Designing for the Gig

Economy
By Group 5

Jigar Joshi (20IB319)

Naman Mittal
Bhargavi Padhi (20IB3141)
Sudeep Khandelwal (20IB342)
Divya Malhotra (20IB363)
Shubhi Shrivastava (20IB338)
Understanding the Problem

A paradigm shift in the 21st

century

No proper business model by

organisations employing gig workers

Lack of offerings, benefits for gig

The number of freelancers/gig workers is workers
expected to be more than 50% by 2027. In
countries like US, this growth outpaces the Lack of resources and work
total workforce growth by 3x. tools/softwares

Volatility of income
1. Empathize
This phase involves understanding freelancers and other key stakeholders.
Secondary Research

● Industry Research
● Desk Research
● Ecosystem Map

Primary Research

● Interviews
● Survey
Secondary Research (Industry Research)

Total gig workers in India: 15 million

Gig sector to reach US$ 455 billion by

2024

350 million gig jobs by 2025

● 90% Indian gig workers lost their income during the pandemic
● Many workers were forced to take drastic steps to make ends meet such as 44% borrowed, 45% reduced their
essential expenditures and 83% used their savings
● While they earned >Rs. 25,000 per month before the pandemic, by August 2020, ~9 in 10 were earning <Rs.
15,000 per month

Source: ASSOCHAM
Secondary Research (Desk Research & Challenges)
Desk Research:
● Independent work: Choice,
necessity, and the gig
economy by Mckinsey Global
Institute
● Freelancing in America by
independent research firm
Edelman Intelligence
● Ultimate guide to gig economy
data: a summary of every
freelance survey we can find
by
The Career Freelancer Status
Report: Results From The Nati
on1099 Survey
Challenges faced by gig workers:
● Legislation to bring portable
benefits
● Gig workers save less than
other workers
● High service charge on
platforms is another problem
● They struggle to find clients
● Isolation
● Finances are too tight
● No work life balance
● Psychological manipulation
Secondary Research (Gig economy Ecosystem & Stakeholder Map)
Primary Research
Key Assumption
The main assumption do the primary research
will be problem faced by gig workers in
managing their finances and accessing the
benefits and the coverage as well.
Further, the lack of ways to search for
adequate opportunities for gig workers to get
regular income.
Objective of the research
The main objective is to understand the
problem areas and opportunities faced in
accessing healthcare and managing finances.
Further objectives:
● Pain and struggles of full time gig
workers
● Developing the strategic solutions
Research Methodology
Personal Interviews: Survey:
● In-depth interview to ● Used for validating insights
understand the needs and from interviews.
motivations of gig workers. ● Understanding the perception
● Using 5 whys method. of larger audience.
● Using the key insights to ● Prioritizing and filtration of
ideate and develop prototype. insights.

Key Research Areas:

● Understanding the motivating factors. Drawing compatibility with traditional forms of
employment through pros and cons.
● Challenges faced by full time gig workers and their current coping mechanism.
● Current method of managing finances and their constraints.
● The effect on unstable income on lifestyle and living expense.
● Understanding the entire management and choice on health and other insurances.
 Interview Summary
Employing Gig Workers:
➔ Regular Expenses (their
example and frequency)
➔ Process of planning
expenses
➔ Bill Payments Interview
➔ Need for extra fund
➔ Delay in client payments
➔ Investments
➔ Breakdown of expenses
➔ Credit Card Usage
➔ Financial adequacy
Understanding Gig Workers:
➔ No. of years since started
➔ Motivation
➔ No. of gigs and their
duration
➔ Ways of finding them
➔ Challenges with gigs
➔ Current solutions
➔ Future plans (Gig worker
or tradition employee)
Content
Benefits:
➔ Current health insurance
(including the plan details
and method selection)
➔ Other required benefits
➔ Usage of software (with
the plan and expenditure)

Interview
Gig workers from different industries were
interviewed to understand the diverse
viewpoints. The industry referred were
photographers, graphic designers, marketers,
influencers, etc. The diversity of gender, age and
location was also taken into consideration.
Key Observation:
● Generally freelancers use their income to pay
for their living expense
● It is usually done part-time due to unstable
income
● It helps them gain practical market experiences
● Staying disciplined is a major challenge
● Not many extra benefits other than the actual
pay
● Expensive usage of software is one the main
drawback
● Issues of managing finances
Survey and Results:
The survey was made to prioritize and validate the key issues. Identify the rate of received benefits by the gig
worker and their source of opportunities. The key finding from the same were as follows:

