The ioby team has collected a robust data set of user feedback from Leaders and Donors on a range of organizational topics. I collaborated with Miriam Parson, Pittsburgh Action Strategist and user-feedback lead on the ioby team, to leverage their user data for this project.
The data showed that Leaders wanted to better understand and communicate with their donors. We decided to prioritize making it easier for leaders to access donor information and send updates about the campaign, based on that consistent user feedback and ioby’s organizational goals.
Then I interviewed four people who do community organizing projects similar to the ones that ioby facilitates and three people who donate to community projects.
The goal here was to get feedback that has not already been shaped by using the ioby platform and to further validate that an app is the right direction to take in this problem-space. I asked questions about:
Here are the key takeaways for each user type:
Leader:
Updating participants and conducting outreach is always complicated and time-consuming.
Texting is a favorite way to communicate because it is immediate and personal
All interviewees use a mix of desktop and phone and highly value being about to check details and make updates from their phones, which further validates the value of an app.
Donor:
All participants were hesitant about the idea of downloading an app to donate.
They were more likely to download if they could donate to multiple projects through the app. This would be true for ioby donors.
It will be important to continue to think through app value to Donors to make push-notifications valuable
ioby’s Leaders want to be able to connect to donors and get projects done, without process or tech getting in the way.
I use the survey data and discovery interviews to create a persona for ioby’s Leaders.
Ashley Baker
31, Classroom Aide
Knows her neighbors well and spends a lot of time with friends and family.
Believes in community responsibility and has a lot of ideas about how things could be better.
Lives with her dog Zane, a rescue who enjoys running with her in the local park.
Only engages with tech when it is practical and easy to use.
Needs
Support doing community work efficiently
Easy ways to connect to community members
Fears
Not connecting well with her volunteers, donors, and community
Wasting time with over complicated tech
Not accomplishing her project