A collection of inclusive, cross-functional UX & UI resources, infrequently curated by Jennifer Strickland
Improve the Financial Health
of Vulnerable DC Citizens
2018 DT:DC Summer of Design course
Course Overview: Summer of Design, DT:DC, is a course offered by the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, through a partnership with Capital One and Design Thinking DC. This is part one of a two-part design thinking specialization. I am learning different ways of seeing, thinking, innovating, and communicating — from a business point of view.
Assignment Description: Business Model Design — “How might we improve the financial health of vulnerable DC citizens through entrepreneurship and/or public-private partnerships?”
- View Course Details
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Assignment Constraints:
- Challenge takes place in the year 2030 (so that teams are not constrained by present-day technology)
- Concepts will must involve business-models or public-private partnerships (cannot be a revision of existing policy — need to bring emerging options to create new value)
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Solutions address the spectrum of financial health
- Unhealthy (in immediate trouble)
- Medium Healthy (can pay bills today but isn't prepared for the future)
- Healthy (can pay bills today and is saving for the future)
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Solutions address the spectrum of financial anxiety
- Extremely Anxious (legitimately concerned vs. always worried)
- Somewhat Anxious (I'm just not really sure)
- Not Anxious (comfortable or in denial)
Assignment Expected Outcomes:
- Ideas will identify concrete opportunities towards creating greater well-being or reducing financial anxiety.
- Solutions will create new businesses that contribute to improving financial health of DC citizens or identify ways to bring or build existing or emerging public-private partnerships to create new value.
Weekly Course Deliverables
Moving very quickly, collaborating with a business team, exploring questions to develop a concept pitch
- What is?
- Who is our target user? ad hoc personas [397kb PDF] - The assignment was to choose one, but we documented two of the three identified users to uncover insights.
- What is their experience? ad hoc journey map [102kb PDF] - This quick journey map highlighted the difference between Users A and C, why one had the daring to take on student loan debt: User A had parental financial support and guidance, whereas User C was on their own. What if everyone had financial support and guidance?
- What if?
- How can we meet their needs? design criteria [121kb PDF]
- More specifically, how can we meet the user needs and align with business goals? business model canvas [115kb PDF]
- What wows/works?
- Do users want this? storyboard prototype - Test the concept [2.9MB PDF]
- Final Pitch Presentation [1.4MB PDF]