Week 7: Getting People In and Stress Testing the Platform

This week was all about finalizing participants and distributing the bot.

I started sending out the pre-test. I’ve been staring at this project for weeks, but seeing other people interact with it is a different feeling. Some stuff worked. Some stuff broke. That’s expected.

The biggest shift this week was moving from “builder mode” to “let’s see what happens” mode. It’s one thing to create something in isolation. It’s another to see it in the wild.

Convincing People to Sign Up

Getting people to take the pre-test wasn’t easy. I had to do a lot more explaining than I expected. Most people think “financial literacy” means a boring budget worksheet. I had to show them this was different. It’s fast, it’s personal, and it actually tells you something useful.

Some people signed up right away. Some needed follow-ups. I had to tweak how I pitched it. Saying “take a test” doesn’t work. Saying “find out how money-smart you actually are” worked better. I also made it feel less like school and more like a challenge.

Once a few people took it and gave feedback, it was easier to bring others in. Word spreads fast when people are curious.

Takeaways

This week was more about watching than building. But I learned a lot.

• People don’t care unless you make them care
• The platform needs to hold up when real people use it, not just when I test it
• Bugs aren’t the enemy — they’re the path forward

Next step is looking at the data and customizing the lessons based on how people scored. But for now, it’s back to debugging and sending out more DMs.