Finding product/market fit
Ruby was struggling to find product-market fit for their flagship tool that helps families manage finances and important documents. They identified a promising segment: families caring for loved ones with dementia, because as cognitive decline increases, so does the risk of financial mistakes and scams.
The goal was to understand the key needs of this target audience to determine potential product/market fit and feature recommendations. A primary challenge to overcome is how to connect this group with Ruby at the right time.
I spoke with family members dealing with a family member with dementia as well as subject matter experts in the field. Key needs:
- Family members are waiting for some sort of trigger before taking action
- 100% of participants expressed how hard it is to plan when so much is unknown
- People need guidance on how to have these difficult conversations
To help define this customer segment, I created four diverse personas and mapped their current experience.
I learned that Ruby is most valuable to those who haven't planned yet and are waiting for a trigger. Tools that outline what to expect can reduce stress and serve as a bridge to connect users to our product.
More than anything, people living this experience want to know what to expect. This is challenging because each individual's timeline of dementia progression can look differently.
My solution is a crowdsourced timeline that aggregates and cluster maps the experiences of similar individuals. This allows someone to have an informed idea of what the future could look like for their loved one and plan accordingly.
In America alone, 11 M families have a loved one with dementia. Given a glimpse into the difficulty of caring for a loved one with dementia, it's clear there’s a need for products to help.
This solution bridges the gap between this new target audience and Ruby, significantly widening the acquisition funnel.
