Spending with intention + having conversations
Hey Jim, thanks for taking the time to review and critique this work.
Scrimped is made to help people with a few major goals or concepts:
1. Spend every dollar with intention
2. Have conversations about money
3. Minimize surprises in my finances
The first flow I want to share with you is focused around the first two concepts of spending every dollar with intention and talking about money, which basically means that a couple consciously considers and plans purchases together before making them.
I'll be talking about a married couple (we'll call them Jacob and Amanda) throughout this flow, here's a few key notes about their needs, beliefs, goals, triggers, etc.
|
|
This scenario starts with Jacob, so let's take a look at the specific need and problems he's presented with one night while browsing the web on the couch.
|
|
While he's hanging out watching a show about CrossFit, he sees a cool Reebok ad that gets him pumped to hit the gym. He opens a new tab and starts browsing CrossFit gear at reebok.com. Soon enough he comes across a pair of shorts he'd really like to have.
|
|
Since him and Amanda recently decided they wanted to talk about it before buying anything, he pulls out Scrimped on his phone instead of pulling out his credit card. With Scrimped open, he proposes a new purchase, and chooses to notify Amanda.
|
I'm really curious to hear what you think of the star thing. The idea is to capture how bad somebody wants the purchase, but I feel like the stars kind of muddy the water and make it unclear...any thoughts or ideas?
|
|
| #4—scrimped-4-new-proposal.jpg |
|
|
Comment on this image...
|
|
|
Now we'll turn to Amanda for a minute and see what needs and problems she's dealing with.
|
Have you ever done something like these? I don't like personas because they're so focused on crap like demographics. So I like that these just cut to the good stuff—what people are trying to do, and what their situation looks like. I'd love to hear what you think.
|
|
| #5—scrimped-5-scenario-2-intro.jpg |
|
|
Comment on this image...
|
|
|
Amanda's been out at the gym tonight, and just as she's getting ready to head home, she gets a notification from Jacob on Scrimped letting her know that Jacob's proposed a new purchase. She opens it up and sees he wants to buy another pair of CrossFit shorts, which she thinks are a bit unnecessary. She writes a quick response and posts her comment on Scrimped.
|
As I was writing this one up, I realized that I actually prefer email over notifications for these...seems like a lot of the time it wouldn't be very convenient to just deal with a proposal the instant it was proposed.
|
|
| #6—scrimped-6-commenting.jpg |
|
|
Comment on this image...
|
|
|
A bit later Jacob sees an email come in and reads it, looks like Amanda doesn't quite agree with purchasing the shorts right now. Jacob's a bit frustrated at first, but as he thinks it over he realizes Amanda's totally right, and he's not really going to the gym enough to justify the purchase.
|
|
So Jacob clicks the link to open the proposal on Scrimped, and makes an adjustment.
|
|
Jacob realizes he doesn't need these shorts right now, but he would like to get them someday. He marks the proposal for reconsideration in a few months.
|
View this on Basecamp
|
