Making your finances tangible

Abstract

The challenge addressed within this master thesis is to decide on the next focus area for Equip as an early-stage startup regarding new proposition development. Equip is a Fintech startup currently developing a financial coaching platform to be offered to employees paid by their employer. For employers, it is a valuable strategy to improve employees’ financial wellbeing since financial stress results in lower productivity, increased absenteeism and lower retention. In addition, improving employees’ financial wellbeing can also attract young and new talent while maintaining current employees.

The most common reasons early-stage startups fail are lack of resources and insufficient customer research, resulting in the absence of good product market fit. The platform involves a complex stakeholder field: two types of customers, namely the employer and its employees, and in addition to these, the service supplier in the form of several financial experts. The researcher of this master thesis has identified each of these actors’ motivation to use and interact with Equip.

Different stakeholders' needs and value indicators were discovered through literature, user interviews, generative sessions and internal analysis of Equip. During a joint prioritisation session with Equip’s team, the identified needs were assessed according to the expected customer and business value they would generate.

The prioritisation resulted in the focus area: Providing personal guidance during the first steps users have to take to secure their financial future so that they stop procrastinating.

A new proposition, i.e. the Financial Roadmap, was developed through ideation and experimentation. The Financial Roadmap enables users to simulate the effect of specific financial decisions (i.e. life events) on the development of their financial situation over time. This allows users to think ahead of their financial future by putting a plan together and making their finances more tangible.

Given that measuring the impact on the repeat usage rate by implementing the Financial Roadmap is impossible since this requires full implementation and time, a Minimal Viable Product is presented to validate the concept further. A product roadmap and operational roadmap show how the designed concept and its MVP fit within the bigger picture of Equip’s development as a startup to accomplish its vision of becoming the go-to platform to manage your entire financial life.