Chasen Le Hara’s Blog

Last night I was having a discussion with a potential user of the personal finance application I’m working on. We talked about the fear of starting to use a financial product for an end user.

Think about it: a personal finance application (in whatever form) is almost always going to do a lot more good than harm. A lot. But starting the process of managing personal finances can be tough, especially if the situation doesn’t look that good today. It takes a certain amount of inspiration, discipline, and courage to look debt or lack of money in the face and turn the situation around.

Identifying the money-management issue is not half the battle. Really. The single biggest issue seems to be getting over that initial dread of accounting and budgeting. Once fear is removed from the process, clear decisions and rational plans can be made (with a good system, of course).

That’s a huge challenge if you ask me. Most applications (especially online) get to deal with convincing users to use their product over their competitors’ products; this problem is about persuading users that using this product will make their life better, whether or not they want to use it.

Of course, this isn’t a unique problem. The medical industry has dealt with this forever. Who wants to take ten, let alone fifty or more, pills every time they eat? [Answer: people who want to get better.] Other industries deal with the same problem in different ways. So what’s the solution?

Great question. I think the solution is the same to any other problem: make the process easy and friendly after convincing the user that it’s a necessary evil. Subtleties in an application’s user interface can make people happy to solve their own problems. What those subtleties are I haven’t quite discovered, but I’ll write about them when I do.

Things are shapin’ up to be pretty odd.

That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)

Admittedly, I’ve been here before. I started my first blog almost four years ago and have looked back quite a bit since then. Ah, the good ol’ days of being an irresponsible teenager with an opinion and a platform to speak upon. I’ve changed quite a bit since those days, but that’s not why I’m here. Actually, it’s every reason I’m here, but there’s no point in talking about it. Hopefully it’s a distant memory for all involved.

I’ll be blogging about what’s going on in my world—business, personal, and otherwise. Lots of quick posts over 140 characters, perhaps some long gaps when there’s too much or too little to be said.

I should note right now that I’m not a very good writer. I have a hard time expressing myself with words. I have a lot of respect for people who can write well (Naomi, I’m looking at you). I have a blog today because I need to write about what I’m experiencing. Hopefully you’ll get a lot out of it in the process.