Here is my take on the problem statements which were of particular interest to me. For ease of scanning, these have been structured as follows:
Metrics
Approach
Recommendations
Artefacts
Improving product discoverability & enhancing UI on PayTM iOS app.
PayTM offers a wide range of financial products that can benefit the customers. However, these products are not easily discoverable on the platform. Currently, the customer has to scroll five times to discover all products on the platform. This can have an adverse impact on product discovery.
Metrics
Improving clicks on product categories of the PayTM by 10 percent and increasing awareness of PayTM's full suite of products.
Read More
Approach
Check UI of Other Fintech SuperApps and Learn Best Practices
Study UI and layout of Fintech SuperApps like ICICI iMobilePay, CRED and PhonePe.
See their approach and adopt best practices. Learn from their deficiencies and don't repeat the same mistakes.
Classify PayTM's current suite of products and rank their strategic importance to the company.
This exercise involves a survey of PayTM's suite of products and ranking them based on the frequency of use, long term business value and revenue potential.
This classification will ensure that a redesigned layout will reflect the overall product vision of the PayTM app.
Recommendations
All product categories should be visible to customers on the PayTM home-screen.
Showing all categories of products on the home screen reduces time spent on discovery of PayTM offerings (see suggested wireframes in the doc). Probability of customers trying a new product increases if all categories of offerings are shown on the home-screen.
Ensure that the critical event on the app (i.e. payments functionality) can be performed effortlessly on the app. This will make sure that PayTM's core business is not affected due to the UI revamp.
Add a search window with a call to action "What do you want to do today?" directs customers to a product they want with minimum effort.
Strategically important products of PayTM should be prominently visible on the home-screen. This will grab the attention of customers and nudge them to explore the product (see suggested wireframes in the doc).
Proposal for a revamped Slack pricing page to increase conversions.
Metrics
Increase average time spent on Slack pricing page by 10 percent.
Increase clicks on call to action buttons on the page by 10 percent. Call to action buttons include interaction with the chatbot, contact sales, read/watch stories that provide social proof, start your free trial.
Improve online conversions (without intervention of the sales team) by at least 2 percent.
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problem statement
The process of buying a paid Slack subscription on a desktop is not is not smooth and intuitive for someone who is not familiar with the product. Currently, a customer has to scroll 7 to 8 times on a desktop browser to consume all content on the pricing page.
The pricing page on a desktop browser leans heavily on technical specs. Social proof that could influence conversions is buried deep below the page. For an Indian person, the pricing details are shown in US dollars (USD) leading to the additional hassle of converting USD to INR while making a purchase decision. Note: We are not looking into the pricing page seen on mobile browsers.
Approach
Reduce the cognitive load on a potential customer when processing information on the pricing page
Understand how other enterprise software products have designed their pricing page and adopt their best practices.
Make it easier for tech-illiterate consumers and slack- skeptics to understand the product and buy a paid subscription.
Recommendations
Simplify the page-layout and highlight social proof on the Slack pricing page.
Change the copy on the pricing page to encourage conversions. Make it easier for tech-illiterate people to understand the product and act on it.
Drive users into the funnel by adding a "start your free subscription" button right on top.
Highlight social proof on the top of the page by adding users' success stories in audio and/or video format (see doc for possible wireframe designs).
Recommendations
Provide pricing details in local currency and nudge customers towards a decision.
For Indian page visitors, the pricing details should be provided in INR as this is a practice followed by other enterprise software companies selling subscriptions.
One of the subscription options should be highlighted as 'most popular' to help customers make a decision. This can have a positive impact on conversions.
Since ticket size for Indian subscriptions is already low, India specific offers can be removed from the page.
Recommendations
Deliver the core value proposition of Slack in a single scroll.
Deliver the core value proposition of the Slack product in a single scroll (as opposed to 7 to 8 scrolls) on the Slack pricing page (see doc for possible wireframe designs). This will reduce the time spent on discovering content on the page.
Highlight use cases rather than technical features on the pricing page. Most buyers think of products in terms of jobs to be done and their utility rather than feature details.
FAQ section can be turned into an icon that is easily accessible from the top. This will ensure that they don't have to scroll down and read FAQs. (see doc for possible wireframe designs)
A chatbot can be added to ensure that customers ask questions and clear their doubts.
A Proposal For A Credit Card Comparison Tool On CRED
Many credit card holders are not aware whether they have the best card for their spending pattern. Existing credit card comparison tools don't enable users to compare and choose a card that is suitable for their needs.
Metrics
At least 50 percent of the customers who use the credit card comparison tool must recommend it to others.
The credit card comparison tool should increase referrals by 20% after launch.
The credit card tool should have a NPS of 8 or above.
