Finances with Sofi

Personal finance AI coach built specifically to address the unique financial needs and challenges women face.

Gender inequality extends beyond the wage gap. Historically, women have been excluded from financial decision-making, which has affected their confidence and autonomy in this area. To alleviate women’s financial stress and improve their ability to manage money and plan for the future, I created Finances with Sofi, a mobile application that learns about the user’s current financial situation and employs a personal financial AI coach and goal-setting tools to align the user’s finances with their personal goals and values. Additionally, the app rewards users for achieving their objectives.

This year’s design challenge was based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10, Reduce inequality within and among countries. Our task was to design a digital product that helps reduce inequalities, with special attention to gender disparities. I decided to focus on the topic of the financial gender divide.

The Financial Gender Divide

Women’s financial independence has come a long way. For much of history, women were responsible for domestic duties and dependent on their partner’s finances. Less than half a century ago, women couldn’t even open a bank account or manage their own money, with men being the sole financial decision-makers. Still, to this day, women in Europe earn 13% less per hour on average than men. The combination of unpaid domestic work, caregiving responsibilities, and the fact that women tend to earn lower salaries for the same work significantly impacts their ability to earn enough money to build up assets.

Moreover, women often receive less financial education than men. They also frequently confront false gender stereotypes, such as being perceived as less inclined to take risks or make financial decisions. This financial inequality limits women from leading a self-determined life, which includes the ability to set and pursue their own goals and live in a way that aligns with their values and desires. However, the strongest consequences are felt later in life. With longer life expectancy and the fact that, on average, women accumulate €100,000 less wealth than men throughout their lives, they are 80% more likely to end up in old-age poverty.

Digging Deeper

To build the foundation for my product’s design process, I employed the 5W1H method. This approach helped me ask exploratory questions about the potential user and the problem, providing a solid foundation to refer back to throughout the product design phase. These questions also later informed the development of the user persona, user flows, and the features for my first Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

I formulated the challenge as follows:

How can we alleviate women’s financial stress by improving their ability to manage money and plan for the future, aligning their financial decisions with their unique goals and values?

To find a solution, gaining a deeper understanding of the topic was essential. As part of my study, I engaged with 24 women, primarily Millennials and Generation Z. These participants included professionals, entrepreneurs, and stay-at-home mums. I developed a research plan, launched a survey, and conducted semi-structured interviews. I defined the research objectives as follows:

1. Gain a better understanding of women’s relationship with money.
2. Assess their financial literacy.
3. Identify which aspects of their personal finance management are most frustrating for them.
4. Learn about the applications they use (if any) to manage their personal finances and which features they find most useful.

The survey results showed that:

I see personalised advice that adapts to my goals and offers me tools to carry them out as very positive.

The Case for Digital Financial Advisors

Insights from the interviews revealed a lack of trust in financial institutions and a perception that advice from professionals in the sector is often self-serving, focusing on selling products rather than understanding the unique situations of individuals.

Often professionals are very focused on a specific topic and don’t see the entirety and complexity of some issues.

None of the women were aware of a product on the market that provided personalised financial advice, similar to what a traditional financial advisor offers but in digital form.

I would love to receive guidance on what things I can afford with my salary in terms of housing and other expenses, and help plan my goals with targets. Currently, I’m not sure if such a tool exists.

I also conducted benchmarking to assess existing products addressing this issue. Despite the explosion of fintech solutions over the past few years, particularly with the rise of open banking, the vast majority of these new applications didn’t account for the differences in women’s financial needs and attitudes towards money.

Both the benchmarking exercise and the research results helped me develop an idea for a digital solution, and this is how Finances with Sofi came to life.

Who is this for?

The solution is designed for women who are already using other banking apps and digital solutions to manage their finances. These women are interested in financial topics and are motivated to improve their financial situation while learning about personal finance strategies. They seek a judgement-free environment to discuss all things finance from the comfort of their home.

To better understand this target audience, I created a user persona called Eva. By defining Eva’s motivations, objectives, and frustrations, I developed a clearer picture of the features that would be most useful for users like her.

