Wonolo Pro in-app messaging

In-app messaging is the phase 2 of Wonolo Pro project. (click for the case study😉) During MVP, we compromised for texting and calling through the app as we were facing time and technical constraints. After the successful launch and validated product-market fit, I continue to work on the in-app messaging feature to make the communication efficient and reliable between businesses and workers.

01 PROBLEM

As discovered in the previous user research, our customers need to be able to contact workers easily so that they can communicate about ETA, location or job requirements. The text & call function in MVP will meet users’ fundamental goals. But how might we build the bridge through messaging ecosystem so that our businesses and workers can stay more connected?

02 RESEARCH

Currently, businesses and workers are communicating through the web portal and worker’s app. So what do they talk about in those chats? I worked with the data team to analyze the common topics.

From the data, it is pretty interesting to see that there are a couple of scenarios we haven’t thought about. After aligning with the team on the scope, we decided to go with the following directions:

• Bulk message all workers from a specific job.

  Message all workers for a job is the most common use case where businesses want to quickly send a reminder before a job.

• Direct message individual worker from a job.

  Message individual worker enables businesses to build more connected relationships and track workers’ statuses.

• Receive reimbursement requests that workers send from their app.

  Surprisingly, reimbursement was being chatted a lot. Many businesses are willing to reimburse expenses like transportation or meal. But we don’t have the function where workers can ask for reimbursement like using Expensify. Therefore they communicate it in person or through chat and then businesses can adjust the final payments to include the reimbursement amount. Sending reimbursement over messaging can make this process more efficient and ensure workers get their payments in time. On top of that, we can utilize third-party payment method Plaid to avoid any hassle.