Mutual Aid Web App
Zero-to-one product development to create a new multi-sided philanthropy market
Product Strategy
Workshop Facilitation
User testing
MVP Definition
Product Design
Measurement
TEAM
Product Design Lead (me)
Entrepreneur
Behavioral Scientist
Engineering Lead
TIMELINE
5 Months
THE CHALLENGE
Create a product from a hunch
At the ideas42 Ventures studio, I had the honor of supporting our first cohort of entrepreneurs to create ventures to tackle important problems related to poverty. The studio model is unique in that it didn’t require entrepreneurs to have a technology or entrepreneurial background, but focused on a lived experience of the problem area. Our role at the studio was to both co-build ventures and guide entrepreneurs to develop into product and business leaders.
My challenge was to help shape an entrepreneur’s vision into a viable and functioning MVP that could launch and build traction for investment in less than 6 months.
THE APPROACH
Map the space
When I joined, the entrepreneur was struggling to translate the hunch he had into a concrete idea. He was curious about alternative ways of crowdfunding emergency funds for people in need, but didn’t know where to start.
To help us get started, I guided the team to map the fintech ecosystem we were positioning ourselves into. This allowed the entrepreneur decide whether he wanted to create something completely new or take parts of what already existed.
USER VOICE
User testing
While we now had defined that we wanted to create a money sharing platform akin to the way benevolent societies used to support members’ financially, we still had many questions about how to build a product that people would actually use to share money anonymously.
I had been advocating for speaking to potential users and this was a perfect time to get started. We conducted a series of two-week research sprints centered around research probes showing different product directions. Our goal was to understand what indicated trust, and what might be necessary in our MVP.
DEFINE
Prioritize the MVP
As we gained confidence from user research in how to best design our initial approach, I quickly led the team to define user flows, data architecture and the product design so we could start building as soon as possible.
One key way we whittled down our list of features to it’s bare minimum was to use outcomes based framework. This allowed the entrepreneur to describe what he needed the product to accomplish, and gave the product team (me and the lead engineer) room to morph the product to fit our capacity.
VISUAL DESIGN
Create the brand
While engineering started building, I focused on creating the assets we needed to attract users and grow a waitlist. I conducted a brand sprint, created a logo, color palette and illustration style.
The goal of the brand was to be celebratory and bold and also to be simple enough for the entrepreneur to use on their own once they left the studio.
RESULTS
Launch and iterate
Working with my team, I drafted a launch plan that would allow us to incorporate 10, 20, 50 and then 100 users as we tested functionality and observed user behavior.
While my involvement with the venture was coming to a close, I created a system of tracking cohort analyses so that the entrepreneur could focus on the necessary metrics to monitor user growth. In its first few months of beta launch, WellMoney has distributed $1,500 in emergency funding (in amounts ranging from $25-$150), pooled from contributions of over 200 subscribed members.
A new users selects a monthly contribution amount.
A user requests money for a financial emergency.