Spending Plan
Budgeting built for the way people actually manage their money
We had learned a lot over the 8+ years of our previous budgeting feature. So it was time to re-think how we approached the problem.
Here’s the TL;DR on my role on the project:
Lead discovery
Facilitated user interviews
Lead design on initial concepts
Promoted to manager mid-project
Oversaw implementation
The traditional model of planning out your income and expenses for a calendar month didn’t match how most people described managing their money.
Most Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and our research showed that a paycheck model is how many people approach budgeting.
Their journey looks more like this:
Get paid
Subtract bills due before next paycheck
Subtract amounts for variable expenses (i.e. groceries, gas)
See how much is left over or, if there’s a shortfall, find another income source (i.e. Uber)
I created a highlight reel of user interviews to share with stakeholders. Hearing people explain this workflow in their own words was more powerful than me explaining it.
These are the initial concepts for the category-based budget and recurring expense views. They didn’t test well, so we abandoned these layouts.
About this time, I was promoted to manger, so I handed off the project to a member of my team and took on a coaching role.
