Research-based personas from 2018 project for Wonderbill

1. RedPenRuby
Back in the 90s, Ruby’s husband told her she wasn’t allowed a bank card
because she was terrible with money. Instead he gave her a hundred
pounds a week and told her he’d look after the rest of the budget, so
she wouldn’t need to worry about anything. After they lost the house, it
emerged he’d been seeing some young floozie at work on the sly, taking
her away on extravagant holidays, and squandering their joint savings.
Shortly after the divorce, when she was penniless and living in
sheltered accommodation, she found another of his mystery bills - from
Travelodge Venice - stuffed into the flap of her suitcase. Again she
cursed him, and swore to never be less that 100% in control over her
finances ever again.
Today, she’s remarried, back on the property ladder and watches her
household expenses like a hawk. Forever berating the kids about leaving
the lights on and mining those bloody bitcoins. She has high standards
of people, and has the same expectations of transparency and honesty
from companies too.
She’s a loyal customer and vocal advocate until she senses an inkling
of incompetence or bulls**t, after which she mobilises the full salvo of
angry letters and social media scolding until her issues are resolved.
Her methods of managing the bills with a red pen and a filing system
is effective, but admittedly archaic, and she’s always on the lookout for
new ways to make it a bit more efficient.
I vowed I would never be in that
situation again. I would have total
control over my finances.
Goal
• Managing her personal finances
is a way to stay in control.
• Takes pride in discovering new
ways to be brilliant with money,
and getting one over on those
“muppets”.
• Cannot abide the incompetence
of others, especially when she’s
the one who suffers for it.
Attitudes
• Ruby has high expectations of
customer service and effective
resolution of her problems.
• Wants to learn about good deals
when her current contracts are
due for renewal.
• Doesn’t want to be harassed by
notifications - she wants to be in
charge of how many and when.
Expectations
.
Persona Life Cycle
• Extensively tracks her outgoings,
writing “date read” and “date
paid” with her red pen on every
single bill, before filing them in
her vast archive.
• Will immediately look for the
best value deal if she starts to
see her bills increase.
• Will gauge benefits of any
solution that might make her
life easier and try it. However,
if the service is not up to her
standards, she’ll abandon it just
as fast.
Behaviours
Her personal finances are
her fortress, and she’s ever-
vigilant to defend it.
Support Preferences
PHONE CHAT EMAIL SELF SERVE ANGRY LETTER SOCIAL
INTEREST
MAINTAIN
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ROUTINE
Things Ruby Uses
HSBC MONEY SAVING
EXPERT
RYANAIR COLORFY
Personality Traits
She wasn’t always this organised, but rose
to the challenge when she had to be. While
the tedious aspects of it are not exactly fun,
she still finds it satisfying to be in control. Her
disagreeable, combative character combined
with her extroverted nature make her a force
to be reckoned with, and providers rue the day
they cross her.
Describe the features in detail,
focusing on the deals and with
switching highlighted separately.
Address how she can can
outsource some of their bill
management, saving more time
and money.
Provide an overview of new and
most popular deals and offer
her information support with
enough clarity to build her trust.
Tangible proof of completion —
date paid, an item from a to-do
list completed. No uncertainty.
Empower her: make her feel like
she’s absolutely on top of her
bills and show her visualisations
of her own data she can’t get
anywhere else. Notify when new
opportunities arise, but not too
often!
How She Currently Manages Bills
CONSCIENTIOUS
OPEN TO NEW
EXPERIENCES
ANXIETY PRONE AGREEABLE
EXTROVERTED
She’s had her current system
since the 90s, and you can
tell. It works for her, but it can
always be improved.
Switches when providers
are “extracting the urine”
but doesn’t exactly enjoy the
experience, especially with
energy, because she’s not as
knowledgeable about it.
TIME TO MANAGE
SOPHISTICATION
SWITCHING
KNOWLEDGE OF TARIFFS
SWITCH FREQUENCY
PERCIEVED HASSLE
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
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2. LaidbackLouie
Louie woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, to suddenly realise
he was almost thirty. Ever since he moved out of his parents house to
go to uni, he’d managed to skilfully evade most adult responsibilities
like a real life mini-game, but those idyllic times were now sinking into
memory.
