Hi-Impact
A new generation platform that directly connects those who seek positive change with those who are making it happen, in a direct, transparent, and effective way. My contribution to positive change in our world.
Project type:
Social Impact platform
Role:
Co-founder & Chief Product Officer
Year:
URL:
Work in progress
Context
Hi-Impact combines the best features of a social network and a donation platform to drive positive change. Similar to Patreon, which funds artists, Hi-Impact supports impact makers.
Our community platform enables impact makers to easily showcase their inspiring projects and the impact they are creating, allowing others to get involved and contribute to the causes they hold dear to their hearts and inspire hope for a better future.
My tasks & responsibilities
Product Design: End-to-end design process: User/market research,UX,UI, Prototyping, competitive benchmarking, user testing, developer hand-off, Iterating.
Leadership: Product strategy, contract management, applying to grants
Project management: Product roadmap, writing user stories, backlog managemnet, bug testing, documentation.
Marketing: Competitive analysis, strategy, branding,
Why I created this project
During a long time I wanted to use my skillset to contribute to positive change at scale and harness the power of technology to make the world a better place for the people who need it most.
The objective
The challenge I set my self to solve with this project is to build a place where anyone who has the intention to get involved and contribute to positive change can be served effectively though our platform, The idea is to build a place where people can contribute in anyway they want beyond money donation and get involved in the movement of positive change.
The most effective way I found to do that was by empowering the people who are dedicating their lives to that purpose: the Impact Makers.
Social impact
Environmental impact
Let it be for any cause: education,youth, environmental, animal wellfare, you name it..) Impact makers stand up for their communities and take the lead head on to solve a specific problem their communities are facing. They are the stars of the platform and our mission is to empower them.
Identified Problems
For impact makers:
11 Millions of impact makers do great impact but only 6.2% of them are financially sustainable.
Their main challenges:
Getting new donors and managing their donations
Showing and measuring their impact (monitoring and evaluation) is a huge headache as they don't know how to do it properly
Lack of design skills to create newsletters and difficulty in finding staff to do this is a hurdle
Communication with donors is not fluid and consistent
Many of the tools to manage their operations are too complex for them to use
Recurrent donations are difficult to set up with banks
Relationship management with their donors is something they struggle with
For donors:
Billions of people who are in the financial position to contribute to positive change and want to support impact projects are held back for reasons like:
Mistrust, opaqueness and corruption
Not knowing about the existence of impact projects they resonate with
Difficulty in choosing the charities they want to give to due to limited budgets.
Not knowing where to start
Feeling like their efforts don't matter or don't solve the issues
Product demo:
The solution I came up with
A system built for trust and transparency
Key features:
1)Actions: People can see the actions of the impact makers happening.
2)Testimonials: Benefitting communities now have a voice where they become key validators of social impact interventions.
3)Third party validators: Our product was designed to take into consideration social impact incubators and other charity assessment organizations.
4)Giving budget: Donors will be able to donate to as many projects that they want within a set budget they feel comfortable with.
How it works for impact makers
Creating an impact project
4 steps for impact makers to get onboarded
1) Creating an account
2) Creating an impact project
3) Post the actions that they make
4) Receive testimonials from benefiting communities
How it works for impact makers
Posting actions and receiving testimonials
4 steps for impact makers to get onboarded
1) Creating an account
2) Creating an impact project
3) Post the actions that they make
4) Receive testimonials from benefiting communities
How it works for donors
Transactions and donations
My goal with this project is to enable anyone to contribute in any way they can: Money, time, knowledge, objects or just spreading the word.
Starting a global movement
Influencer Marketing: referrals and embassadors
Getting people involved in a movement to join positive is what the world needs, who better than influencers to start spreading the word and have it be a win win situation for everybody involved.
The impact makers will decide how much of their campaign they want to give to the people who are referring them, The influencers decide if they want to take any of the money or not.
Beyond a donation platform, building a home for positive change
The social network where you can get involved to make the world a better place beyond money donations
In the long term when the project is more advanced,
My goal with this digital product is to create a focal point, akin to an antenna, that channels all the good intentions people have beyond monetary donations. a platform that can facilitate:
Donating Objects: Enable users to contribute physical items needed by various causes.
