Fintech startup · Independent consulting · Jobs-to-be-Done
Understanding parents’ investment needs to shape a fintech MVP
Using Jobs-to-be-Done and AI-assisted synthesis to turn customer interviews into product strategy.
A fintech startup was developing an app to help parents invest for their children’s future, but had no customer evidence to guide its product decisions. I led a three-week Jobs-to-be-Done study with 15 UK-based parents and parents-to-be to understand their motivations, barriers and unmet needs and translate those insights into product direction.
- Methods
- Generative research
- Desk research
- Stakeholder workshops
- Jobs-to-be-Done
- Strategy & influence
- Research strategy
- Influencing product strategy
- Research practice
- Study design & recruitment
- Synthesis & insight framing
- Responsible AI use
- Role
- Independent user researcher
- Timeline
- Oct–Nov 2025 · 3 weeks
- Stakeholders
- The startup’s two founders
- Participants
- 15 UK parents and parents-to-be: 7 with investment experience, 8 without
- Methods
- Desk research, stakeholder workshop, 15 moderated generative interviews, affinity mapping, Jobs-to-be-Done
- Tools
Prolific
Dovetail AI
Outcome
- Defined four customer jobs to guide product decisions.
- Informed four product directions: educational content, educational onboarding, in-app financial guidance and parental control over access to funds.
- Helped shape the startup’s product-improvement strategy for the following quarter.
The challenge
What should the founders build for parents, before they had any customer evidence?
The founders had assumptions about parents’ investment habits, confidence and goals, but nothing direct from customers. They needed to know where to innovate for the MVP, what value proposition and messaging would land and what parents were trying to achieve beyond the product itself.
- Identify opportunities for innovationTo inform product design and the MVP build
- Examine the market and how to provide valueTo define the value proposition and inform marketing’s customer messaging
- Understand customers’ needs, pain points and overarching goalsOutside of the product itself
| Research area | Research objective | What I explored |
|---|---|---|
| Motivation and goals | Understand people’s motivations, techniques and level of confidence and knowledge behind investing | What parents wanted to achieve for their children |
| Current behaviour | Understand the end-to-end process of how people currently make investment decisions | How they made decisions, compared options and sought advice |
| Confidence and barriers | Identify the problems or barriers people encounter when trying to make investment decisions | What helped or prevented them from taking action |
| Existing solutions | Uncover the tools, such as investment platforms, people use to make investment decisions | Which tools they used, trusted or found inadequate |
| Investing stories | Get to know people’s “investing stories” | Their real experiences and the moments their intentions, confidence or circumstances changed |
| Product implications | Feeds the business objectives above | Which needs and opportunities should inform the MVP |
Approach
I aligned the research with the founders’ product decisions in a kick-off workshop, reviewed published UK financial research to shape interview hypotheses and recruited two groups through Prolific: 7 parents with investment experience and 8 without. I conducted 15 remote, moderated 45-minute interviews focused on past decisions and desired outcomes, then synthesised the findings into themes, Jobs-to-be-Done and product recommendations over three weeks.
Open-ended, one-to-one generative interviews let me explore parents’ mental models, needs and attitudes to investing without leading them, so the MVP could be designed around how future customers actually think.
- Week 1kick-off, desk research, recruitment
- Week 215 interviews and analysis
- Week 3synthesis and insights sharing
Context from published research
- Confidence. Some people have money to invest but lack the confidence or knowledge to start: in the FCA’s Financial Lives 2024 survey, 61% of people with more than £10,000 in investible assets held at least three-quarters of these assets in cash. (FCA, Financial Lives 2024 survey, May 2025)
- Family goals. Parents’ own financial experiences may shape how they think about their children’s financial future. (Money and Pensions Service, How families teach children about money, 2019)
- Access and control. A child can take control of a Junior ISA at 16 and withdraw at 18, a potential tension between saving for a child and deciding when the money becomes theirs. (GOV.UK, Junior Individual Savings Accounts)
These sources informed my hypotheses. They didn’t establish what the interview participants thought.
