Day 2 of Avocademy Designathon - Defining the problem and users

After conducting research to better understand and emphasize with users (see Day 1 information here), it was time to define what problem we would focus to solve and who are the users we are targeting.

Day 2 - Tuesday

So after we collect all data from the research, survey, competitive analysis, and affinity mapping, we converted the insights into the following deliverables:

• 5 Whys: a simple and effective problem solving tool for getting to the root of the problem #KeepAskingWhy

• User Persona: so that we could have a document to refer to our user in all stages of our design

• Problem Statement: to help us to focus our project on the problem we are trying to solve, as well as the people for which we're trying to solve it

• Hypothesis Statement: an attempt to solve the primary problem of our persona

== 5 Whys ==

There was a lot of information in our hands at this moment, and we had a 1:1 meeting in order to discuss them and understand which direction should we take from that moment on. We knew that we should be quick - remember, our major constraint here is time - and Fernanda proposed that we did this ideation exercise called the 5 Whys, where we write the most evident problem we found in the research from the previous day, and then we keep asking why do people feel/think that way until we get to the core of the problem. We did it together during one of our meetings using this FigJam template file.

You can notice that only 4 whys were necessary, the core of the problem was clear now: users need beginner-friendly information that are relevant to their financial needs. I think this exercise was really useful for us to focus on the core of the problem and narrow it down to the most impactful friction for the user. Also, it was fast and there was this kind of "brainstorm" feeling to it, making it very dynamic and fun to do with a coworker.

With this in mind, together with the findings from the research, we created a user persona.

== User Persona ==

Fernanda created this user persona where she efficiently laid out many topics that were relevant to our user. Notice that his main struggles are related to the fact that finance seems to be a confusing topic, and, even though Guy is aware that he should become more financially literate in order to use his money wisely, he is intimidated by the difficult financial jargon.

== Problem & Hypothesis Statement ==

I created a problem statement and a hypothesis statement to better visualize and document the problem we chose to focus on and start exploring potential solutions.

I had to redo the problem statement a couple of times. I needed to focus on the informational and educational aspect of our problem so that it would not be all about selling investments to customers. Maybe it would be good for the business aspect of the project, but our main goal here in this designathon is to focus on users. It's good to think about the business as well, though, and we will try to implement an effective flow that will benefit both users and business.

== Day 2 learnings ==

1. It was my first time doing the 5 Whys exercise, Fernanda explained how it works. I think it was really fun and I most definitely will apply this method in future ideation processes.

2. still think that I need to improve my storytelling skills. I believe I did well when I was presenting my survey findings to Fernanda, we had a really nice conversation, but when we were writing some topics down together in Figma, I felt that my mind froze at some moments, I could feel her eyes on me, and that made my mind go blank xD I still feel pressured sometimes when someone is listening to me, imagine a room full of people! Thankfully, Fernanda was always kind and helpful, adding comments in the right moments and reminding me about what we I was in the conversation.

3. As I said before, I had to redo the problem statement a couple of times. This time, this exercise was really good to remind me to make me step back from the problem I was creating in my mind, go back to the research, and really see that the user needs clarification about financial education, not necessary investing.

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And this is what happened on day 2 of the designathon. The following day was kind of different because we both had personal stuff to deal with that were scheduled before the designathon started. But we were able to start working on the ideation phase :)