I originally developed It's a Money Thing expecting credit union staff to facilitate the program. Though this was often the case, credit unions were also interested in equipping local teachers with financial education materials.

The program's modular, topic-based content library provided flexibility for credit union staff to assemble their own presentations, but the sheer volume of material was overwhelming to hand off to external instructors. The team agreed that a more traditional, structured format would better fill the need for educators. I lead the design for It’s a Money Thing Lesson Plans.

Identifying teachers as a new user group raised the following questions:

I restructured It’s a Money Thing content using a format familiar to educators. I reviewed and combined existing materials to create a more comprehensive exploration of each topic, and I developed learning objectives and assessment tools for each lesson.

I designed checklists and timelines to help teachers organize a 45-minute lesson. Clear, step-by-step instructions included example talking points to help teachers prepare and deliver a lesson—even with little prior knowledge in finance.

To take advantage of the in-person educational setting, I developed group activities, games and discussion prompts to encourage interaction.

Lesson plans were made available to It's a Money Thing subscribers for free, adding value to the program and giving users more ways to implement their financial literacy content. Subscriber feedback revealed that lesson plans reduced the friction involved with partnering with local schools and community organizations.