Building Better Productswith Behavioral Economics

Vince Maniago@uvince#productsf#minted

Mint by the Numbers15 Million Registered users

5 Billion transactions tracked & categorized last year

Mint sees over 2% of the value of GDP annually (US)

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“People typically intend to forfeit small, immediate gains for larger rewards in the future, but they often

fail to make the optimal choice at decision time.”- Kirby and Herrnstein 1995

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“"Our emotional brain wants to max out the credit card, order dessert and smoke a cigarette. Our logical brain knows we should save for retirement, go for a jog and quit smoking”

- McClure et al

Jump$tart CoalitionTesting exiting high school & college students each year

Goal is to measure and improve financial literacy

50% of college and 68% of HS failed a basic financial survey

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There was no difference in the responses between users who had exhibited either good or bad financial behavior.

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ProblemUsers can get stuck in the Mint registration process when it comes to adding their 1st bankHypothesisWe can use one weird trick to help users complete their sign-up and become an active user.

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+32%from 1 extra email

✓ Love of Free✓ Anchoring✓ Hot vs. Cold States

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Hypothesis“Users can be persuaded to update their bank credentials depending on their promotion or prevention focus.”

This intrigued everyone…except the experts.

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Promotion-focused people see their goals as creating a path to gain or advancement and concentrate on the rewards.

Prevention-focused people, in contrast, see their goals as responsibilities, and they concentrate on staying safe.

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Account Alert: Don’t miss a transaction, update your Mint account today.

vs

Get your full financial picture from Mint – fix your broken account today.Prevention beats Promotion nearly 3-to-1

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✓ Love of Free✓ Social Impacts✓ Loss Aversion

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✓ Self control facilitation✓ Bandwagon Effect✓ Hyperbolic Discounting

The Enemy:

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How can we use to {goal}?

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Gear upArm yourself with mailchimp,optimizely, google analytics, mixpanel, omniture, dropbox, etc.

Optimize your A/B before you test with crowdsourcing

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#productsf @uvince