Just one month following the launch of Moneythink's app, a mobile tool designed by IDEO.org to support their financial literacy curriculum, Moneythink has shared with us their learnings and observations to date.

IDEO.org is excited to see the Moneythink app in action, currently launched in eight participating pilot classrooms. Moneythink, a Chicago-based organization, brings financial literacy to high schools through a mentorship program with local universities. They came to IDEO.org at the end of last year to explore the opportunity for mobile tools that would expand their curriculum outside of the classroom. After an 8-week project encompassed in the financial-decision-making mindset of high school students, the IDEO.org team created a social platform through which students can engage in challenges and receive real time feedback from their peers and mentors about their financial decisions.

Here's what Moneythink Chief Innovation Officer, Jennifer Shoop, has observed from the first month in action… 

1. Mentees like the social nature of the app. They understand the interface almost intuitively and are already asking about whether they can "follow people," "block people," or "add filters" to their picture posts. Even before fully engaging in challenges, they are talking about liking and commenting on posts. One student said: "Oh, this is cute!  It's the new Instagram!"

2. Mentees almost universally skip over the instructions. This has created a higher demand to answer questions in-person, which could be avoided, and is one thing to consider in future iterations of the interface.

3. Mentors need to "own" the tech in order to drive engagement. While launching the app in classrooms, the less involved I was (as a staff member of Moneythink) the better. The kids trust their mentors and the mentors know how to individually engage each student. In the last two classrooms, I took a backseat and largely observed. These have been the most participatory and active classes in the app so far.  This is really good news for Moneythink because it suggests that scaling this without heavy involvement of staff may actually be a good thing. 

4. Getting kids to download the app proved to be a little tricky. Some kids didn't have enough space on their phones, while others did not have data plans or ran into issues connecting to the school's WiFi. And for students who had not brought in their phones on the day we implemented the app, they were much less likely to download the app after class, especially because the registration code was tough to remember. Our solutions to these barriers included setting up a HotSpot in the classroom and changing the password to something super easy and short, allowing kids to sign up after class without a problem.

5. Mentees like to see their peers posting. In a few instances - usually by accident - kids signed up for the wrong school and saw posts from a different class. They loved this! I was surprised to see them thumbing through the news feed with interest, liking posts from students they didn't even know.

Stay tuned for more learnings to come!