Main Issues: Methods of getting opportunities: Perceived Benefits:

● Lack of benefits provided ● Social media posts. ● Flexibility of working

by the company. ● Referral by individuals. ● Being your own boss
● Low and infrequent ● Referral by personal ● Skill building
payments. network.
● Lack of job consistencies
● Expensive software
subscriptions.
2. Synthesize
JOURNEY MAP INSIGHTS PRIORITIZATION
● Financial sustenance between gigs
Insight 1
Not just finding a gig, financial instability in between the gigs is
challenging & can lead to cutting expenses & selling things,
quite a rollercoaster.

● Collaborating with other Freelancers

Insight 2
Independence of traditional hierarchies, but at the cost of
collaboration. Need to balance autonomy and collaboration.
 ● Need for Client relationship management
Insight 3
Challenge is to handling client relationship where negotiation
happens in terms of scope, deliverables and payment, can lead
to frustration and decrease in motivation.

● Need of cost efficient access to benefits and tools

Insight 4
Paying for work tools like coworking space, software tools,
cameras is a huge recurring expense for gig workers. The gig
workers miss out on insurance benefits.
3. Ideate
● Brainstorming
● Idea Generation
● The Idea
● Solution routes
Ideas Generated
Cost efficient access to software and
tools
● Shared tools and services
● Used Software market
● Tool Service and Rentals
● Pay-per-use models
● Cheaper access to tools
● Aggregate buying
Financial Sustenance in between gigs
● Gigs under 24 hours
● Gigs cryptocoins
● Aggregate all job boards and
applications
● Geo location for gigs
Ideas Generated
Collaborating with other Freelancers Preventing underpayment by clients

● Coworking homes ● 360 rating for client and Gig

● Work and Time/Schedule Planners workers
● Collaborative design software ● Calendar mapping tools for gig
● Alexa for gig workers workers
The Idea
A solution that provides affordable
access to tools, services and products
for creative gig workers
Solution Routes
Solution 1: Group buying software Solution 2: Pay-per-use software model
subscription model
The service that allows to use known
This model acts as a service that negotiates software programs and pay only for the
price on known software programs over a time we used them.
certain time based on demand.
PROTOTYPING
The Prototype phase is focused on testing the solution routes and identifying which route
has garnered the most interest and presented the most potential in solving the pain point of
freelancers when it comes to high software subscriptions.
Insights
GROUP BUYING PAY-PER-USE
● Unpredictable waiting period ● Conscious of usage of time
● Long waiting Period ● Concept of Tracking usage
● Discounts scheme should be there on the ● Should introduce short term subscriptions
based on algorithms
Online Survey
We have conducted online survey with Freelancers
RESULTS
We have got 20 responses. Among Two Models, pay-per-use that generated the most
Interest

MODEL VOTES VOTE%

Group Buying 5 25%

Pay-per-use 15 75%
SUMMARY
 Among the two models, the pay-per-use model resonates the most with freelancers as
they have control on their usage and how much they want to pay for this.

 The pay-per-use model should not be designed on per-minute or per-hour basis.

 A main concern for the pay-per use model was its viability - in terms of getting the
software providers on board and not cannibalizing their existing customers.

 There should be Transparency

Testing
Viability

● Web based applications with freemium model such

as Spotify, Google drive and Dropbox

● The average conversion rate of such applications is

1%

● During a research on Freemium model products, it

was observed that Pay per use serves the ideal
testing
Testing of the final model
Credentials Perceived Benefits Concerns

Pay per use Freelancer Costing of the

market is not the service in terms
most profitable of additional
but if the market revenue gained
is going to and additional
expand then there expenses incurred
might be
Testing
Credentials Perceived Benefits Concerns

Pay per use Research shows a If service

lot of benefits of management
Pay per use works out to be
model only for expensive then it
those why may will be of high
want to use it for concern.
a day or to rather
than a month.