SORTED
Service for sorting through and managing belongings
THE CHALLENGE:
Creating a new business opportunity to address the unmet needs of aging baby boomers and their progeny for “end of life” experience.
THE IDEA:
Sorted is a service that enables people to defer the complexities of sorting through the belongings of a loved one, and share the responsibility of decision-making for those items with family and friends.
Problem
One of the most difficult moments in life is when someone finds out a parent or loved one has passed away. At that moment, someone must take on the responsibilities of their passing when what they want to do is spending their time remembering their loved one. They need to take care of the estate, and the items in that estate that have been collected over time.
THE INTERVIEWS:
We interviewed 15 individuals who had gone through the experience of taking care of belongings of a loved one, whether that person had passed away or was too old/ill to take care of them. Our interviewees had to take care of various tasks such as packing, moving, storing, selling, sending, donating, appraisal, and etc. and make decision on which service provider to choose from for each of these tasks over a short period of time.
Here are their 5 main challenges:
Decision fatigue
Ownership conflicts and disagreements
Overvaluing or undervaluing items
Stress and emotional burden
Time constraint
Cards used to facilitate the interviews.
What our interviewees told us
“When you are emotionally drained, everything is hard. You wish there was someone who could make it (the belongings) all go away.”
— Masoud, 57
“ I tried my best to be fair, but some family members had some disagreements on certain items.”
— Gene, 43
“It’s not pleasant to go through all the stuff. It feels like I’m drowning in memories.”
— Jane, 61
“I had to quickly organize and decide on many items that my mom had collected through her life while not knowing their value.”
— Mary, 65
Solution
We designed an all-in-one solution that connects people with best experts and services to help sort through the belongings left behind and decide on what to do with them collectively, with their close family and friends. Customers have the option to pay for pickup, moving, storage space, delivery of stored items, appraisals, selling and disposing of items.
This way people don’t have to deal with various different service providers, and can give the take care of everything on their own time and without concern or conflict.
How it works
Sorted service assess the estate through an on-site consultation and provide a preliminary estimate of service options and expert recommendation of the contents of the estate.
We provide and manage all of the moving by working with our network which we qualify as the best providers in that area.
We then come in and safely and securely document, tag, pack and move the contents to a remote storage location.
Then the contents get uploaded to the sorted website in the form of an online image directory (image below) and the customer gets an invitation to access their profile via email or text.
Sorted Web experience design
Visual and engaging:
Sorted’s main experience is an image directory where users can scroll through all the items and search based on keywords, items’ type or the location that they were initially packed from. Users can also share either the whole directory or individual items with others. The experience is very visual, with high quality photos and a high-end design, in order to appeal to our target customer -Affluent Baby Boomers and their Progeny.
Emphasis on communication and sharing memories:
On sorted friends and family get the opportunity to share their memories, thoughts or anything important that they know about each item. This way, not only they can get to hear memories that they might not have known, but also they can decide better on what to do with each item.
Optimized for quick decision making:
On mobile, we have a card interaction that makes the design optimized for faster viewing of each item and quickly deciding on what to do with it. Users can learn more about items and see the comments once they tap on the item.
A simple algorithm for group decision making:
There are 5 different actions that users can take on each item: Getting the item back (the item goes to the person who initially requested the service), requesting appraisal, keeping it in storage, donating it, and disposing it. When an item is shared with a group, each might have a different opinion on what to do with it. So, we decided to prioritize decisions based on the value they have for our users to avoid conflict and make sure the most beneficial decision is made. The algorithm is as follows:
Want it back > Appraisal > Storage > Donation > disposal
For example: If the admin wants the item back, 2 people want it to go for appraisal and 1 person wants it to be donated, the item will by default go back to the admin unless the admin decides otherwise.
The admin is the only person who has access to the dashboard and need to approve decisions. He/she can invite others to have Administrative power as well.
Target customer
Our target customer is Baby Boomers. They are born between 1946 and 1964 and their population is 80 MM. Here some other interesting statistics about them:
primary market: “the Hub”
- Baby Boomers who are in charge of their parents or loved ones estate when they pass or become too ill to live on their own
- They coordinate all of the legal, financial and personal matters for the individual and the family. This will also lead into a secondary market for those boomers who have done this service for their parents and realize they could use it for their own belongings.
Secondary market: Downsizing boomers
- Our secondary market are the boomers when they realize they need to downsize their own belongings.
- They want to lessen the burden on their progeny of their belongings and they want to travel without stress or worry.
Competitive Landscape
Team members:
Erin Ballard
Sameer Yeleswarapu
Keisuke Kuniyoshi