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For many people, drawing up a will feels like something far removed from their own life. Death is an unpleasant subject and people would rather not think about it. It is mainly the over-60s who consider it. But a will matters for younger people too.
For many people, drawing up a will feels like something far removed from their own life. Death is an unpleasant subject and people would rather not think about it. It is mainly the over-60s who consider it. But a will matters for younger people too. If you do not have a will, statutory inheritance law applies. That can mean your estate ends up with the wrong people, that too much inheritance tax has to be paid, or that guardianship is not properly arranged.
That is why Thuisnotaris wants to make drawing up a will as approachable as possible.
Thuisnotaris already had a fairly clear picture of what the tool should look like. Among other things, they supplied flow charts for the processes. It was then our job to work out what they really wanted and how we could turn that into an application. We knew nothing about wills and Thuisnotaris knew nothing about development. That is why it was important to work closely together.
We used Scrum on this project. We worked in two-week sprints in which we delivered new functionality. Thuisnotaris could then test that functionality and share any feedback.
Over the coming period we will collect data and analyse how users move through the tool. That way we can optimise the tool further, step by step.
Thuisnotaris offers the most comprehensive wills that customers can draw up online themselves. Together with the largest notary firm in the Netherlands, we have helped almost 30,000 satisfied customers to a suitable will and living will over the past few years. We now use that experience and expertise to help people create a good will and living will themselves.
The solution
Marco, project manager at Thuisnotaris, explains: "We want to make drawing up a will accessible to the widest possible audience. So we came up with a tool that lets people map out their wishes and options independently. Simply at home on a phone, tablet or laptop. If customers want help drawing up their will or living will while working through the tool, they can schedule an appointment with a specialist straight away. That is a 60-minute phone appointment in which the specialist draws up the will or living will together with the customer. If the customer chooses to draw everything up themselves, they schedule a 30-minute phone appointment with a specialist after working through the tool. In that conversation all the details the customer entered are checked. Personal details are only requested once the appointment has been scheduled, which keeps it easy for people to start filling in the tool. That way the customer can choose between the personal route with guidance or drawing everything up digitally themselves."
The process
Marco says: I found the collaboration very pleasant. We were in close contact from the start. That meant we knew exactly where we stood in the project. During covid we had a short online standup every morning. In it we discussed things like 'what did we do yesterday?', 'what are we doing today?', 'is there anything unusual?'. Once it was possible again, we met in person once every week or two.
Because of this way of working I really feel we did it together. We complemented each other well. I wanted the team to be able to be critical and to say so if they would tackle something differently. And that is what happened. I got critical questions and we could tell each other honestly when we did not understand something. That way we learned a lot from each other.
Every project has special requirements that bring a challenge. This project was no exception. We will briefly explain a couple of examples.
After working through the first part of the tool, the user sees an overview of the components that will go into the will. The designer created a beautiful but complex design for it. The components are plotted along a road, but the number of components differs depending on the will choices you make. So we had to calculate how many components should go on each line, and we had to make that responsive too. That was a challenge, but we managed it.
Thuisnotaris has the ambition to make this tool available to third parties as well. Charities, for example. We therefore made all the style components dynamic. That makes the app's styling very easy to adapt to the house style of other companies.
About halfway through development came the question of whether we could also offer the living will component separately. Depending on where the user comes from, they have to see either all the questions or only the living will questions. Fortunately we had already made sure the different components were easy to split off. Because we had built all the will options modularly, we could arrange this fairly simply.
We take the security of customer data very seriously, of course. When you are dealing with highly sensitive information and concerns about privacy and data leaks, we understand it is essential to reassure customers. The Mendix platform in which the tool is built is an extremely secure platform and complies with various ISO standards. In addition, our tools are regularly scanned with our own security scan to detect vulnerabilities in the code and unauthorised access to data. Finally, we work with peer reviews to check each other's work. With these measures we offer customers a secure environment in which to draw up their will.
The result
The first 1,000 visitors have now been through the tool. Because we have only just gone live, it is too early to say anything about the results. But there is a tool to be proud of. Marco: "I am proud of what we have built. We have succeeded in making a tool that makes drawing up a will approachable and light. The playful design plays a big part in that, it makes it feel less heavy. I am convinced that with this tool we are going to make a real difference."
I found the collaboration very pleasant. We were in close contact from the start. That meant we knew exactly where we stood in the project.
Want to know more?Ask Armando
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