Are You Leaking Impact By Missing What’s In front of You?

Are you missing the information in front of you?

It’s difficult to see the flaws or weaknesses in products or landing pages that we look at every day.  It’s the curse of knowledge tag-teaming us with the curse of familiarity.  But if we don’t unglue ourselves from our expectations and think critically and creatively, it can mean the difference of $51 million.

Yesterday I was researching an organization that uses an online platform to help alleviate poverty and I calculated that 46% of site visitors who created a member profile didn’t take the crucial step of making a loan.  The lending potential of this user group is more than $51 million (based on the average amount loaned per person through the organization).  That’s considerable unrealized potential from individuals who’ve already demonstrated their interest by taking the time to register on the site.

This organization pioneered the process of connecting diverse individuals for the sake of eliminating poverty, but there was a break in the chain that was leaking impact.  I wondered how aware the organization was of this? Was its perspective broad enough to spot this pattern and fix it?

I put together a fairly quick email with four ideas to convert more registrants into lenders (communicating the potential impact of a loan at the onset of the process, bundling options based on characteristics, un-glitching the check-out process), and emailed it to the business’ president.  He was appreciative and said he would share it with his team.  I haven’t a clue whether my ideas have already been tried and how effective they might really be, but because I’m standing on the outside I can offer a potentially new perspective.

Image credit: Banksy