Design Decisions

I had a lot of ideas for different features, including a personal financial AI coach, 1:1 mentorship with female mentors, a reward system, a calendar of events, and personalised learning materials. Narrowing down these options proved to be the most challenging part for me, as I needed to focus solely on the core features for the initial version of the app due to time constraints. To define the core features of the MVP, I evaluated how each feature would function and contribute to addressing the user’s needs.

I also employed the MOSCOW method to set priorities, categorising features into Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won’t-haves for this iteration. Ultimately, I settled on three core functionalities, with chat being the principal feature:

• Chat
• Wallet
• Rewards

With the core features identified, it was time to move forward with creating the information architecture and developing user flows and low-fidelity wireframes.

How will this work?

Onboarding

During onboarding, users will provide basic personal information, including age, gender, education level, and salary. These variables are important as they can influence the user’s ability to achieve their financial goals. Additionally, users will select one or more initial financial goals. This information will enable Sofi to tailor her advice with a personalised approach.

As part of the sign-up process, the app will request permission to link the user’s bank account(s). This step is essential for Sofi to provide advice grounded in the user’s financial reality. The app uses bank-grade encryption to ensure the security of the users’ information. Sofi will have read-only access to the linked accounts and will not be able to make any changes or transactions.

Chat

Discussing finances can often feel daunting and overwhelming. Sofi is designed to alleviate these challenges by acting as a supportive financial advisor, offering practical advice to women seeking to manage their finances effectively. Sofi communicates in a friendly and empathetic way, providing encouragement and a sense of relief to users at any stage of their financial journey.

Examples of Sofi’s capabilities include tracking spending, offering money-saving tips, and assisting women in achieving their financial goals. However, Sofi’s capabilities extend beyond basic financial guidance as users can engage in discussions on various money-related topics, such as negotiating a pay rise at work or planning for retirement. For added convenience, users can also opt for voice conversations with Sofi or record and send voice messages, utilising the app’s text-to-speech and speech-to-text features.

Wallet

The Wallet feature provides a comprehensive visualisation of the user’s financial information. Additionally, users can improve their financial literacy through interactive quizzes, earning points for high scores. In the My Goals section, users can set various financial targets, such as saving for a specific event, paying off debt, avoiding overdrafts, or reducing spending in certain categories. Sofi tracks the progress of these goals through visualisations, allowing users to effortlessly monitor their achievements. To keep users on track, Sofi sends regular reminders and rewards them with points upon goal completion.

Rewards

The Rewards feature is designed to encourage commitment to financial goals. Users can redeem the points they accumulate from achieving their goals and completing knowledge quizzes. Committed to supporting women’s financial wellbeing, Sofi has partnered with female-owned businesses to offer discounts ranging from 5–20%.

Users can filter these businesses by category or search for local businesses on a map. Once a business is selected, points can be redeemed for a discount voucher to use on the business’s website or in the physical shop at checkout. This feature aims to promote intentional spending while simultaneously supporting other women’s financial health.

Roadmap

The immediate goal is to launch a free app, supported by venture capital, to onboard users, test features, and iterate based on feedback. As the user base expands, a paid monthly subscription version will be introduced in the next phase. This premium version will offer the option to connect with female financial advisors in a marketplace setting and provide access to educational materials, such as short videos and reels. These learning materials will be personalised based on the user’s goals, interests, and the information shared with Sofi.

Striking the correct balance between building a profitable company and offering a service that improves women’s financial lives is crucial. While AI is employed to provide advice, it is refined with input from professional women financial advisors. Continuous monitoring of the system ensures the AI delivers high-quality service.

Ethical Considerations

It’s essential to address potential users’ concerns about data sharing, especially when it involves sensitive information like bank details. The objective is to use the data solely for providing personalised advice. Additionally, personally identifiable data is never shared with third parties, reinforcing user privacy.

Closing Acknowledgements

My experience at La Nave Nodriza has been absolutely amazing! It’s been challenging, but I’ve learned so much over the past 7 months, and this wouldn’t have been possible without the team’s support and encouragement. I am especially grateful to Patt, María, Bea, Isa and our mentor for this final project, Elena. A huge thanks also goes to my incredible classmates, who made these past 7 months so enjoyable and from whom I learned a lot. Thanks so much, TEAM!