Participatory Roadmaps
After speaking with two interviewees about their interest in the app, it was clear that they were not interested in the product. I then found a “Big credit card loyalty hoe” who was happy to offer their insights on our product. Some insights…
- Warning when points expire a huge benefit
- Loyalty points all in one place a huge benefit
- Customer support very important
- Exploration of other loyalty programs, especially when location is used, is a great feature (reminds him of points guy and nerd wallet)
- Charity interesting
—
- Cashing out for money defeats the point of the product and should not be offered
- Social observability, ie. a venmo-like feed, is unnecessary
- Leaderboard or other attempts at gamification is intimidating and unnecessary
- Spotify wrapped style summaries would be very unnecessary
Described to friends as: Platform that consolidates all your points and allows you to trade between them and explore deals
The next interview was with an “Alaska airlines loyalist”. More insights…
- “sexy” to see all points in one place
- Customer support very important
- This would get me to use more loyalty programs
- Location feature cool
—
- Social feed is funny but dumb
- Happy hours sounds stupid
- Leaderboard and other attempts at gamification dumb
- No to Auctions
Described to friends as: For the thrifty nifty and dinkeloos. It takes all your loyalty points and consolidates them into one place. See whats available to trade. Thrifty neat way to know where to spend.
Conclusions: These users were very enthusiastic about the app but don’t see the value of connecting to friends or gamifying the process in any version of the app. By sticking to the bare bones – trading and a wallet – we should deliver the most value to consumers, according to these interviewees.
—-
Defne: Interviews were conducted by allowing participants to move around sticky notes.
I first interviewed Daniel, age 22, who only uses his points at his favourite restaurant. His ideas on the features I asked him to re-prioritise were:
- Not crazy about the leaderboard or decimal points
- Thinks the spotify wrapped feature would be really fun
- If he had the app now, the five things he would choose:
- Deals, like free guac at Chipotle if you spend a number of points
- Wallet showing all points
- Explore new points
- Use points by phone tap
Second, I interviewed Adhara, who is a 21-year-old student from a foreign country. She says that she only uses retail/Sephora points when they are already in her account. Her opinions were:
- I love the idea of having all my points in the same place
- I don’t get how I’d be asked to socialise
- I want to know that it will be easy to trade points and I’m not always searching for where to trade.
- An automated workflow would be best.
- I wish there were a way to trade temporary deals such as one-time coupons I get for Sephora or even Target.
- Accumulating money for things like groceries would be the most valuable when I consider people like my parents.
- I have a foreign card and can only use PayPal and not Venmo. I’d be curious to see if that is an issue on this system as well.
- I’d be OK with blockchain on the backend as long as I’m not expected to create a wallet.
- Says she would gift points.
Key insights:
- When asked which 5 features they’d want now, first named the wallet having centralised points and being able to pay by tapping
- Seeing all the points in one place and spending/trading them easily was most important
- Gamification felt less interesting except for the Spotify Wrapped
- BUT say being able to get rewards after spending a certain amount is good
- They want things to be as easy as possible so would sacrifice being able to get leaderboards against friends or others
—-
Keeton (credit card points enthusiast) → October 23, 2022
Key Insights
- Vendor benefits like vendor analytics should be implemented NOW rather than later
- Things that make the platform more convenient like auto-trade should be implemented ASAP (even if they aren’t part of the MVP)
- Leaderboards + badges should NOT be a part of the app → privacy concern, may not want people to know how much money you’re spending at particular stores and locations
- Features that help users discover new places (suggested trades, new points) are nice, but not necessary and should be implemented later, not now
- It’s no fun if you’re able to cash out, want to encourage point use, kinda feels like it devalues points if you can cash out
Gleb → October 24, 2022
Key Insights
- Cash out is very important, nice to get money directly from points
- Auctions don’t matter at all
- Social aspect is very important to get people to actually use the app, want ppl to see that other people are using it
- Likes the idea of the leaderboard, doesn’t have any privacy issues with it
- Happy hours are very important to get people to use the app
- Customer support is essential
- Being able to explore new point systems isn’t very important
- Would be nice to donate to charity
—-
Buy Side Person #1:
Now:
- Dashboard to see exactly what I can trade for and whether I am getting a good deal or not
- Trade Points with Friends
- Warn when points expire
- All in one convenience for applying points at checkout
Later:
- Happy hour deals
- Sponsored ads / trades
- Allow people to trade their assets for cash on secondary markets
Much Later:
- Donate Points to charity
- Leaderboards
Sell Side Person #1:
Now:
- Dashboard to see exactly how many rewards points we are liable for, and how many customers have how much
- Dashboard to see when I can set up deals, and how much sales it will generate
- Allow users to use their points with an app scan at point of sale
Later:
- Coordinate with other restaurants to do co-promotions
- See yelp reviews for rewards
Much Later:
- Analytics on top users to reward most loyal customers
Comparative research
Pool differentiates itself by offering users the ability to trade points easily. To guarantee easily tradable points, I found that we are making two large bets on the technology:
- It will be possible to view all points in one place. Companies of different programs will allow users to be logged on virtually all the time so that a user can see all their points in a wallet.
- Trading will be effortless and fast. Blockchains should enable this.
