Invoice2go is a leading small business software application with over 230,000 customers world wide. It offers features such as; invoicing, expense management and payments. We are constantly seeking more ways to help our small business customers save time on admin so they can focus on what really matters.

We were inspired by Amazon’s long form style. We shared at least 24 hours in advance of 1 hour meeting. In meeting first 15 minutes is spent reading and commenting on doc (often in an awkward silence). Then we go over salient points and comments. Go/no go decision made by PED leadership at end of the hour.

Prioritisation was always the most contentious debate point! 🙃

The format was effective at communicating information across the broader org. Docs were shared to the whole org after each review. Ensuring people could stay abreast of other teams activities and priorities.

This document is an example of the first of four phases in the product development process at Invoice2go. To propose, review and approve initiatives for investment, each initiative went through four phases:

The second phase (solution space) was optional and not always necessary OR it could be combined with solution review.

Defining the problem in detail upfront helps the project run smoothly. This process ensured all peripheral stakeholders and more importantly the designer and engineers were fully aligned with the problem proposed (ideally they were part of it’s definition).

I found divvying up the problem into subproblems extremely valuable. This enabled the triad (product, eng, design) to already start to break down the initiative even before solutioning starts.

We determined that these three problems were the minimum required to get a fully fledged solution to market.

Scattered information was the most pertinent problem that was uncovered in a preceding alpha prototype, hence prioritised #1.

The other two subproblems were also uncovered in our alpha. If users could not access our solution they wouldn’t be able to use it to benefit from it.

While re-organising Invoice2go’s experience around how our customers think (in terms of jobs/projects not documents) was necessary another key piece of feedback from prior qual and the alpha.

We wanted to scope our initial product launch as small as possible. We judged the ‘scattered information’ subproblem as our core subproblem we should address first. These problems were all material and to be considered for future improvements. We ended up adding project expenses shortly after.

Gil Pollak

I created this doc in order to get product, engineering, and design leadership to approve the problem area we were going to focus on next.

The learnings from the Negotiations Alpha gave the team a greater understanding of the difficulties C1s (I2G subscribers) face to ‘Stay Organised’. This paper proposes to first address this broad problem by focusing on three key subproblems; Scattered Information, Difficulty Accessing Projects, and Organising Information in I2G.

The team believe that focusing on these 3 fundamental subproblems will enable them to:

Materially help our C1s improve their administration burden

Help transition I2G into a comprehensive platform to run a small business

For detailed learnings from the Negotiations Alpha please review the 

Staying organised has repeatedly been highlighted by C1 as their most pressing need (latest example 2020 Customer Survey, Personalization Survey). A key challenge for C1s stems from the information needed to get a job done being scattered across many applications and tools.

This problem can lead to:

Spending more time on administrative tasks

Difficulty retrieving information about past Projects

See video from David a Handyman from WA personifying problem




All these problems lead to many of our C1s and prospective C1s, to spend more time on admin that could be spent winning more work (more info in Bert's Research).

This problem is relevant for the majority of our existing and potential subscriber base who provide services. Projects is unlikely to appeal to C1s who sell goods.

“We do not use Projects, we sell finished products.” Alberto PoS Business

Why is the problem worth solving? Why now?

The problem is worth solving for four main reasons:




The Alpha re-affirmed what surveys and other qual studies have stated that ‘staying organised’ is the number one need for C1s. By helping C1s keep all their job information in one location, we believe that I2G will be able to materially help with this problem.





The strong engagement data from the alpha leads us to believe Projects can increase I2G’s engagement and perceived value with C1s.

The Alpha showed a significant increase in engagement. Alpha participants had a x% increase in log ins and x% increase in invoices sent.





The reach of Projects across our existing and potential sub base is large. We believe Projects will be relevant for most C1s with service based businesses.

Projects will increase the reach of I2G as we believe it will enable us to appeal to the underpenetrated and strategically important Professional Services segment.



By bringing more of the job workflow on platform, I2G will have additional insight into our C1s needs. We believe this will provide opportunities to provide additional value across the job work cycle.



Locating relevant job information is time consuming as information is often stored in multiple folders, documents, notes, files and conversations. Failure to provide information in a timely manner may be received poorly by the C2 (C1s customers), leading to reduced confidence in the C1 and potential losses of business.





This problem has been reinforced strongly by the alpha. C1s want a central place to access and manage their Projects. This is the core subproblem we need to alleviate.



Projects in the Alpha have proven to be hard to find and create. This adds friction for C1s wanting to incorporate Projects into their workflows.





To ensure awareness and usage C1s need to be able to create and access Projects easily.



The taxonomy of Information in I2G is not aligned to how our C1s organise their work. C1s think of their work in terms of projects (jobs) however information in I2G is organised in terms of documents (invoices, estimates, credit memos etc). This makes I2G non-intuitive for many C1s as well as making information hard to store and find in I2G.

No means to group the documents ensures that C1s find it hard to assign multiple documents to the same job

No means to record job locations when they are different from the clients address, resulting in C1s creating a new client for each location

No means to record key contacts for each job (e.g. tenant, landlord and real estate agent)

 example where C1is going in and out of docs, searching for their correct doc.





C1s think in terms of Projects not documents. Projects can improve the I2G experience by aligning with the mental model of our customers.



The ability for a C1 to communicate with a C2 on platform.





The ability to assign Projects to workers and the ability to divide Projects into tasks.





Updating financial reporting to be on the job level.





The ability to allocate expenses to a job.

What's the expected impact of solving this problem on customers and the business?

Tackling staying organised will primarily boost ARR for the business.





Data from the Alpha showed an increase in approved estimates and paid invoices. This will positively impact ARR by increasing the number of payment transactions on the platform.

When extrapolating the figures from the alpha we anticipate that Projects can increase ARR by over $XXXXX (



We believe Projects will positively impact churn by increasing the perceived value of I2G as well as bringing the product up to par with competitors (Thryve, Keap, Gosite, Jobber, Dubsado, Honeybook, Housecall Pro, Harvest etc).




Projects will grow the SAM of I2G by appealing to professional service businesses.

How does solving this problem contribute to company OKRs?

What risks and dependencies may exist as we attempt to solve this problem? Think specifically about dependencies/touchpoints with other product surfaces/squads.


Team is missing an iOs developer.

Mitigation: Team is actively hiring, will share team members across Online Workflows Group





Projects has the potential to significantly impact I2Gs UA and workflows. This could adversely affect C1s who have engrained workflows within I2G apps.

Mitigations: Work closely with Design and Platform teams.




Problem Review (Phase 1 of Product Development Process) at Invoice2Go

Phase 1 Problem Review - Projects

TLDR

What is the problem we are solving for?

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