Finvo 

Finvo is a community started on discord that seeks to empower womxn to build wealth and focuses on a work in progress mindset with regards to finances.  I am a volunteer UX researcher on the project, which is ongoing. 

The Product:  Finvo seeks to teach users about various aspects of finance including budgeting, emerging markets such as cryptocurrency, investing, and general financial advice. It strives to be a community built collaborative effort that helps women feel confident about managing their personal finances. 

The Problem: We noticed that many people have a lack of financial education and don’t know where to start on their path to financial independence; especially women.  

The Goal: Finvo is looking to grow a new user base and increase the current user engagement through the use of various social media platforms.  

Time Frame: October 2021 - July 2023 (Project put on hold by founders)

Research Goals

1. Determine the different levels of financial knowledge of women between the ages of 18-35

2. Identify specific areas of interest

3. Discover online interaction habits

4. Identify how and where women are currently getting financial advice  

Research Methodologies

• Competitive Landscape: The purpose of the competitive landscape was to examine the current landscape of finance focused platforms; especially ones that are targeted toward women.  I wanted to look at what other platforms were doing so that Finvo would be able to get a better idea of any knowledge gaps that we can fill.  

• Surveys:  The purpose of the surveys were to gauge financial knowledge, comfort levels while discussing personal finances, and areas for financial exploration (i.e. investing in stocks, real estate, 401k, etc.).  The results would be used to find overarching themes that we would be able to explore in depth. 

• User Interviews: The purpose of the user interviews is to learn about the financial habits, interests, and social media habits of potential Finvo Users. 

For the competitive landscape, I wanted to look at 3 competitors to Finvo.  I thought that it would be beneficial to look at 2 direct competitors that were targeted towards women and one indirect competitor that was not targeted towards women. I felt that this would give us a better picture of what was currently in the field and what if any content gaps we could fill.  

Key Takeaways:

• The target audience for these platforms skews towards a less financially informed demographic 

• The platforms are closely tied to their founders, who bring the brands credibility

• Each platform uses multiple types of social media to create and distribute content

• Content varies depending on platform, but the information provided is general and lacks specificity for further research.  

I chose to look at Her First $100K because it was a large, well-established women centric financial platform that has been around for some time and has a large following and would be able to offer insight on what can make a platform successful.  The second platform I wanted to look at was Boss Woman Collective, which is an up-and-coming women centric financial platform.  They would offer insight into how a platform functions in its infancy.  Lastly, I wanted to look a platform that had a discord component and was not necessarily geared towards women and for that I chose to look at Fluent in Finance. 

Areas of Interest:

• Social Media: I wanted to look at the social media presence of these three platforms because they serve as an important way to interact with the community, present information, and build a following.  I wanted to look at which social media platforms would be better to focus on when developing content for Finvo.  

• Branding: Branding is another aspect that I wanted to look at because big brands are very protective of their branding.  It also serves as a way to standout in a crowded market.  

• Content: Lastly, I wanted to look at content because that would allow me to see what types of information other platforms present and what Finvo can elaborate on to standout or even any specific gaps in the market that Finvo would be able to find a niche.  

I wanted to send out a brief survey using Google forms to gauge interest in specific financial fields and try and find themes that we could explore.  Since we do not have funds to commission a firm to help with the surveys or even offer any incentive, I tried to reply on free platforms such as Reddit and Facebook Groups. I wanted to open the survey to all respondents since I thought it may provide key differences  between men and women with regards to financial knowledge.  

Shortcomings

Unfortunately, over the course of two weeks there was a total of six respondents on all platforms.  5 out of 6 respondents were male and 100% were White.  The answers also felt disingenuous with one respondent saying that they invested by reselling firearms.  With the results I decided not to use any of the findings from the surveys.  

Recruitment 

• Participants are women that are able to open their own brokerage accounts (e.g. 18+)

• Participants should have varying levels of financial knowledge

• Participants should include varying ethnic, economic backgrounds, geographic location

Summary

Interviews were conducted with participants grouped by age range.

The initial assumption was that age would be a determining factor in one’s financial knowledge, which was not the case; both groups shared a similar level of financial knowledge.  The age groupings did still display specific characteristics that made me want to remain with these groupings.  These characteristics being their urgency to think about retirement and their desire to learn about personal finances.  

Group A:

Group B:

Key Insights:

• Group A participants are open to talk about personal finances: Participants said they were open to talk about personal finances but have not been asked because they think it’s socially unacceptable to do so.  

• Group A participants said they knew where to find financial resources but did not have the time to do so: Participants were busy with other responsibilities or social obligations.  They felt that financial information was easy to find through online resources. 

• Group B participants were uncomfortable talking about their personal finances: All participants felt like it was a social faux pau but felt that it was a good thing to discuss personal finance with friends and colleagues.  Some participants were worried about privacy.  

• Group B participants were concerned about saving for retirement but unsure where to start: Participants felt like there were many resources available but that the materials were hard to understand especially for a layperson 

• Participants in both groups were only interested in traditional ways of investing: Participants were not interested in emerging financial markets.  Some said it was due to lack of knowledge and volatility. 

• Participants in both groups were active on various social media platforms: Participants shared similar social media usage.  With group A being more active on TikTok and group B skewing more towards Instagram 

• The team decided to shift focus away from Cryptocurrencies and NFTs and focus on practical investments, money management, and saving for retirement. 

• Due to user unfamiliarity with the Discord platform, the team is considering ways to educate users on the platform but also considering looking for alternatives to host the Finvo community.  

• With many users relying on social media for financial tips and advice, the Finvo Team has begun to brainstorm and design content in preparation for a social media roll out.