Kiwi : Teaching kids all about money

A concept built around first principals based on conversations with our core users.

May 12, 2018

minute read

Design thinking

Product strategy

Visual design

CLIENT

Greenlight

SERVICES

Product Strategy

ROLE

Lead designer

Project summary

This is a project that never got shipped, but I was pretty proud of the thought process that went into it. To set the stage I was working at Greenlight and I was primarily focused on the child experience and growth. I spent hours talking with kids about money, technology, and what their interests were. One thing that seemed universal, kids use technology in different ways than their parents and they have different expectations.

They consumed video content from apps like TikTok and Youtube, and used the search functionality to explore these platforms. They didn’t look for specific solutions but rather categorically and broadly. Their areas of interest evolved with their age group, but the platforms remained the same. They were not Instagrammers and certainly not Facebookers (that was not news, just a context set.) There was no clear distinction made between education and entertainment, hours could be and would be spent watching how to videos to hack games, ordering at McDonalds, or how to apply makeup.

As digital natives they also had an uncanny eye for detail, though not quantifiable per se, they understood layout and interaction design and nuance between good enough and great. During our time together I would show them concepts and ideas we were tinkering with and one thing was clear, they wanted sophisticated but not “old.”

Based on all these insights I put together a new direction for Greenlight. The intention was not necessarily to pivot or ship, but to excite and inspire. To offer ways to alter the way we thought about our core audience. While parents were paying for the service, child adoption would determine our CLV. If we stayed the course and remained a banking app for families that could be easily replaced by availability and price. If we created an experience it would be nearly irreplaceable.

Exploration

There were two major shifts in the way I was proposing we thought about our product/service. The first was built on classic Montessori education models. Kids learn by example, kids understand by teaching. The second was to open the Greenlight ecosystem and remove the barriers imposed by our subscription model. Both of these were intentional growth tactics but entirely new shifts to our business model.

The first shift would offer our users to become content creators. It would be moderated for sure, it would be safe, and we would forego the negative impact creator models that exist on other platforms. Kids wouldn’t be chasing views & likes, the current social currency. But instead would ideally be given a platform to share insights without performance anxiety, and hopefully parents would in turn engage in the creation of that content. For example; as a kid performs a chore and discovers a hack of sorts for it they can record the hack and post it to that chore. A parent can then decide if they broadcast it and in turn the next child who has to do the same chore can watch a series of shared videos that will teach them.

The second was more about the way we consider what a customer is, what they look like, and what qualifies them. Taking from the likes of Cashapp and Venmo, could kids send and receive money in a responsible way. Our kids could send money to other kids and if the other kids didn’t have a Greenlight account they could spin one up quickly (providing they would get permission from their parents of course.) This would create a free tier to our platform.

the result

The actual application didn’t move much further than a handful of meetings, some well placed prototypes, and a lot of head nods. But the implication of this exercise did help start some critical conversations. Greenlight was primarily focused on getting parents to pay for a subscription, and while that didn’t change, the child as a secondary user was elevated to the role of primary user, and ecosystem experience made it’s way to conversations that were traditionally driven by time to market.

final thoughts

As a product team, we need to allow ourselves time to explore alternatives to where we are and where we are going. In this example so much of what Greenlight was, was driven by the initial concept and competitive landscape. I’m not saying that is wrong, and for many companies it works well enough. But if we can allow room to explore what at times might seem like the insane, the worse case is we’ll validate and recenter on what we’re building. I’m not with Greenlight any more, but I still talk to many of my former coworkers and even to this day, 4 years later, I will hear whispers of “I wish we would have to pursued that educational platform.” To that I simply reply “Never give up, never surrender.” Products only evolve and improve as long as at least one person is willing to challenge the way we’ve always done it.

final thoughts

The result

JASON REYNOLDS

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