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Amit Mohod – Product Manager at iMocha
“Amit, the condition here is worst and we need to do something”.
Pradnya, my friend from the town of Sangli(Maharashtra) was talking to me on the backdrop of fateful, disastrous and unfortunate floods in the western part of Maharashtra. She was asking me for help to raise the fund from my network, as she knew I would always be ready to jump in for such a cause and the influence I have on my network.
The conversation progressed something like this:
Me: To whom and how we are going to help?
Pradnya: To as many affected people we can reach. We will arrange for clothes, household items, and food.
Me: But I’ve heard that many NGOs and a large number of people are already working to help these people. The reports are, there is a surplus of food items and clothes. If we go this way, definitely it won’t be that effective. I think we could wait till the first wave of help dries up. People will need more help when they will try so re-setup their lives after floods are over. Or let’s try to find a specific group having specific needs that are not at all or very little looked upon.
Here, unknowingly a product manager in me took a driver seat and was asking to zero down to a specific, niche segment. I realize it later though 🙂
She called back in a day or two, with a mixture of excitement and concern in her tone. Her team identified that school going students, who have lost their school materials are not getting any help. We found and zeroed down on the “demand-side” of the problem.
Now it was my turn to work on the supply side of the problem, i.e. to reach out to people in my network asking them to donate and propagate this in their network, inspire more contributors and raise as much donation fund as we could. Here I took a liberty and decided to target the broader social circle, as we require the quantity… more the merrier I thought.
I compiled a compelling, heart-touching message and mentioned my bank details, so people could transfer the donations. I tested this with few close friends and colleagues and sure enough the transferred money immediately. I got my pitch validated. Soon after this, I floated the same message in my social network using various channels like LinkedIn, Facebook WhatsApp, etc. And the ball got rolling… Or wait, wasn’t it so?
In the next 1 or 2 days, only a few of my friends and family members transferred the amount. Few others from the distant network too transferred. But the turn around was too less than expected. Many of the people who confirmed they will donate and were very much moved by the cause, did not transfer the amount. I had put a reminder message too but that just ended up adding just a few more contributors.
Something was wrong. I was sure reason was not the amount as I never asked for any specific amount. In fact, I precisely mentioned that even the small amount such as Rs. 500 would be fine. Then I did what a PM does. I picked my phone and called up a few of the guys. and then a few more… Talking to your users/customers always helps.
As I told them that the call was regarding contribution many of them said, yes, they will do soon. But my main motto was to know why they haven’t done it yet.. was my message not compelling enough? Or did I pitched in the wrong way? It was embarrassing for them as well and I knew this was going to happen (another trait of a PM, know your customer). So I framed my questions accordingly. But did not get many insights.
As a habit, before concluding the call, as I do during any customer interview, I asked casually if they have to add anything. I know this is the part of the conversation when your customer/user gives more insightful answers if you let them talk freely, without any constraints. And even this time, I was right. Around 80% of the people I called, asked me, “Do you have GooglePay/PayTM/PhonePay?”. And many of them added, transferring the money with bank details takes time so they will do it later.
And I got my answer… We, humans, are wired to be lazy 🙂.
I thought about the “user journey” in paying through the bank and realized there are too many steps for a person to perform the transaction when the motivation is not enough strong. To list them broadly:
Logging in to your bank account and navigating to “Transfer Fund” page
Though my message was compelling, it moved a few of the audience and make them take action. But it probably was not strong enough to change the habit of those who did not take the pain to perform all those steps. In other words, the gravity of their habit of being lazy was so strong that my message did not propel them out of their comfort zone and moved them to donate. I also realized I had a limit on how strong the message I could compile. The cause itself was not that strong that it will change their habit (of being lazy).
Then what was the reason, that few initial friends/family members paid instantly when I assumed I validated my “product”? Well, I found that most of those people already had me as a payee. And hence it was easy enough for them to pay.
Later, I messaged a simple one-line addition that payment could also be done using PayTm, Google Pay and BHIM. And that worked… people start transferring the funds. I was able to raise a handsome amount and contribute to Pradnya’s cause.
What are your thoughts? Is this analysis correct and near to reality? Feel free to share your similar experiences regarding the user journey.
Amit Mohod – Product Manager at iMocha
