Why it makes sense to exchange $25 for $20 in return

I know what you’re thinking. This lady is crazy. $20 is $20. Let me make my case.

One morning in my Slack channel at work, I pleaded to my colleagues, “Does anyone know of anywhere I can buy quarters? Or what’s the closest bank, I guess?” I had just run a Google search for — I kid you not — quarter delivery. There used to be a startup that provided this service, but it went under.

It had been a month since I’d done laundry. Again.

So everyone in the thread had all these suggestions for how to complete my task.

Someone suggested asking for cash back in quarters at a nearby Walgreens. Though she warned of feeling like a jerk.

Another person suggested trying to put bills into the basement vending machine. Simply press the coin return and voila, you get change back! That came with the caveat of often receiving dollar coins. And the laundry machine won’t take those.

Another person suggested going to the bank and asking for quarters. But here’s my problem: I only belong to online banks. And banks often give a hard time when you try to use them without a membership. And there is no bank on my route home. And in the winter I rarely carry a purse, so where would I put the heavy quarter rolls?

I was starting to feel exasperated.

That, my friends, is what we call friction. More so, emotional friction. And it is a real barrier for everyday people and our users.

Then a friend came by to give me $4 in quarters in exchange for cash. But that’s only enough for one load of laundry. And I don’t usually carry cash. Except today I had a $20 bill, but neither of us had enough change. I offered to Venmo him, but he doesn’t trust PayPal and seemed hesitant to use the Cash App.

Everyone focused on the task I needed to accomplish. The suggestions seem simple enough. But they weren’t focusing on what really matters to me. The emotional components that were preventing me from succeeding. Not only the inconvenience, but how those inconveniences were making me feel.

Exasperated.

I’m sure many of you understand. I’m a busy woman. I have a demanding job. I have to commute to and from work. I have to think about exercising and eating healthy. Maintaining hobbies and a social life. The last thing I want to do is add “run more mundane errands” to my list of things to do. I can’t speak for everyone, but I often pay others to help me do those mundane tasks. I’d be willing to pay for this too.

And I’d be willing to do this seemingly dumb thing — exchange $25 for $20 of quarters — because I’m imagining what my life could look like. If only I could get those damn quarters. I’m imagining a clean bedroom floor. A sense of a put-together life. A feeling of control that I’m currently lacking.

I want to be in control.

You see, this article isn’t meant to focus on my laziness. It’s meant to draw a relationship between real life problems and the solutions we give as product designers. It’s meant to make us think about our product. And the value our products provide.

What aspirations are we helping our users achieve? What are the tiny little tasks that get in the way of their aspirations?

It’s more than accomplishing a task. It’s supporting a new idea of being. Being someone better.

For me, not having convenient access to quarters leads to me skipping doing laundry for as long possible. This leads to having clothes scattered all over my floor. Which leads to a feeling of chaos. Which is the opposite of control.

And I aspire to more.

It seems as though the equation is simple. Quarters are just money after all. So the value of $20 of quarters should be $20. But if that were the case, I’d just go to the bank and get the quarters at an even exchange rate.

Instead, I’m looking for a solution that fulfills my emotional needs. My higher aspirations in life. Being in control. My bigger problems are worth that 25% markup.

You can only build a successful product if you focus on the user’s feelings and higher purpose in life. Your quarter solution will do more than solve one task in a person’s life. You might make someone feel more in control of their life. And that’s what they are ultimately seeking.

We should all be looking for solutions that fulfill our users’ aspirational needs and work on tapping into those needs. Not just accomplishing their tasks. Because those tasks are a means to an end. Not the end itself.

This is my understanding of the Jobs to be Done framework.

So on that note, is anyone willing to deliver my quarters for me?