What the research revealed…
Parents wanted confidence about how the money would be used
- Finding
- Parents worried that their children might access the money before they were ready, or spend it differently from how the parents intended.
- Underlying need
- Confidence that saving for a child would support the future they had in mind.
- Product implication
- Parental control over when and for what the money can be accessed, with ownership and access rules explained clearly.
Parents wanted to start, but struggled to find trusted guidance
- Finding
- Parents looked online and sought expert advice, but struggled to find guidance they trusted.
- Underlying need
- A clear first step without having to become an investment expert.
- Product implication
- Educational content, guided onboarding and timely in-app guidance.
Jobs-to-be-Done and mental models
When I want to start investing for my child but don’t know where to begin, I want guidance I can trust without becoming an expert, so I can start with confidence.
When I think about the opportunities my child may need as an adult, I want to build money for their future in a way that fits my circumstances, so I can give them more choices and financial independence.
When I put money aside for my child’s future, I want to know it will be used for what it was meant for, so I can give them a good start without the worry of it being wasted.
When I want to save or invest for my child alongside other household expenses, I want an approach I can sustain, so I can work towards their future without putting my family’s current financial security under pressure.
Mental model
“I know I should do something, but I don’t know where to start.”
Design implication
Make the first step clear and explain concepts in context.
Mental model
“I’m responsible for building the money, but what happens to it later matters too.”
Design implication
Make ownership, access and control understandable.
Mental model
“My child’s future matters, but my family has needs today.”
Design implication
Explore realistic contributions without assuming that hesitation means a lack of motivation.
From insight to product direction
The research informed the next quarter’s product-improvement strategy, giving the founders an evidence base for prioritising what to build.
Four product directions
- Educational content for parents new to investing Theme 02 · Job 1
- A short, educational onboarding Theme 02 · Job 1
- In-app financial guidance Theme 02 · Job 1
- Parental control over when and how funds can be accessed Theme 01 · Job 3
Further ideas from the jobs
- Goal-setting and visible progress Job 2
- Flexible contributions and realistic goal planning Job 4
Opportunities the research raised, not directions the founders committed to.
Constraints
01No customers yet
No product, no usage data and no existing customers to learn from.
What I did
- Recruited 15 prospective customers through Prolific, with a screener matched to the intended audience: first-time parents who manage their own finances and are planning for their child’s future.
- Split them into two segments: 7 with investment experience and 8 without.
- Reviewed published UK research first, so the interviews tested hypotheses instead of starting from zero.
- Focused questions on real past decisions, not hypothetical features, and presented the jobs as working hypotheses to build on and test.
02Three weeks, 15 interviews
A short window to go from kick-off to strategy.
What I did
- Opened with a kick-off workshop, so every interview question mapped to a decision the founders needed to make.
- Ran recruitment and study setup in week 1, so interviews could start in week 2.
- Used Dovetail AI to organise the material and surface patterns, roughly a week instead of about three, which left time to check the evidence.
03A capped participant budget
A fixed budget for participant recruitment and incentives.
What I did
- Recruited and paid participants through Prolific, with remote sessions instead of in-person ones.
- Kept each interview to 45 minutes, structured to make the most of the time.
- Used two clear segments, so 15 interviews still covered both experienced and new investors.
04Short enough to act on
A two-founder team needed something they could decide from, not a long report.
What I did
- Gave each theme a single line from finding to underlying need to product implication.
- Separated the four directions taken forward from the ideas still to explore.
- Shared the findings in an insights session as well as the report.
Research rigour and AI
AI made the workflow faster; research judgement remained my responsibility.
I owned the research end to end and used AI-assisted synthesis: Dovetail AI organised the interview material and surfaced patterns, and I went through everything myself and checked it against the original interviews. This cut the stage to roughly a week instead of about three on similar projects.
How I used AI
I used Dovetail AI to speed up the groundwork for analysis: organising the interview material and exploring emerging patterns. I treated its outputs as starting points, not findings, and wrote the final findings and recommendations myself.
