SVA Thesis Week 4: Assumptions + Landscape

Topic of This Week’s Post:

This week’s goal was to:

• Create a list of user assumptions
• Competitive research
• 2 User Interviews

Shift in Perspective

This week, in another graduate school course at SVA, I was assigned to read As We May Understand, a medium article by Don Lockton, Director of Imaginaries Lab.

In the blog post, Lockton discusses how IoT systems can be a tool for behavior change and introduces this concept of “Knopen” — a portmanteau of know and open.

Lockton uses “Knopen” as a means to demonstrate the importance of understanding “why” and “how” a system works. He argues that when people understand a system, their mental model of and behavior within the system changes.

His argument struck a chord. People’s mistrust of ambient intelligence and the stock market share the same source — a lack of understanding.

I began to think, how do I help people “knopen” the stock market? What is a standard mental model for the stock market and investing strategies? How can I make investment strategies more human? Right now, I am unsure, but this concept of “knopening” is something I will focus on exploring in future user interviews. My gut tells me there is an “unlock” that involves co-creation, empathy, and storytelling.

This week’s homework was to list out our target user groups’ assumptions about the problem space. Lockton’s article provided an excellent lens for this activity.

Personally ‘knopening’ the stock market + investment strategies

After reading Lockton’s article, I was like, “whoah, I need to ‘knopen’ the stock market for myself ASAP if I am to help others “knopen’ it.” This realization led me to purchase and begin reading two books by John Bogle that my Dad has been recommending for years. I’m only halfway through the first book, but I’m starting to get a handle on how the system works, and damn, it’s not easy.

This reading segued into my second piece of homework, mapping the brokerage landscape. Today, there are three ways to invest:

• By yourself using an online brokerage
• With a robo-advisor
• With a financial advisor

What I have yet to understand is where and how millennials learn about investment strategies. I will continue to suss this out in the upcoming weeks. Based on my research to date, it seems that most Millennials that use online brokerages don’t have a strategy; they just pick stocks.

This Week’s Ethno

My two interviews this week were with males in their late 20s that work in non-financial roles. Interestingly, their mental models of the stock market were eerily similar; the stock market = gambling.

“I think of it like gambling — I know there are S&P 500 that overtime are not like gambling and I know that there are more secure stocks that are a good investment for the future. But it’s still like gambling” — Brad

“The stock market is like white-collar gambling. Investing in the stock market is more sexy than putting money on the bears game” — Brett

Below are the key points from each interview:

Next week, I am going to interview two millennials that work in the financial industry. I’m interested in learning how their mental models and behaviors contrast with the interviews above.

See you next week!