His old flatmate used to look after all the bills and things, and he’d just
Monzo over whatever was needed with a resigned sigh after being
pestered a few times on WhatsApp. In this new flat - he’d realised with
some degree of alarm - he’ll have to be the one doing pestering.
He’d always tried to avoid knowing how much of his income is hoovered
up on bills, finding the knowledge somewhat melancholy, but he
now knows he’ll have to accept this challenge if he’s ever to find a
broadband supplier that won’t time-out every time he plays Fortnite.
Switching to a new the energy supplier - one that wasn’t going to
screw them - felt like it would be the Dark Souls of household chores,
punishing and unforgiving.
He’d began using his calendar app to remind himself when things were
due, and recently he found himself in Ryman’s buying a small notepad
(own brand) to keep track of what everyone in the house owes, but it
took a lot of time and hassle. There must be an easier way to do all of
this, he moans into the void of Twitter.
I’m just enjoying life, trying not to think
too much about bills and stuff.
Goal
• Would prefer not to think about
bills at all, but would also prefer
not to haemorrhage money
unnecessarily.
• Wants to pay less, but doesn’t
want the task of switching to
impede on his life any more than
absolutely necessary.
Attitudes
• An immediate, slick experience
that makes complex tasks easy.
Like the SkyUI mod for Skyrim.
• The ability to share the core
account with the rest of his
flatmates without seeing their
weird NSFW subscriptions.
• The ability to see compelling
reasons to switch other than
price, such as service uptime
and customer service.
Expectations
.
Persona Life Cycle
• Feels like he should be more in
control or knowledgeable about
what he’s paying, but doesn’t
really do anything about it.
• When it comes to complicated
bills and tariffs, he’d happily ask
to “explain it like I’m five”.
Behaviours
Just wants a hassle-free way to
save money and know about his
bills, so he can live his life in peace.
Support Preferences
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Things Louie Uses
SNAPCHAT MONZO HQ NATWEST REVOLUT PS4
Personality Traits
Louie is willing to give anything a go once, so
long as it doesn’t stress him out too much or
take a lot of effort, in which case he abandons
it. His phone is a bit of an app graveyard,
because he can’t be bothered deleting any. For
that reason, notifications might be a good way
to get him interested again, providing he hasn’t
disabled them.
Look & feel of the app should
match his high expectations and
signal “no hassle”.
Aside from good UX, support
him with instructions that are
not overwhelming, with minimal
amount of steps during the set-
up.
Assistance through the switch
process: outsource computation
as much as possible, highlight
steps completion, and assurance
of personal and reliable support
channel should he need it.
Shed light on how the tariff is
calculated, how they might be
paying too much, and make it
easy to share the information
with their roommates.
How He Currently Manages Bills
CONSCIENTIOUS
OPEN TO NEW
EXPERIENCES
ANXIETY PRONE AGREEABLE
EXTROVERTED
Has set up some alerts and
reminders on his iPhone to
tell him when bills are due,
and when to start reminding
his flatmates.
Although he needs to do
it, the thought of switching
gives Louie the fear.
TIME TO MANAGE
SOPHISTICATION
SWITCHING
KNOWLEDGE OF TARIFFS
SWITCH FREQUENCY
PERCIEVED HASSLE
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
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3. CynicalCyril
When Cyril first started his business, keeping on top of his personal
finances was a necessity. Once he sold it and retired early, it became
more of a hobby. Over the years, Cyril built up an extremely elaborate
system to keep track of how much he spends on bills, subscriptions and
other services. Perhaps too elaborate, say his friends after he explains
the various relationships between different devices, methods and
cloud services, but he laughs this off. They’ll never appreciate its true
brilliance, he thinks to himself as he generates another 20 year wealth
analysis.
Each month he sits down before his 52 inch monitor, summons the
encrypted spreadsheet, and looks to see where he can drive down his
outgoings. Inevitably there’s something up for renewal, so he begins the
laborious manual process of going through each comparison site to find
the best deal, and uses this as a negotiating tool to drive down what
he pays with his current provider. This often works, as with things like
energy bills he’s often more informed on the mysteries of the kWh than
the poor lad at the call centre.
If this method fails and they refuse to give into his list of demands, he’d
rather call competitors directly rather than using a switching site and
have them benefit. He’s dimly aware of apps and such that organise
bills for people, but scoffs at such playthings, with their garish colours
and promiscuous use of plain english language.