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Approach
Analyse credit card comparison tools in the market and pick best features that can benefit CRED customers.
Credit card comparison tools in the Indian or global context would have solved the problem partially or completely. It helps to understand the market scenario before building the product.
Credit cards as a financial product would have similar features across the globe, so comparison tools that work for a US customer could be adopted for Indian customers.
Leverage CRED's access to spending patterns to find the best credit card for a customer.
Understanding spending patterns can help us map a customer's requirements to the card that could benefit them the most. Spend patterns can be used to predict cashbacks that the customer could have earned.
One time purchases cannot be predicted, but regular purchases like grocery, fuel and other spends can help the comparison tool to suggest the best card.
Recommendations
Build a credit card comparison tool that drives referrals and revenue.
Build a credit card comparison tool that incorporates a rating system for basic features and a rewards/cashback prediction algorithm to help customers compare their existing credit card with those in the market.
The comparison tool should have the following type of outputs a) suggests a better card b) tells the customer that they have the best card in the market c) tells the customer that it has insufficient data to give any feedback. (Check doc for user flows and wireframes)
Build a referral mechanism for the tool (and in extension CRED as a platform) to bring new users to the platform. Users who loved the tool can share it with new customers and onboard them to CRED platform
Charge credit card companies a fixed amount if the customers switch to their product through the CRED platform.
Third Wave Coffee Roasters is a coffee chain that is popular in Bengaluru. It has branches in Pune and Hyderabad. It has an app for managing payments and keeping in touch with customers.
Customers are promoted to the role of partner, influencer and ambassador based on the number of purchases made in a 70-day window.
Influencers get a 10% discount on products till noon on weekdays. Ambassadors get a 15% on products till noon on weekdays. These offers encourage power users to stay with cafe.
The app allows power users to buy beverages in bulk at a 50% discount. These subscriptions can be used in a 365-day window. This motivates people to commit to the coffee chain if they plan to work out of a cafe.
The app allows seamless wallet integration and barcode-scan based payments. It has integration with the pay-later product Simpl. This integrated approach to payments adds to customer delight.
Uber’s human approach to driver profiles
Uber assigns ratings to drivers based on rider feedback. Recently, it has expanded this feature by adding elements where drivers can put out their personality in public.
It has fields like : ‘Fun Fact’ , ‘Other Experience’, ‘Why I drive’. These fields make the driver feel the purpose of their profession and feel proud about their identity as an uber driver.
The profile contains customer comments, languages, home town, a personal intro, achievements and total number of trips completed.
Compliments listed on the driver profile contributes to social proof that endorses the driver's commitment to his/her customers.
The personalised profile can drive conversations and lead to a great personal connection between rider and driver.
Gmail's confidential mail feature solves an important problem (but partially)
Users can send messages and attachments with Gmail's confidential mode to help protect sensitive information from 'unauthorised' access. Users can use confidential mode to set an expiration date for messages or revoke access at any time. Recipients of the confidential message will have options to forward, copy, print, and download disabled.
The confidential mail feature adds some protection measures to emails carrying sensitive information in offices. It could also help protect some sensitive personal mails.
The recipient gets a SMS passcode which will provide them access to the contents of the email. The sender can choose whether he/she wants to send the SMS passcode.
However, there is a gaping hole in the product. Google has mentioned this loophole on their support page. It says: "Although confidential mode helps prevent the recipients from accidentally sharing your email, it doesn't prevent recipients from taking screenshots or photos of your messages or attachments. Recipients who have malicious programs on their computer may still be able to copy or download your messages or attachments."
Use of time-limited offers to increase conversions of CRED's travel packages
CRED’s travel suggestions/ packages force users to make a choice before a certain date / certain number of hours. This puts a deadline on users to make a choice.
Putting a deadline on any task forces people to finish the task. The deadline motivates fence sitters who have the money to purchase and desire to travel to a destination.
Deadlines on travel deals can also activate the YOLO (you only live once) instincts within a person and force them to make a decision.
CRED's product design team can also get feedback regarding popular destinations and enticing offers that are more likely to sell. This will help the team to build better products or design better offers for customers.
Use of price anchoring technique to sell products on e-commerce sites (Amazon and CRED’s ecommerce page to name a few)
This strategy relies on buyers' inherent tendency to rely heavily on a piece of initial information to guide subsequent decisions
Price anchoring involves displaying a higher price for a product and then offering a huge discount on that price to make users feel that they are paying a lot less for the product.
This strategy often converts a majority of customers who would not have bought a product if its real price was shown without any discount.
Price anchoring works only if the customer is not aware of the real price of the product. Otherwise, the customer might lose trust in an e-commerce site and abandon the service in the long run.
