Overall the basic performance indicators from the trial demonstrated that the service was well received by most users. Throughout the app’s trial period, 75% of users completed onboarding and users checked in with the app at least one a week, with an average number of three bank accounts connected to the app per person.

Through the tracking of the advertising campaign, the team were able to discern that users were most interested in improving and learning about credit and building up savings, which was great feedback for future features Quirk can implement.

Additionally, approximately 96% of all those who installed the app completed the quiz. This demonstrates that almost everyone who downloaded the app was sufficiently engaged enough with one of the main features that they went through a fairly lengthy process of completing the personality test. This was a distinct indication that users were craving a personalised perspective on their finances.

Another marker of success for the service is that all the four Quirk personality types were equally represented in the trial. This demonstrates that the quiz attracted users who typically didn’t like to engage with financial services. If that were not the case, there would be imbalances in personality types between the users. Another demonstration of the efficacy of the personality test is that it correctly predicted the behaviour of the users in the app. For example, the users who check the app most frequently are users who are defined by the quiz as ‘optimisers’ who would naturally monitor their finances more closely. This is an exciting prospect because it demonstrates the opportunity for creating highly personalised services and offerings once the service has gathered more data.

The other outcome of the trial is that the service is reaching its intended target user. The service positions itself as offering tailored education and recommendation, and during the trial, it attracted young people who were looking to build up their financial literacy.So, these users are being drawn to the service because it offers personalised financial recommendations, while educating them —ultimately demonstrating a strong match between user need and service proposition.

This also gives a clear focus for the future of Quirk. Currently, the main features c are the personality test and the clearer financial tracking. Now, the priority can be to strengthen the personalised recommendation capabilities that can support people in deciding what to do next.

Over the entire period, we had 2712 users with an average of 11.3% of them returning to use the app later. These users completed 1123 conversations consisting of 6497 thought entries (different stages of the conversation). On average, 59% of people who clicked on our adverts downloaded the app. During our most optimised week, we spent £400 on advertising, resulting in 208 fully engaged users costing just £1.25 each to acquire. This high conversion percentage and the low cost of engaging a new user demonstrates that the proposition is highly desirable.

There are two distinct ways that people found value in having conversations with themselves. Firstly, the initial expression allows a cathartic unpacking of complex, anxious or out of control thoughts, which provides an in-the-moment release and calm. Secondly, the subsequent extended conversation reframes users’ mindset so they can further understand their context and thoughts, and then potentially progress toward a conclusion —ultimately providing a calming way to process thought and reach new understandings.

Different users engage with past conversations in different ways and for different reasons. Some users are intimidated by the intensity of the emotion in their conversations and avoid it to protect themselves; some users want to see their conversations but only when there are enough of them to find bigger insights or to feel proud of how many they have; and finally, some users revisit after each conversation. They return in a calm moment or a stressful moment, but when they do, they often find assurance that they can get through what they are experiencing because they can see the evidence that they have done so before. It also helps them learn and remember what works for them and they often develop a sense of independence, self-reliance and pride.

We validated that some of the critical attributes we had built into the service were valued by our users. Being able to write and speak thoughts, that were previously internal, helps people process them. And the fact they are stored in the app, lends a welcome sense of weight and significance to the process. Absolute privacy has helped people explore thoughts they wouldn’t have done otherwise and was a critical reason why some adopted the app. Having Hold available at all times created a sense of comfort and made self-reflection more achievable in people’s busy lives. The simplistic nature of the app and the light touch prompts provide structure for people, but leave plenty of room for them to act as they wish, offering a flexibility that respects their process.

We found that our most frequent users are more anxious than we had previously anticipated. Through previous research we hypothesised that our most likely target user would be someone who is experiencing symptoms of anxiety, but is not formally engaging in professional therapeutic services and does not effectively self-reflect. However, the users engaging the most with the app were often already professionally diagnosed with anxiety type disorders and often had regular therapy. These users tended to prefer the app as a regular mechanism to manage their conditions and in some cases used the app and their conversations to inform their therapy sessions.