Where Dovetail AI helped and what I checked
- Organise
- Dovetail AI organised the interview material for comparison; I made sure participants’ context was kept
- Explore
- It surfaced emerging patterns; I treated them as starting points, not findings
- Challenge
- I checked each interpretation against the original interviews and alternative explanations
How I kept quality
I checked every interpretation against the original interviews, challenged alternative explanations, looked for contradictory evidence, kept participants’ context intact and separated their accounts from my interpretation.
What the evidence could support
These were interviews with prospective customers, not observed behaviour in a live product. The findings informed hypotheses and product directions; they didn’t prove how a finished product would perform.
Participants and data
Recruited through Prolific with a paid incentive. Prolific holds participants’ identities; I never saw their names. Data was handled under GDPR and recordings were deleted after the project.
Key learnings
- This project helped me refine how I use Dovetail AI to support qualitative research. I learned to use it to accelerate synthesis and explore emerging patterns, while treating its outputs as starting points rather than established findings.
- Checking interpretations against the original interviews, preserving participant context and challenging alternative explanations remained essential.
What I’d do differently next time
I’d involve stakeholders in synthesis earlier, using emerging evidence to challenge assumptions and prioritise opportunities collaboratively. I’d also make the evidence-to-decision trail visible throughout, so the reasoning behind each recommendation is as clear as the recommendation itself.
Supporting materials
For anyone who wants to look closer at the method.
Traceability matrix template
How I structure AI-supported synthesis, so every product implication can be traced back to what a participant said or did. Each row also records participant IDs, contradictory evidence and any uncertainty.
| Evidence | Interpretation | Job | Product implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the participant said or did | What it suggests about their behaviour or mental model | The progress they were trying to make | The decision or opportunity it could inform |
Interview guide excerpt
01Context & behaviours
- Tell me about the last time you needed to make an important financial decision.
- What was happening in your life that led you to take action?
- How did you approach the situation and what alternatives did you consider?
02Motivations & triggers
- What prompted you to look for a solution at that particular moment?
- Was there anything that made you feel uncertain or hesitant?
- What mattered most when deciding which option to choose?
03Experience & pain points
- Walk me through your experience, from recognising the need to taking action.
- What felt difficult, frustrating or unnecessarily complicated?
- Was there a moment when you considered giving up or choosing a different approach?
04Desired outcomes
- What were you ultimately hoping to achieve?
- How would you define a successful outcome?
- If you could change one thing about the experience, what would make the biggest difference?
Interviewer noteProbe for specific past experiences rather than hypothetical preferences. Ask “why?”, “what happened next?” and “can you give me an example?” to uncover the functional, emotional and social dimensions of the job.
Recruitment criteria
Main criterion
First-time parents investing, or planning to invest, in their children’s future
Segments
A: existing investment experience
B: no previous investment experience
Demographics
UK-based, with a balanced gender and age split and diverse ethnic heritage backgrounds where possible
Accessibility
Aim to include at least one participant with accessibility needs
Finances
Household income of £30,000–70,000; regularly review and manage their finances; a range of confidence in investing
Financial planning
Planning for their children’s future and the sole or joint financial decision maker in their household
Affinity diagram tags
- Goal
- What the person is trying to accomplish as an outcome
- Motivation
- Why they’re trying to achieve that goal
- Core value
- How that motivation or accomplishment makes them feel
- Need
- Something they need to fulfil a goal
- Pain point
- A barrier or difficulty in accomplishing a goal
- Task
- Something they do to achieve a goal
- Tool
- Something they use to try to accomplish a goal
- Positive emotion
- Something that makes them feel positive
Worked example: from a quote to a product question
Illustrative, not from the client study
- What a participant might say“I’d love to give her a lump sum at 18, but at 18 I spent everything on festivals.”
- What I noticeThe worry isn’t about returns. It’s about judgement at a certain age and the parent’s own experience.
- The jobHelp me pass on money in a way that matches how ready my child is.
- The product questionShould the app let parents set conditions, like age milestones or purposes, instead of one release date?