Fostering Financial Inclusion for Creatives
The Opportunity: JUST is a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas. JUST provides microloans to low-income, Spanish-speaking female entrepreneurs, helping them to build small businesses. We looked to determine how JUST could expand its services to other financially vulnerable entrepreneurs. We worked with contract workers in creative industries to better understand how they experience financial exclusion and how they and other freelance workers might benefit from JUST’s services.
The Outcome: We learned that contract work prevents freelancers from directly depositing a portion of their income into savings or retirement plans, a benefit that traditional employees enjoy. Variable income also makes it difficult to access loans and health insurance, pushing them to rely on working their way out of financial emergencies.
We are now working on a tool called Foresight that will allow contract workers to deposit a portion of every invoice to a savings account and will supply guidance on how much to save to properly prepare for taxes.
Research
We spoke with 18 different “makers,” engaging in 90- to 120-minute interviews and conducting various exercises, including the creation of dream webs and monthly budgets. We chose to focus on creative freelancers because we wanted to understand how they were able to pursue their passions while staying financially stable.
We spoke to them about their financial attitudes and behaviors. We learned that creative contract workers are unsuspecting business owners, juggling many different hats. They were often disinterested in administrative work, and this led to disorganization.
We learned that working on their own schedule gave makers a sense of freedom that they enjoyed, but it also incentivized them to only work as needed to pay bills, without thought toward saving for the future.
My Teammates: Kyle Beck and Lauren Sands
My Role: research, design strategy, synthesis, ideation, wireframing, user testing
Conducted 90- to 120-minute interviews
18 “makers” (artists, carpenters, painters,
AV technicians, and others)Observed users’ budgeting and invoicing systems
Created concept models, journey maps, semantic and temporal zoom models
Created wireframes and storyboards for our tool, Foresight, currently in development
Temporal Zoom: Maker Career Trajectory illustrating increased administrative work as artists become business owners
Insights &
Design Criteria
1. Makers value their independence and free time so that they can pursue passion projects.
Design Criteria: How can we allow flexibility for individual lifestyles?
Makers value their free time for creative pursuits, which leads them to maximize their time not working. Many rebuffed the idea of working a regular schedule, even if it allowed for greater financial stability.
“Sometimes I just have a hard time keeping myself organized because there are so many different things, between invoicing and receipts and mileage…”
—Lindsay, sculptor and fabricator
2. Makers are unsuspecting business owners with little appetite for administrative work
Design Criteria: How can we reduce the cognitive burden of tax preparation?
Many makers had trouble keeping track of the money they earned. They each managed their own way of invoicing and keeping track of their income for taxes and budgeting, which was not always efficient or accurate. Two makers shared how they miscalculated the amount of taxes they owed when first starting their business. As a result, they were several thousand dollars short and were placed on a tax repayment plan.
“We weren't really great at taxes...No one sat us down and said, ‘You should be putting away this percentage the entire time.’”
—Becca, graphic artist
3. Contract work incentivizes thinking in the present, not the future. As tax time approaches, they often scramble to make the money they need.
Design Criteria: How might we integrate tax preparation into makers' routine workflows?
Most workers had a general idea of the percentage of their income that they needed to save for taxes, which was typically 30%. Some would diligently take that percentage from every invoice they received and store it in a savings account, but others would calculate their earnings a month before tax time, assess what they owed, and then book extra jobs to raise the money they needed.
“I am not a very good administrator. I've gotten better at it as I've gotten older, but my skills are not in organization. I'm really just better at problem solving and doing things in physical reality. It's hard for me to sit down and, you know, in a spreadsheet, make a budget.”
—Nina, fabricator and prop maker
Product Development
Based on our research, we have created the concept for a tool called Foresight that would help creative contract workers save money in preparation for filing taxes.
We are currently iterating upon wireframes for this product and conducting user testing. We plan to meet with developers to discuss coding and determine the steps forward in May 2020.
We believe, based on our research and user testing, that there is space for a product like this in the market. As more industries move to contract-based employment, tools like this will prove valuable to an increasing number of workers looking for assistance with preparing taxes and financial planning, especially as their business and personal lives become intertwined.
Makers are on the vanguard of a shift that is happening in the American workforce, and by helping them, we believe that this product will prove valuable to a growing number of users.
Competitive Analysis demonstrating Foresight’s unique position in the landscape of other invoicing and saving programs
Screens demonstrating how Foresight allows users to allocate a portion of each invoice directly to a savings account.
We are currently conducting user testing with interactive wireframes created using ProtoPie. We are testing three user flows: registration, creating and sending an invoice, and sending a reminder for payment. You can explore them at the links below:
Prototype, Task 1: Registration and onboarding
Prototype, Task 2: Creating and sending an invoice
Prototype, Task 3: Sending a reminder for payment
We plan to complete this project in early 2021.