Alain Santoyo
The Problem
Roommates living in shared apartments struggle to consistently track everyday expenses. Even when tool exist small purchases are often forgotten, leading to unbalanced contributions and social friction over time.
The Mission is
To help roommates effortlessly track shared expenses in the moment, so nothing gets forgotten and contributions remain fair.
Research
Through research in articles and interviews with people living in shared apartments, I wanted to understand:
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How users track shared expenses
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Why small expenses are often forgotten
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What tools they currently use
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How they feel about sharing expenses
Users tend to forget small shared expenses, even when they use tools designed to track and split costs.
Research Insight
Users are often willing to absorb small expenses, but this creates micro-frustrations when others are less flexible about cost sharing.
Even when users are aware they are paying more than others, they often choose silence to maintain harmony in shared living environments.
Target User
During research, I found that there are two types of users: those who actively track expenses and those who don’t, often overlooking small purchases.
However, both groups still struggle to split expenses fairly.
Persona #1. The Tracker
Persona #2. The Non-Tracker
User Journey
What's on the market
There is an opportunity to help people living in shared households in large cities remember and track everyday expenses more easily so that costs are distributed fairly and friction around money is reduced.
How might we...
How might we make it easier to separate household expenses at the moment of purchase?
How might we help users remember to log shared expenses after making a purchase?
How might we improve the tracking of household expenses in shared apartments?
SnapSplit is an app designed to make splitting shared household expenses fast and frictionless.
The MVP focuses on validating whether reducing friction at the moment of expense leads to more consistent tracking behavior.
At its core, SnapSplit enables users to instantly capture shared purchases by taking a photo of a product or receipt, minimizing effort in real-life moments.
Users can add details later, while reminders and a shared balance view ensure transparency and reduce missed expenses.
MVP Features
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Add Expense (Quick Capture)
Allows users to instantly log an expense by taking a photo of a receipt or item, reducing friction at the moment of purchase.
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Remind Later
Gives users the option to complete the expense information later, avoiding interruptions in real-life situations.
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Reminders
Sends notifications at specific times of the day to help users complete pending expenses and avoid forgetting them.
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Shared Balance View
Provides a clear overview of who owes what, improving transparency between roommates.
Nice To Have
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Quick Add Shortcut
Allows user to capture an expense from home screen
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Daily Reminder Prompt
A prompt like "Did you buy anything today for the apartment?" to encourage tracking habits.
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In-App Payments (Apple Pay Integration)
To settle balances instantly within the App
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Shared Wallet
Allow Roommates to contribute to a shared balance and pay directly from the app the common expenses.
User Flow
User Stories
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As someone who shares an apartment, I want to quickly log small expenses, so I don’t forget to split them later.
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As someone who shares expenses, I want to track what everyone is spending, so we can split costs fairly.
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As someone living with roommates, I want visibility over shared expenses, so we can avoid awkward money situations.
Acceptance criteria
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Given a user has an incomplete expense, When some time passes, Then the app sends a reminder, And allows the user to add the missing details and split the expense.
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Given the app allows users to quickly add expenses, When a user adds and splits an expense, Then the app automatically updates the balance for each user.
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Given a user opens the app, Then the home screen displays a summary of their balance, Showing how much they owe and how much they are owed.
North Star Metrics
The success of SnapSplit is measured by the percentage of shared expenses logged at the moment of purchase, as it reflects reduced friction and more consistent tracking behavior.
Success would be indicated by a significant increase in real-time expense logging, ideally reaching a majority of expenses being captured at the moment of purchase.
Roadmap
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Launch and GTM Strategy
Initial Launch
MVP would be introduced to a small group of users to validate real-world behavior.
Success Measurament
Success would be measure by tracking how frequently users log small shared expenses in real time.
Iteration
Based on insights, the product would be iterated to reduce friction and improve consistency.
Growth Strategy
Growth would rely on word of mouth within shared household, supported by lightweight channels such as social media.
What I'd do next...
Make expense capture even faster
to reduce friction and make logging expenses feel even more immediate and effortless
Explore a shared fund
This would be a shared fund feature that allows roommates to contribute to a common balance for household purchases
Simplify both tracking and payment
This would reduce the need to manually split every small expense and create a smoother shared-expense experience.
Conclusions
This project was both enjoyable and insightful. As someone who shares an apartment, I was already familiar with the problem I set out to solve. However, the key discovery came through user interviews: the issue is not the lack of tools, but the lack of an easy way to use them in real-life moments.
There is no truly simple way to track shared expenses in the moment, in a snap.
That idea became the foundation of this project. Due to time constraints, some ideas were left unexplored.
In particular, the concept of a shared fund within the app could solve the problem at its root. However, this would require more complex financial features and integrations, which fall outside the scope of an MVP and would be better suited for future iterations.