Challenge and Selection

I work in a financial company which helps people make better investment decisions in the stock market.  We have recently launched an application that enables people to invest their money easily. After  conducting online surveys , the results showed that people would choose the investment options that  had the most return prospect. This meant that most of them would choose investing in the real-estate  or currency market and not in the stock and bonds. I decided that it is time to conduct some in-depth  interviews with people and ask them to tell their stories. The insights that was gathered through these  in-depth interviews was truly eye-opening and made us pivot our business model and the value chain for  the investment app. We already knew who the persona for the app was , but the issue was that we  could not comprehend their needs and expectations of us. We had tried to solve this problem by  handing out questionnaires and running surveys. The issue was that , these surveys made people choose  very rationally , which is not always the case in the real world and in the purchase decision. But ,  through story telling , people become less self-cognizant and reveal their needs.

Application

To run the interviews , we asked participants to talk about their spending and big purchases in the last 3  years. If they had any , we would ask them to elaborate on their decision by telling their story. How they  came to the understanding that they needed to make the purchase , how they paid , etc. After having  the 20th interview , we saw a pattern in these people’s stories. These people , in their late 20s who have  recently started their careers in a company and were mostly educated , did not have formal plans for  investment. They thought that , now that they are finally making real money they needed to make some  purchases of the things they had always dreamed of. These included fancy laptops and gadgets , cars ,  vacations , etc. These items normally cost a lot and they were disappointed that they could not afford  them because they had to pay for their every day expenses.

Insight & Approach

The insight we got from the stories was that , we needed to change our business model. The term  investment was not very appealing to these people. They spend lots of their times on E-Commerce and  shopping site. So our approach was to change to a quasi shopping app. When people logged into our  app they see pictures of cars , gadgets , vacations. These are defined as goals for these people , they just  need to enter the date they wish to buy the item , as well as the amount of money they can afford to  pay daily. Through this way the goal is made into bite sized steps that they pay. The money they pay  goes into mutual funds which means that they make profit on these small payments. This way helps  them to track their goals and achieve them more easily.


Challenge and Selection I work in a financial company which helps people make better investment decisions in the stock market . We have recently launched an application that enables people to invest their money easily . After conducting online surveys , the results showed that people would choose the investment options that had the most return prospect . This meant that most of them would choose investing in the real - estate or currency market and not in the stock and bonds . I decided that it is time to conduct some in - depth interviews with people and ask them to tell their stories . The insights that was gathered through these in - depth interviews was truly eye - opening and made us pivot our business model and the value chain for the investment app . We already knew who the persona for the app was , but the issue was that we could not comprehend their needs and expectations of us . We had tried to solve this problem by handing out questionnaires and running surveys . The issue was that , these surveys made people choose very rationally , which is not always the case in the real world and in the purchase decision . But , through story telling , people become less self - cognizant and reveal their needs . Application To run the interviews , we asked participants to talk about their spending and big purchases in the last 3 years . If they had any , we would ask them to elaborate on their decision by telling their story . How they came to the understanding that they needed to make the purchase , how they paid , etc . After having the 20th interview , we saw a pattern in these people ’s stories . These people , in their late 20s who have recently started their careers in a company and were mostly educated , did not have formal plans for investment . They thought that , now that they are finally making real money they needed to make some purchases of the things they had always dreamed of . These included fancy laptops and gadgets , cars , vacations , etc . These items normally cost a lot and they were disappointed that they could not afford them because they had to pay for their every day expenses . Insight & Approach The insight we got from the stories was that , we needed to change our business model . The term investment was not very appealing to these people . They spend lots of their times on E - Commerce and shopping site . So our approach was to change to a quasi shopping app . When people logged into our app they see pictures of cars , gadgets , vacations . These are defined as goals for these people , they just need to enter the date they wish to buy the item , as well as the amount of money they can afford to pay daily . Through this way the goal is made into bite sized steps that they pay . The money they pay goes into mutual funds which means that they make profit on these small payments . This way helps them to track their goals and achieve them more easily .