I’m quite pedantic relating to my
financing really.
Goal
• Has a big pot of cash but no
more salaried income. So
managing his wealth and
investments are simply what he
does.
• Had his identity stolen once, so
precautious about security to
the point of paranoia.
• Bright colours are unbefitting
the seriousness of personal
finance.
Attitudes
• Only the inevitable
disappointment he’ll have
in you for failing to meet his
expectations.
Expectations
.
Persona Life Cycle
• Before switching to a new
provider, he audits their support
level by phoning up their call
centre during peak times to see
how easy it is to get through.
• Generates reports on his wealth
over 10 to 20 year timespans,
to make comparisons and
adjustments.
• Uses a combination of
comparison sites and
spreadsheets as negotiating
tools to get the best price from
his current supplier.
Behaviours
He scours the market to find the
best deal, then phones them up to
drive the price down further.
Support Preferences
PHONE CHAT EMAIL SELF SERVE ANGRY LETTER SOCIAL
INTEREST
Things Cyril Uses
EXCEL WEQ4U MONEY SAVING
EXPERT
Personality Traits
Cyril doesn’t really care if you don’t like him. He
doesn’t care much for you either. He’s always
been very industrious well-organised and
outspoken, and enjoys regaling people with his
stories, which all seem to end in him getting the
upper hand.
Only as an object of curiosity,
as to how the less sophisticated
people might manage their bills.
How He Currently Manages Bills
CONSCIENTIOUS
OPEN TO NEW
EXPERIENCES
ANXIETY PRONE AGREEABLE
EXTROVERTED
Spanning filing cabinets, an
army of spreadsheets and an
online cloud service, it has
been refined over the course
of decades to the point of
perfection. In Cyril’s mind.
Switching providers is a
matter of routine, and he’s a
veteran at negotiating to get
low prices and good deals.
TIME TO MANAGE
SOPHISTICATION
SWITCHING
KNOWLEDGE OF TARIFFS
SWITCH FREQUENCY
PERCIEVED HASSLE
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
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4. BillPrincessBrandi
Brandi’s parents wanted to instil their kids with a healthy attitude to
money, so used to pay them little plastic tokens in exchange for good
behaviour and chores. Tokens that could then be exchanged for toys
and treats later in the month. Recognising the value of the little red
disks, Brandi began operating a black market of sorts, trading her old
toys with her sister, and amassing a small stockpile she could spend on
bigger toys and more extravagant treats.
When she grew up and moved out her dad taught her a sensible pen
and paper system for how to keep on top of bills, she nodded away as
he talked, but always considered printed bills the way she did rotary
telephones, and in her head was devising a way to do it all on her
iPhone.
Although she describes herself as a “complete control freak” when it
comes to finances, she only uses this self-deprecating term because her
friends are so muddle-headed and disorganised in comparison.
As with other things in her life, when it comes to online services she has
standards. When she installs some new app she expects to see the value
it will give her right away, and be served the right information exactly
when she needs it. If not, well... life’s too short to laboriously type out
emails when things go wrong.
I come from a household where you knew you
had to pay your bills. Once I started living on
my own, taking care of those was easy.
Goal
• Naturally organised, for Brandi
taking care of bills is like
breathing.
• She thinks her system works
quite well, but always has an
eye out for how to improve it.
• Keen to know of new ways to
keep her outgoings down, but
she’s also savvy enough to know
an empty promise when she
sees it.
Attitudes
• Expects the information to “fall
in her lap” and help sections to
be genuinely helpful and not a
miscellany of questions nobody
ever asks.
• She’s not a sucker for pretty
graphics, but appreciates when
they take their time to look
visually appealing.
• She expects things to be easy to
use, but not dumbed down. The
Goldilocks Zone of information.
Expectations
.
Persona Life Cycle
• Prone to inventing her own
life-hacks, like using Apple
Numbers for fast access to all
bill information on the go.
• She’s still learning about
how things like the kWh are
calculated. Its a bit of a pain, but
she likes to be informed.
Behaviours
Born with a talent for prudent
money management, she’s always
looking for ways to sharpen her
skills.
Support Preferences
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Things Brandi Uses
NUMBERS NOTES STOCARD SPLITWISE REMINDERS ICLOUD
Personality Traits
Confident and outgoing, Brandi’s friends are in
awe of her ability to organise not just her bills,
but weekends away with the gang. She doesn’t
consider herself an early adopter, but is always
the one finding cool new apps, often from
spending time with her younger sisters and
nieces.
