Using Maslow’s Hierarchy to find value propositions

Now, I’m a total sucker for systems, methods, frameworks, principles to make decisions, especially things that are abstract. Some people think this sort of structure is harmful, in particular, to the creative process. Quite the contrary! Constraint, is in fact, the mother of innovation. That’s because when you’re only given a few parameters, it becomes far less overwhelming to mix these parameters in every conceivable way. This mixing is more commonly known as iteration, and iteration is what brings us closer to these more novel ideas that haven’t been found yet. This is why I’m talking about Maslow’s Hierarchy as a means of producing novel propositions for freelance marketplaces. We want to fundamentally transform freelancers’ and clients’ lives, because doing that is going keep us ahead of the curve of disruption. And this hierarchy is an explanation for what transformation looks like, so, for the time being, we let it become our framework.

Maslow’s hierarchy has 5 layers, and what I’m going to do is list out the words that are used to describe each layer, then illustrate it in a narrative to make this more humanizing. As fun as theory is, this theory is only as beneficial to the extent in which it interacts with reality. It aims to transform peoples lives, so it must live and breathe among the people. Finally I’ll list the ideas I came up with in response to constraints given. Now these are just your typical ole’, free-range ideas that need the thorough testing and analysis to turn it into that grade A meat of a business model that dramatically improves the lives of the people who eat it. So basically, this is just the starting point. Listing off every possible iteration would make this podcast really long. Let’s start.

Layer 1: Physiological needs (Air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction)

A family in bad part of Spain is washing dishes, and abruptly has their water cut off. The father curses in Spanish and it echoes against the walls of their single family house. They’ve been in the straights before, but not like this. Another baby girl is coming in the next few months, and Alfons, the father, has contemplated picking up a third job to make ends meet. However, another debilitating accident at work has damaged his back, and so he decides to find work online as a translator. Will it be promising? He doesn’t know. But it’s something that perhaps his younger son and wife can also do in their spare time to make ends meet. He’s grown up to believe that if a man has to depend on anyone but himself, he’s not a man. This damages his pride, but pride won’t turn the water on, or buy diapers, or pay rent. And it certainly won’t fix his back. He relents and they look together online. They need work, and they need it now.

• Maybe we can help freelancers who deal with poor air conditions in places like China or Mexico?
• Can we facilitate them moving to new countries?
• Digital nomads are increasingly becoming a thing, but maybe there’s a market for people who aren’t living in safe conditions that can benefit from relocation
• What if we were able to guarantee freelance work for people immediately? In any field?
• Is there a way to simultaneously educate kids who have to help their parents make money through the work they do?
• Does a profitable model exists where if you design work for client for merch, say a t-shirt, you get t-shirt? Hoodie designs for a hoodie? That can help with the clothing aspect.
• This one sounds weird. Maybe for homeless, in exchange for them doing work on your platform, you provide a place to sleep, food, and a hot shower?
• Maybe there are bigger places for families with multiple kids.
• This could start off as something hyper local and potentially expand.
• Some of this stuff feels more non profity because it’s trying to solve problems like hunger or safety. The difficult part seems like it would be doing these things where you’re not losing money.

Layer 2: Safety needs (Personal security, employment, resources, health, property)

The wheelchair Ben sits in is hurriedly being pushed to an emergency room. The pain pulsates in waves from the top of his toe the base of his knee. And with an intense amount of swelling in such a short amount to time, all signs point to a snake bite. Despite the agony, it’s a non venomous bite, and after a number of hours laying alone in a hospital bed, he’s driven back home by his father in the middle of the night. A month passes and its all been forgotten, except when his parents find a letter in the mail. “Hey bud, here’s the bill of that hospital visit.” his dad states rather bluntly. No explanation, and lacking a great degree of sympathy. He takes his time to carefully open the letter, obviously in no rush to read the contents of it. “Oh, gosh…” Ben says, disheartened. He’s soon to be entering his junior year of college, with no form of employment, and now $3,500 in debt from rogue snakebite that he never signed up for. Too young to drink, he binges on whatever food’s in the pantry to forget his pain. Being forced to grow up sucks, but, whatever plans he’s gotta make to pay this off can at last wait until tomorrow.