Volunteering Physical Activity or Knowledge: Provide opportunities for individuals to offer their time, skills, and expertise to support projects.
Mutual help forum: Mutual help forum: a place where impact makers all around the world can communicate with each other and the community.
Engaging with Content: Encourage actions such as liking, sharing, and spreading awareness about impactful initiatives.
Selling merchandise
Fundraisers
event tickets..
By diversifying the ways people can contribute, we aim to foster a more inclusive and engaged community that supports positive change in multiple dimensions.
Results of our MVP
Minimum Viable Product
We were able to process 1000 USD in donations with our MVP when the project was called OneWe when we mainched our pilot in Medellin from may to september of 2023
Total ammount of donations processed
$1000USD
Recurring donations
$162USD
Donations directly to our platform
20$
Tips to our platform during checkout while donating to other projects
12$
Total individual donors
20
Total Impact projects onboarded
60
Total of actions posted
68
Total of testimonials published
27
Our MVP:
On site interventions
We went to the new facilities of a public school of an underprivileged background to teach them how to use artificial intelligence in 2023.
I had always wanted to give back to Colombia and specifically Medellin, my home city.
Value proposition
Research
Discovery research interviews: UX,UI, prototyping, user research, competitive benchmarking, user testing, developer hand-off, Iterating, collaboration with developers
In-situ observation: Product roadmap, user stories, bug testing, documentation, information organisation
Contextual Inquiry: While performing these tasks, the researcher observes and notes the contextual factors influencing the user experience. This includes environmental factors, user interactions, and emotional responses
Task Simulation: The researcher performs the tasks users would typically do, experiencing the interface and interactions first-hand. This helps in identifying usability issues and areas for improvement from a user's perspective
Reflective Analysis: After completing the tasks, the researcher reflects on the experience, noting specific difficulties and intuitive successes. This reflection helps in understanding the user's mental model and expectations [3].
Guerrilla testing: Based on the findings, iterative testing can be conducted to refine the design. The researcher can make adjustments and re-test to ensure improvements align with user needs [1].
Iterative Testing: Based on the findings, iterative testing can be conducted to refine the design. The researcher can make adjustments and re-test to ensure improvements align with user needs [1].
Research insights:
People donate to those they have proximity with
People want to see or witness actions in order to trust initiatives
People want to see their donation money making effective impact
Donors don't want to surpass beyond a defined budget when donating to multiple impact projects
People want to make a positive chage, they just need to take care of their close ones first, and after.. maybe they will do something about the rest.
People want to make a positive chage, they just dont know where to go
Hypothesis donor persona:
Types of donors:
After doing in depth interviews with a series of people who have donated to charity projects , these are some of the personas that were identified
Example of detailed personas to get a better understanding of our target audience
Our business model
Voluntary tips from donors at check out, Free to use for impact makers
We ask for a voluntary tip to the people who are making a donation to any impact project in our platform
The iterative process
I started the product from a blank piece of paper to build an MVP that can be put out into the public and start generating traction, here you can see how the product evolved.
Responsive designs
I started the product from a blank piece of paper to build an MVP that can be put out into the public and start generating traction, here you can see how the product evolved.
Branding
I collaborated with my friend Timothée bart to create this logo that symbolizes union, addition and positivity. tha shape is made up of many "1"s coming together to create a "+" sign which is also the symbol of positivity, every 1 adds up our collective effort to make positive change.
Prototyping
This is a small under the hood look of the work in progess of an extensive prototype
Learnings
The team is the most important aspect of a company and its mainly human dynamics, building a product/start-up is a team effort, choose your team wisely.
The charity industry is mainly ran through connections
It is not easy to get people to donate to charitable causes
Marketing is king, even if you have a bad product but you have great marketing , you can still sell and later improve the product.
Tools used
North star metric
The north star metric for this product is the number of testimonials generated by the impact projects. When communities share their experiences and validate the impact, it indicates that the core functions of the app are effectively supporting the project’s mission.
Figma
Product design
Framer
Landing page design
Descript
Video editing
Grain
Research interviews