Entice her with the concept of
“everything in one place” and
the diminished need to manually
enter information after the initial
setup.
Make sure she can see the
benefits quickly, and that the the
FAQs are up to date, relevant
and... helpful.
She should know exactly what
she needs to make an informed
choice about switching, and told
exactly what will happen next
once it’s done.
Integrate her current routine
with the new one: calendar
export, messaging, reminders,
app integration, taking photos of
notes & bills etc.
How She Currently Manages Bills
CONSCIENTIOUS
OPEN TO NEW
EXPERIENCES
ANXIETY PRONE AGREEABLE
EXTROVERTED
Uses a combination of
Apple Notes, Numbers and
location-based reminders to
stay on top of things.
Usually only switches when
she’s moving house or they
decide to bump up the
prices.
TIME TO MANAGE
SOPHISTICATION
SWITCHING
KNOWLEDGE OF TARIFFS
SWITCH FREQUENCY
PERCIEVED HASSLE
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
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5. BatchelorBen
Benjamin, or Ben as he insists, didn’t exactly come from money, but
neither had he ever been in a dire financial pickle. He spent his twenties
focussing on his career and building a comfortable life for himself as a
manager at a telecoms company, earning a sweet salary by day, and
frequenting stylish, overpriced bars at night. He’d never really been a
family man, often describing his nephews as “my sister’s dependants”;
more of a chronic, time-eating medical condition than a blessing. But
although Ben values his time, when he’s alone at night, he sometimes
just slides through his apps half asleep, desperately looking for
something to do.
When his forties loomed, he quit and joined a startup, where he dazzled
the young founders with his mastery of corporate lingo such as “time
box” and “parameterise”. This meant he took a bit of a financial hit and
for the first time began to really assess his outgoings.
He’d had an indifferent, workmanlike attitude to finances up until then,
and would log into his gas provider’s website every quarter to punch
in the readings and pay manually. He then realised he could probably
be paying less, but switching always seemed like such a hassle, and he
could be doing other things at the weekend, like snowboarding, and
playing with his phone. He starts to ponder that there must be an easier
way to do all this, but before he can finish the thought he’s distracted by
a notification. A new level is available in Scrubber Dubby Saga.
I don’t want to be ruthlessly efficient at
everything in life. It’s boring.
Goal
• One of his mates uses a
spreadsheet to do his bills, but
Ben’s got no inclination for this
to be a hobby, he just needs to
know they’re paid.
• When it comes to finances, he’d
rather be looking at a comic
than a textbook.
• It would have to be a decent
saving to make a switch,
because the process is such a
hassle.
Attitudes
• Doesn’t have a high-level
system and relies mostly on the
power of habit, which Ben knows
is a double edged sword as
some suppliers get the better of
him.
Expectations
.
Persona Life Cycle
• He expects it to look good,
and accommodate all the
new features of his constantly
rotating premium smartphone.
• Although charismatic and
funny, Ben longs for human
connection, so far prefers to talk
to real people when looking for
help and advice.
Behaviours
Pay things on time and try not to
get ripped off. That’s it.
Support Preferences
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Things Ben Uses
WHICH MONZO SCRUBBER
DUBBY SAGA
UBER
Personality Traits
Relaxed, witty and good company, Ben’s the
type of guy you wish was your best mate, but
you’re not sure he’s anyone’s best mate. For all
his sass and chic, he’s quite set in his ways, and
it takes something dramatic for him to leave his
comfort zone or do something new. Perhaps
that’s why you still don’t have a wife, says his
mum.
Address the low maintenance
of the service and emphasise
the ‘human touch’ of a contact
centre.
Make the communication, and
offers, feel as tailored to him as
possible.
He needs to know when is the
right time to switch. He talks a
big talk about the environment,
but the thing that will make him
switch is a big drop in price, not
wind turbines. And it needs to a
be a big saving too, to justify all
the hassle.
Help him find the best deals
with minimal work on his part
and make sure to point out
the “personalisation” aspect
of it with the support of data
visualisation.
