| PADI Dive Guides | 83% | Travel & Adventures | Dive Travel Guides 83% |
| Dive Resorts | 67% | Travel & Adventures | PADI Adventures App 83% |
| Explore Guides by Region | 67% | Travel & Adventures | PADI Dive Guides 67% |
| Find a Dive Shop | 67% | Travel & Adventures | PADI Adventures App 83% |
| Local Dive Events | 67% | Travel & Adventures | Dive Shop Locator 83% |
| Community Forum | 50% | PADI Brand & Club | Gift Guide 100% |
| Dive Shop Locator | 50% | Travel & Adventures | Local Dive Events 83% |
| Gift Guide | 50% | PADI Brand & Club | Community Forum 100% |
| PADI Community Events | 50% | Travel & Adventures | What is PADI Club? 50% |
Courses & Training
Cohesion 61%| Card | Placed | Top theme | Strongest partner (co-occurrence) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Open Water Diver | 83% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 100% |
| Deep Diver | 83% | Courses & Training | Wreck Diver 100% |
| Discover Scuba Diving | 83% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 100% |
| Emergency First Response | 83% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 83% |
| Enriched Air (Nitrox) | 83% | Courses & Training | Wreck Diver 100% |
| Freediving | 83% | Courses & Training | Mermaid Program 83% |
| Learn to Scuba Dive | 83% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 100% |
| Master Scuba Diver | 83% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 83% |
| Mermaid Program | 83% | Courses & Training | Freediving 83% |
| Open Water Diver | 83% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 100% |
| Peak Performance Buoyancy | 83% | Courses & Training | Wreck Diver 100% |
| Rescue Diver | 83% | Courses & Training | Open Water Diver 100% |
| Underwater Photography | 83% | Courses & Training | Wreck Diver 100% |
| Wreck Diver | 83% | Courses & Training | Underwater Photography 100% |
| Certification Levels Explained | 67% | Courses & Training | Scuba Basics Guide 67% |
| Open Water Dive | 67% | Courses & Training | Rescue Diver 83% |
| Scuba Basics Guide | 67% | Courses & Training | Youth Scuba Diving 67% |
| Youth Scuba Diving | 50% | Courses & Training | Scuba Basics Guide 67% |
07 The strongest card pairs
The card pairs the most PROs grouped together — the load-bearing relationships to keep intact in any navigation. With six participants, each card pair scores in 17-point increments (0/17/33/50/67/83/100), and an exceptional 54 pairs reached 100% — meaning all six PROs grouped them together.
| Card pair | Grouped together |
|---|---|
| Underwater Photography + Wreck Diver | 100% |
| Travel Inspiration + Travel Planning Tips | 100% |
| Start Your Pro Journey + What is a PADI Professional? | 100% |
| Peak Performance Buoyancy + Wreck Diver | 100% |
| Peak Performance Buoyancy + Underwater Photography | 100% |
| Partners & Partnerships + The PADI Difference | 100% |
| Our Mission & History + The PADI Difference | 100% |
| Our Mission & History + Partners & Partnerships | 100% |
| Open Water Diver + Rescue Diver | 100% |
| Liveaboards + Travel Planning Tips | 100% |
The full top-10 strongest pairs
| Our Difference + Our Mission & History | 90% |
| Learn to Scuba Dive + Scuba Basics Guide | 87% |
| Discover Scuba Diving + Learn to Scuba Dive | 84% |
| Travel Destinations for Beginners + Travel Inspiration | 84% |
| Dive Shop Locator + Dive Sites Nearby | 77% |
| Dive Shop Locator + Find a Dive Shop | 77% |
| Freediving + Snorkeling | 77% |
| Dive Travel Guides + Explore Guides by Region | 74% |
| Explore Guides by Region + Travel Destinations for Beginners | 74% |
| Explore Guides by Region + Travel Inspiration | 74% |
Percentages = share of valid participants who placed both cards in the same group. The two single strongest bonds — Our Difference + Our Mission & History (90% EN) and Learn to Scuba Dive + Scuba Basics Guide (87% EN) — anchor the About & Brand and Learn clusters respectively.
