Interviews and personas

Circles of influence

The proposed method was devised firstly via mental model prototyping. This is where I have used the circle of influence as well as SCAMPER technique to solve the problem of impulse purchase for myself first before extrapolating the solution outward towards friends and family, acquaintance and city, regional environment and finally India and beyond. This approach of first developing a solution for self before extrapolating out was based on the work of Stephen Covey in his book The 7 habits of highly effective people.

The circle of influence method on the other hand is a tool to get people to look at all the things that concern them and help them realize that they have more power than they think over things that feel out of their control. This method is first done via drawing a large circle in which we fill in with things that we associate concern with as seen in Figure 5.

This circle that was drawn represents the things in which we feel that is out of control within our lives. Following this, we draw a smaller circle within the large circle which is to represent the things that we can actively control. Subsequently, among the items which was already previously listed, I considered whenever I was ready to moderate my spending on those specific items and thus if I was ready, said items would be moved to the inner circle while if I wasn’t then said items would remain at the outer circle. In my case, I was not quite ready to moderate my spending on these areas and thus why the inner circle remains empty as seen in Figure 5.

FB, Insta, Whatsapp

Meditation

Deodrants

Clothes Online food ordering

E-learning

Guitar

Electronic gadgets

WiFi, Internet data

Circle of control

Circle of concern

Figure 5: Step 2 of utilizing the circle of concern method which is drawing a smaller inner circle in which is coined the circle of control and subsequently start sorting items in the outer circle into the inner circle depending on if we are ready to control/regulate said spending.

Online food ordering FB, Insta, Whatsapp E-learning Deodrants Guitar WiFi, data Meditation

Clothes Electronic gadgets

Figure 6: Results of Using Circle of Influence method along with SCAMPER to plot out the various issues affecting our life.

Next, I drew another circle in between the circle of control and circle of concern which we will dub the circle of influence. This circle represents items in which we can influence its usage or frequency by doing something else. An example of this happening would be that because I always play the guitar instead of over consuming social media or perhaps teaching myself a skill via YouTube or self-discovery methods rather than paying an expensive teacher as well as the logistics to reach said teacher on a daily basis. To standardize the process of identifying the problem, thinking of how each of them influences the other and considers whenever each item can be controlled or not, I used a creative brainstorming technique known as Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse or SCAMPER. Using each subsection individually or collectively, SCAMPER should be able to condense multiple considerations into a single issue via Combine, Modify and Put to another use strategy or removed altogether from consideration by using the Adapt and Substitute methods. The overall result should look as in Figure 6.

By plotting this out, it enabled me to have a top-down view on my current overall expenditures as well as enable me to plan out my priorities properly. Doing so made me realize that there were spaces for me to save money on in which I can then use to invest things that are really important. In addition to that, by having a clear outline of priorities, it makes it hard for us to relapse into buying unnecessary goods and products thus avoiding past mistakes.

Making responders aware of the problem associated with overspending Discovering the intended or unnoticed solutions

Understanding the responders feelings and motivations with respect to the outcome of card sorting Discovering the intended or unnoticed solutions Concluding the personal insights and experiences

Knowing responder’s POV on spending. (method of inquiry: card sorting with limited responce time.) Asking responder to rank the existing and newly derived solutions on the basis

Figure 7: This figure illustrates my rendition to ‘Early-user characteristics model’.

Interviews and personas

Having completed the 1st phase which is to successfully solve the problem of an impulse purchase for me, the next phase is to extrapolate said solution to the next tier which is friends and family. For this, I proposed a method which is based on the Early User characteristic model which was proposed by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. The Early User Characteristic model comprises of 5 sections which are the Problem Context: Understanding the responder’s perception, making responders aware of the problem, knowledge of existing methods, assembling a solution out of parts and lastly the preferred solution. Our method, however, is a modification of said model where each section relates directly to our approach instead. The difference between the original and our proposed is as seen in Figure 7 and 8.

Has/ acquired budget

Assembling a solution out of parts

Been actively looking for a solution

Is aware of this problem

Is facing a problem

Figure 8: ‘Early-user characteristics model’. Reference section: 9.

Images showing one of the scene from interview phase, and how the respondent arranged the cards according to the two classifications. Time limit to clssify each card was 5 seconds.

My proposed method first starts with understanding the responder’s perception. This is a data collection phase where the goal is to learn the responder’s feelings, motivations as well as their perception of their own spending habits. This was carried out using a deck of card as well as a timer system where the deck of card is filled with products and services which satisfies human needs and the responder is required to classify said products or services into either item which they are aware they are overspending on and items which they are aware that they are not overspending on. This process was done within a 5 second timer limit for each card as a form of response latency control which ensures that the classification done is purely due to the implicit association of the responder with little to no external influence of conscious thought.

Next, the method continues via making the responders aware of the problems and follow up by knowledge of existing methods. This can be done by creating a 1 on 1 connection with the responder which allows them to open up and honestly discuss their experiences with overspending, their past attempts as well as results to curb said overspending as well. In addition to that, doing this also allows us to interject and share our personal experiences with the responder in order to collaborate with their experiences. Learning whenever the responder is aware or not of their situation and in the case of not, enlightening them of their problem, while if yes, learning the results of said efforts to see whenever or not standard methodologies would work for said responder later down the line.

Another set of Images showing a scene from interview phase, and how the respondent arranged the cards according and later ranked the features on the basis of their efficiency.

Once the responder’s insights or methods have been identified and listed in the previous section, this thus marks the end of the data collection phase and the start of the analysis phase with the start of the assembling a solution out of parts. In this section, we group together responder insights and categorize them based on known methodologies or create new ones in the case of new methodologies. Currently, there is 7 solutions/features that have already been identified which were:

Spick & Span Bringing clarity on your needs, quantifying your needs in terms of money spent. Focusing on the needs that spark joy helps to keep impulse purchases under control.

Past Positive Who can teach you better than yourself? Discover tips from your own past. Knowing where you had overspent helps to save for things that matter the most to you.

Fair to share Share not only unused goods and services with people who could use it on an exchange or at a fair rate but also your targets; maybe you can participate in challenges to achieve the set targets. Share your ideas on how you achieved them.

Mind map sketch illustrating the keywords of SCAMPER technique. Source: Reference section: 8.

DIY-SCAMPER Make your own things to fulfill your needs by substituting, modifying, reusing and repairing the unused resources.

Rush on your hobbies Directing your spending on your special pursuits help you to notice and nurture your positive side. Eliminating excessive spending on unwanted things.

Bon Voyage Plan a trip to experience splendor of nature. The more you spend on experiencing scenic beauty, more you encourage the industry to protect it.

Not Carrying Excessive Hard Cash Tends to spend it on go.

Defining personas

Socially Adequate Spends to receive appreciation from people.

“I choose uber cab over the public transport while going to meet the client. I think that is one way to create a good impression.”

Curious Seeks constant updates and variety. Gets bored easily.

“I buy new smartphone each year to experience the updated features.”

Imitator Influenced by social circles, peer pressure and media.

“I shop handmade soaps because friends often use and talk about them.”

Graphical representations to illustrate metaphors of personas which unify certain characteristics of similar responders.