How He Currently Manages Bills
CONSCIENTIOUS
OPEN TO NEW
EXPERIENCES
ANXIETY PRONE AGREEABLE
EXTROVERTED
Ben’s system relies mostly
on post-its and habit. He
reminds himself when he has
to log in and enter the meter
readings and how many
months it is till his contracts
are up.
Past experience has taught
him changing suppliers is a
massive pain. It will take an
exceptionally good deal and
lots of reassurance to do it
again.
TIME TO MANAGE
SOPHISTICATION
SWITCHING
KNOWLEDGE OF TARIFFS
SWITCH FREQUENCY
PERCIEVED HASSLE
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
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6. ProactivePrachi
Prachi and her husband Sai had some idea that raising a child was
expensive, but the reality didn’t hit them until they started to Google
nursery fees. She’d always kept a list of their utility bills stuck to the
fridge with a Poldark fridge magnet, but it didn’t include the Yoga
studio, the Headspace mediation app, or the cat-treat subscription box
service they’d signed up too.
So she put together a spreadsheet of everything they were actually
spending and called Sai to soberly explain there’d need to be sacrifices,
and CatCrate was one of them.
From then on, together they did a financial “stock check” every
month, to see where they could optimise some more, checking out
MoneySavingExpert.com religiously, and switching suppliers for the first
time.
They dumped Sky entirely in favour of Amazon Prime, and bought a
Nissan Leaf both to reduced fuel bills and ease their environmental guilt
about all carbon footprint of having all those subscription boxes flown
from China.
They felt great that they’d managed to turn things around in just a few
months, but are constantly keeping an eye out for ways to improve the
efficiency of their system, and ideally, making it feel a little less like work.
I went through everything and found out the largest
sources of our spending, and with a few small changes
and sacrifices, we turned the situation around.
Goal
• Baby Arjun’s arrival made them
reflect - for real this time - on
their impact on the planet, so
they were thinking about what
suppliers were offering green
energy packages.
• Broadly optimistic about the
future.
• Bill management is a bit like
therapy and helps them feel in
control.
• Long-term savings and goals
are more important than day-
to-day expenses.
Attitudes
• Data visualisation and long-
term statistics on their family’s
spending are really useful in
helping them plan.
• Don’t want to waste their lunch
hours and evenings negotiating
with providers, so expect a good
chat service they can sneakily
use at work.
• Welcome information and
guidance on how to save, so
long as the tips are relevant to
them and not uselessly general.
Expectations
.
Persona Life Cycle
• Want to spread their expenses
out and rely on schedule-
oriented bill paying.
• Always look for best deals and
value.
• Adjust budgets based on new
situations.
• Often review progress on long-
term goals.
Behaviours
Juggles the family finances to get
more money to spend on them,
but she could also do with more
time to spend with them too.
Support Preferences
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Things Prachi Uses
TESCO
CLUBCARD
MONEY SAVING
EXPERT
AMAZON PRIME
NOW
NEST HQ
Personality Traits
Prachi gets a lot of satisfaction from keeping on
top of the bills and keeping the anxiety demon
at bay. She thinks she’s probably always had
it in her, it just took this transition to make her
rise to the challenge. She’s quite good natured
but also introverted, and for that reason gets
stressed when she has to have combative calls
with providers.
Focus on family spendings
and savings for the household.
Emphasise security aspect in a
clear and specific way, and that
it will save time in the long run.
Provide overview of deals and
ways to save, with an emphasis
on green energy. Reassure her
that the switch won’t cause
unnecessary headaches.
Celebrate their short and
long-term goals within the
application. Let it become an
important part of their system
by telling them things they can’t
find elsewhere.
Tracking: bills, deals, money
saved. Provide added value by
showing them visualisations of
their own data that they can’t
get anywhere else.
How They Currently Manage Bills
CONSCIENTIOUS
OPEN TO NEW
EXPERIENCES
ANXIETY PRONE AGREEABLE
EXTROVERTED
The system they devised is a
simple grid attached to the
fridge, which works well as
it helps remind them, but is
a bit of a faff to maintain.
There’s also the spreadsheet,
but it is a bit basic.
They only just got in the
habit of switching providers
to make savings, and would
do it more often if it took less
time.
TIME TO MANAGE
SOPHISTICATION
SWITCHING
KNOWLEDGE OF TARIFFS
SWITCH FREQUENCY
PERCIEVED HASSLE
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
1
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