Assignment 25A - What's Next?

Assignment 25A – What’s Next?

What I think is Next:

I believe the next step my service Tips should take would be to continue making updates to the app and website that will still cater to the current target audience while also adding an outside aspect that would be catered to an audience that would want to learn more deeply about finances. Since the app has a wide target market already, I think it would make more sense for the next step to be focused on those who have the serious intention of learning more about how to handle their money and maybe even beyond. These would be the people who would want to learn beyond how to handle a budget and learn more about finances in general, and we would do this by having a person to call, someone who would be considered a consultant for people who have more complex financial situations and want an advice from a person.

Existing Market Interviews:

1.     Interview 1: This interview was done with a college student in her junior year. When I described my app and website to her, she was in favor of it and said that it would be useful since it handles the basic budgeting and finance recording that a budgeting app does while also giving a little something extra. When I asked her “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?”, she said there wasn’t much that she could think of that could be added to the product since it already covered so many basic areas. The only thing she could think of would be to continue to update the app with more tips and articles for the subscribed users. When I told her about my ideas about possibly adding a consultant to the service for people who want more personalized advice on their financial situation, she said it would either go really well or fail since it really depends on who is using the app and how dire their financial situation is, not to mention it also depends on how many people in the U.S. will end up using the app and also subscribing to it for the extra things it offers.

2.     Interview 2: This interview was done with a college grad student. When I described my app and website to her, she showed full support of it since she has trouble handling her personal finances and worries about money on a daily basis. When I asked her, “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?”, she said that it would be cool to be able to call someone as part of the subscription if people ever needed any deeper financial advice for their own situation. She used herself as an example since she’s trying to save up for her wedding in a year or two. When I told her about my idea of having a consultant similar to what she described, she seemed happy about it and supported the idea.

3.     Interview 3: This interview was done with a college undergrad student in his freshman year who has a job delivering pizzas. When I described my app and website to him, he said it sounded a lot like the finance app he was using, but he did like the added bonus of getting budgeting tips just by downloading the app. That characteristic set my app apart from his. When I asked him “What should be we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?”, he said there wasn’t much that he could think of that would help the app improve further other than to keep updating the app so it runs smoothly and enhances the services it already has. When I told him about my idea of adding someone to call, a consultant, for those who want deeper advice on their own financial situation, he had a similar response to my first interviewee, saying that it would definitely be helpful to those who really needed it, but depended on how many people really wanted to seek out financial advice and subscribe for the service. It would also be targeted towards people who have a full-time job or several part-time jobs, so people who would potentially call the consultant would be adults and not students.

Reflection:

After interviewing these three people, I think continuing to update the app to make it run smoother and to add to the features it already has is definitely a good move and the safest. Two of the three interviews mentioned the updates on the app, and two of them thought the consultant idea was risky and depended on a lot of things despite it having the potential to be super successful, which I agree with. At the very least, I heard really good feedback on the original idea of the app itself since all three interviewees liked the idea of receiving budgeting tips every time the app is in use since it’s an added bonus compared to other apps they’ve heard of and used.

New Market:

The new market I am considering isn’t really new, but just a subgroup that I have mentioned but haven’t been focusing on, are people who have established jobs, more specifically parents and people who have families to take care of. The app wouldn’t change its features much, but I believe people who have families to take care of would find the app more attractive since they have more expenses to consider in their day to day lives. They would also probably be more open to the consultant service added with the subscription since they are more likely to have more complex financial situations. The success of the added consultant would depend on this subgroup.

New Market Interviews:

1.     Interview 1: My first interviewee for this new market was a mother I ran into while getting a drink at a nearby boba tea place. She was getting drinks for herself and her daughters. When I told her what the concept and details were for my app, she said that the budgeting tips really stood out and would definitely give people who needed them a better idea of how to budget their money. The basics of a budgeting help would definitely be helpful on a personal level since, as a person with a family, she has to keep track of many different kinds of expense for herself, her husband, and her daughters. When I told her about the consultant that would come with the subscription to the app, she was pretty open about it since she knows people who are really struggling with their finances and would like to go to a professional for help, but would only cost them more money to do so. The big problem she saw with it was whether or not the consultant would be someone credible enough to give people with financial hardships advice and information.

2.     Interview 2: My second interview for this new market was a daughter in her twenties who still lives with her parents and helps them with basic home expenses. When I described my idea to her, she was all for the budgeting, but said it wouldn’t be so useful since the money that comes into the household is usually spent really quickly on things such as house payments, groceries, and whatnot, so not much is left to save. There isn’t a lot of money to keep track of after all the necessary expenses are paid off. When I told her about my idea of adding an available consultant to call with a subscription to the app for people who really wanted personalized financial advice, she was for it. Her parents had been considering going to a professional for financial help, but they don’t have the money to do so. She said for those who were in her family’s situation, being able to call a professional for a simple monthly subscription to an app is convenient since they’re just a call away for a cheap price.

Reflection:

There were a lot of things I didn’t think of before I had these interviews. I didn’t think about the credibility of the possible consultant for my app, nor did I think about the added convenience for people who have wanted to see a financial consultant by providing them contact with one for a simple monthly subscription fee. Even though the service most likely won’t be on par with paying a full-price for seeing a professional for advice on handling finances, simply having someone on-call to ask for advice provides a convenient safety net.

I think these two interviews provided evidence that the consultant idea really does depend on this subgroup since they would be more stressed about their finances and more likely to have complicated struggles with them. However, like previous interviewees have said, this additional service will only be successful if the people who use the app actually want a real person’s advice and if a lot of people want it. It would be a service that would probably be implemented in the future, when the app has a big number of people already using it.