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Observations and Interviews

User A is the associate housemaster in my dorm, who has a toddler. She said that she has had a lot of difficulties coordinating schedules with babysitters. She has often had the issue of scheduling a night in advance and the babysitter has to cancel at the last minute. She said that finding a babysitter at the last minute is often very difficult. She also sometimes doesn’t need a babysitter for a specific night, and that can make scheduling more complicated. She uses 3 babysitters, but prefers 2 of them much more over the third. She said that she would be willing to adjust her schedule if it meant she would be using one of her preferred babysitters. 

In order to find a babysitter she went through an agency that had done criminal background checks. They provided her with a list of people that met her desired requirements. She wanted people that could speak Spanish and were legally allowed to work in the US. After that she interviewed people, getting them to interact with Ignacio and checking their homes in case Ignacio would be spending time there. After the initial vetting, she then keep a list and called when I need a sitter. Some made it to the main rotation and then a couple that she had as emergency.

User B has worked as a babysitter for family friends. She said that she dealt with many logistical issues while working as a babysitter. One issue she faced was that sometimes two families would request the same night, and then if the first one cancelled she would lose the opportunity for the second job. She said that she had trouble finding enough jobs, especially because of scheduling issues. She said it was difficult to communicate schedules, especially because sometimes the parents don’t care which night, but she might have a preference of which night because she is trying to maximize the number of jobs she can work.

Her process for finding a babysitting job was very one-way. A client would call her and ask either if she was free at a specific time, and she would respond yes or no, or if she was free any time in the next week or so, and then she would respond with the best date for her. As a result of this process, she didn’t really get much control over her schedule.

User C is a babysitter who has faced a lot of scheduling issues with families she worked with. She said she often received a lot of last minute requests that she had to turn down because they didn’t fit in her schedule. She also says that communicating her schedule to parents is especially difficult because it is constantly changing.

Her process of getting a babysitting job would be to wait for a parent she worked for to call her and ask if she was free at a specific time. If she was not free at that time, the parent might ask her for friends that might be.

User Classes

Babysitters

  • Might be managing many families that they babysit for
  • Possibly don't drive
  • May have frequently changing schedules

Parents

  • May be less familiar with technology
  • May also have frequently changing schedules

Needs and Goals

Core Goals

Babysitters

  • Find jobs that fit their schedule and other constraints (distance, age of kids, individual preferences for or against given families)
    • Maximize number of jobs they can do despite scheduling changes and uncertainties (on their side or the parents' side)
  • Communicate with parents, both beforehand to schedule and negotiate terms, and during the job if problems come up

Parents

  • Find a babysitter they trust to take care of their kids (perhaps vouched for by others, or one they've had good experience with in the past)
  • Schedule a time to go out when a trusted babysitter is available (the exact date may or may not be flexible)
    • Avoid having to cancel plans due to babysitter's scheduling issues

Additional Feature Requests

Babysitters

  • "Give" jobs to friends
  • Let clients know if a date they originally wanted opens up

Parents

  • Use app within a group such as a church, or have some way to “vouch” for babysitters
  • Some way to tell which babysitters have looked at a job posting if you are in a rush to find someone

(Stuff Casey couldn't categorize)
3. Letting families joint-babysit?
6. Integrate with Google Calendar?

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