1. Again, guaranteeing freelance work would fit well here.
2. Maybe you can provide something where freelancers in local areas can make guilds. And they can contribute money, physical items, or food together for those who happen to be struggling for a period of time can withdraw from it.
3. In an effort to find the most qualified freelancers for a job, perhaps you could facilitate job swaps among freelancers?
4. What might a hand me down job look like? Can a freelance sell access to a job they don’t want to do anymore?
5. Maybe there’s a market for the equivalent of dog sitting, but for a freelancers work. Say something in first freelancers personal life comes up and they need another freelancer to take over for a brief period of time. That could help solve Ben’s issue above.
6. For building security in employment, how could you help freelancers differentiate themselves from competition or eliminate it all together? Maybe proposals aren’t necessary anymore and a first come first serve model of finding work is actually preferable for both parties.

Layer 3: Love and belonging needs (Friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection)

Work is going by just well for Sarah. Too well. She labels the first year of contracting as “hellish” and “a total grind”. But each year got a little better, and, now 12 years in she’s got all she wants. A great salary, and enjoyable job, a fine house (paid off, mind you). Everything except people to spend time with. She’s in another state, alone, with few friends, not married, and is over a thousand miles away from any family. Though, It wouldn’t matter if they were close. Sarah has a horrible relationship with her mother and dreads being home. She left the moment she was 18. “Did I not stop to figure out who I was doing this for?” she questions. Squeezing every bit of productivity and efficiency out of work was fun when this existential fear of loneliness didn’t nag at her. More work could usually drown that out. Not anymore. Besides that loneliness, she’s practically forgotten how to relate to people. Her single-mindedness of work has more than atrophied that social muscle. “Something has to change.” she thinks to herself, embarrassed at her miserable state of affairs.

• Maybe this is strange, but think of how religious communities are part of the same body by certain principles or behaviors.
• Can you have hidden dress codes that signify freelancers in the wild?
• Maybe not dress codes cause we don’t want people thinking we’re in a gang. Nintendo’s street pass was really friggin cool in the day. What if you had something that was able to connect you with other freelancers while you’re shopping? Eating out? Going to a park?
• Then you could build something that help bring them together. The fact that they’re freelancers is simply the thing that breaks the ice and creates the possibility of conversation. Monetizing that sounds like a really fun thing to figure out
• Can you match with unlimited amount of people a day?
• Is there something that helps them do something together?
• What if they produce a business out of that connection? That leads me to,
• Can freelancers create agencies together?
• Freelancer speed dating? When I first thought of this I was thinking exclusively in the sense pairing people up to potentially build agencies together. But, maybe there are a bunch of lonely freelancers looking for love…?
• Site wide projects where everyone can collectively design something together?
• Maybe a game that everyone plays? If you remember the game telephone from childhood, what’s the equivalent of that, but for design? Copywriting? development? What about red rover? That might be a bit harder but it’s at least funny think about.
• Can you establish local chapters that are actually incentivized to meet together and grow? Key phrase is incentivized to meet together and grow. Building the framework for people to meet up is the easier part. Actually having people use it and extract a lot of value out of it is definitely more difficult.
• Sending personally hand written letters thanking your freelancers for using your platform?
• What if you sent a birthday gift to them? One that’s tailored to their interests?
• And you don’t have to think of this is just connection on the platform. Certainly there are things you can do to help freelancers and clients spend more time with their family.
• What if you don’t have to send proposals anymore and can just join projects immediately? Now you’re freeing up multiple hours a week they don’t have to apply to work
• Maybe a lot of freelancers are international, and they want to be able to travel back home.

You probably noticed that I didn’t talk about clients at all in these value propositions. They’re equally as important to build value for, and if anything, it seems that most platforms are biased towards them anyway. But it was refreshing to exclusively think about freelancers for a change. Of course, you just end up using the same process to find value for them using this framework.

At any rate, I’m going to stop for this episode. In part two I’ll explain the final two layers which are esteem needs and self actualization needs. Plus, I’ll elaborate on what I think it would probably mean for your business if you take this approach of transforming your freelancers and clients really seriously.