08 Ambiguous cards
The mirror image of the strongest pairs. These are the PROs scattered most widely — content with the weakest ties to any single group. With only six participants the ambiguity bar is high, so the few cards listed here are genuinely contested.
| Card | # categories it appeared in | Best placement | Strongest pair | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Responsibility | 3 | 33% into Conservation | 50% with Why Dive Responsibly? | Sits awkwardly between conservation/AWARE and the PADI brand layer. Half the sample treats it as a corporate brand asset, the other half as part of the ocean cause. |
| PADI Community Events | 4 | 50% into Travel & Adventures | 50% with What is PADI Club? | Drifts between the travel/adventures bucket and the PADI Club / events layer. The Community Forum bonds with it, but no single placement dominates. |
| Certification Levels Explained | 3 | 67% into Courses & Training | 67% with Scuba Basics Guide | An overview card that some treat as foundational training and others as a brand/info asset. Anchor placement should follow whichever group contains the rest of the certification ladder. |
| Scuba Basics Guide | 3 | 67% into Courses & Training | 67% with Youth Scuba Diving | A primer that PROs partially see as recreational, partially as brand/marketing content. Slightly ambiguous despite being a high-recognition card. |
| Youth Scuba Diving | 4 | 50% into Courses & Training | 67% with Scuba Basics Guide | Pulls between core training and a programmatic/segment-specific offer. Treat as part of training, but worth a label test. |
| Explore Guides by Region | 3 | 67% into Travel & Adventures | 67% with PADI Dive Guides | Sits between travel content and the PADI Dive Guides editorial layer. |
"# categories" = how many distinct groups the card landed in (the wider the scatter, the more contested). "Best placement" = its single most-common theme and the share of participants who filed it there. "Strongest pair" = the highest co-occurrence the card has with any one other card — often the only firm relationship an otherwise-scattered card has. Ranked by lowest best-placement %.
09 Data quality & exclusions
All six PADI Professional sorts passed quality checks. No exclusions were required.
- Every participant sorted all 68 cards using thematic, meaningful group labels. No placeholder labels, no incomplete sorts, no low-effort submissions.
| Tester ID | Submission | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1fa7d09d | 5 groups · EN | Valid |
| 5181f27f | 5 groups · EN | Valid |
| 6a074fe1 | 6 groups · EN | Valid |
| 6e441568 | 9 groups · EN | Valid |
| cb147057 | 6 groups · EN | Valid |
| f678b580 | 8 groups · EN | Valid |
A small, clean, internally consistent base
Six PADI Professionals completed full sorts (408 placements). Six is well below the conventional reliability threshold of ~15+ — so the percentages here are best read as directional, with each participant representing roughly 17% of the sample. Even so, the data is remarkably consistent: cophenetic r = 0.94 (the highest of all three studies), 54 card pairs at 100% agreement, and five clusters that emerged with no singletons. PROs share a strong, well-formed mental model — the structure here is reliable; the percentages on individual cards are not.10 What the data tells us & next steps
With six valid sorts these are directional signals, not final answers — but the structure that emerges is unusually clean, and now that all three studies are complete, the most valuable analysis is the cross-audience synthesis.
Professional identity is the dominant mental model
The Professional Pathway emerged as the single most cohesive cluster across all three studies (77% cohesion, 14 cards). PROs see the Divemaster → Instructor → Course Director progression as a complete, self-contained domain — distinct from the recreational training ladder they teach. The IA should give the pro pathway a clear, ownable destination separate from beginner training.
Conservation is a strong, self-standing area
Ocean conservation clustered at 75% cohesion — second only to the pro pathway, and consistent with what active divers reported. Across both PROs and active divers, conservation is treated as a destination in its own right, not peripheral content. Worth a top-level home.
PROs see brand & club as one thing
For PROs, brand-identity content (The PADI Difference, Our Mission & History, Partners) and the PADI Club membership layer cluster together (70% cohesion). This differs from the active-divers view, which separated them — a notable cross-audience divergence to resolve in the synthesis.
The travel / recreational / community layer is the loosest
Travel content, community forums, the Adventures app and local events all clustered together at 62% cohesion — the loosest group. PROs don't share a single mental model for the operational/community layer of PADI's content, which suggests this is the area where labelling and IA decisions need the most testing.
Next: cross-audience synthesis of all three studies
With Potential Divers, Active Divers and PRO Divers now all analysed, the immediate next step is to analyse all three studies together — comparing where the audiences agree (Conservation, Travel as a destination) and where they diverge (Brand vs Club, the position of the pro pathway) — and curate a single information architecture that serves the full diver journey from first-time visitor through certified professional. Each study individually is directional; the synthesis is the deliverable.
11 The raw sorts
Every one of the six valid PADI Professional sorts — groups exactly as they created and labelled them. All participants sorted in English.