Badges for Alpha, Beta and Investors

Hi there,

Here’s a quick preview of something we’d love to hear your thoughts about.

What if we give special user badges to our early adopters? Think about it like the “verified account” on Twitter, something that tells the world that you helped to shape Monzo from the very beginning :slight_smile:

Is this something you’d like? What do you think about this kind of thing in general? Having “bragging rights” is something you like or we shouldn’t worry too much about it?

Thanks!
Hugo

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Me personally I am not fussed but I know some people would really really love this :eyes:

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The attention to detail with things like this is what I love about Monzo! :smiley: :mondo:

I believe the idea here is very good, and shouldn’t be worried about too much further beyond this :slight_smile:

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The new Mastercard logo… needs to be rolled out straight away! :+1:

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It’s on the new card :heart_eyes:

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I think it depends on how they are used. As something that I can see on my profile page (like my user number), then great. It’s a nice little acknowledgement of our early support.

But if this would be visible to other people, I’m not keen. I think it could be quite alienating to those who come later. Sort of a club that they have no way of joining. All Monzo users should be as important as each other, and this has the potential to make it seem like there are a few ‘special’ Monzo users, and then everyone else. If one million Monzonauts is the ‘starting point’ for a viable bank, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of customers who do not have a badge, and can never get one.

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Like it. Assume the addresses shown under users are false otherwise some people are in for a lot of junk mail :postbox:

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It’s not bad, as an extra recognition. However it could be quite pointless if it doesn’t come alongside some perks. Nothing that rest of the users couldn’t have by other means, but that we’d have instant access to.

I find it a bit akward to be on Card tab? :thinking: I barely touched Monzo app on ios, so maybe it makes sense for ios app…

I would choose clean ui over badges, but if UI can be kept clean AND have bragging badges - maybe.

@hugo, how this bragging would work? I need to grab someone by the elbow and force them to look at settings page? :wink:

I like it - what if the user is eligible for multiple badges? Recognising contributors is a good thing.

I hear what jzw95 is saying, but I’m not convinced it would be a big deal for most people - and I assume investor may be open to new people in future rounds?

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Well, it depends, if we make this part of “public profile” then your friends will see it when they send you a payment through Monzo.me or split the bill, etc. Just like “Pro” users on Flickr, Dribbble, etc.

But that’s exactly against what @jzw95 said :crying_cat_face:

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But as Monzo builds so does the ability to offer badges for different achievements (years held account, first to use card in a specific shop etc.) so people could have the chance to earn different badges of their own.

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There’s no denying that Alpha/Beta users are tight community. However, allowing us to identify other alpha/beta user and doing ‘hollaaaaa’ doesn’t automatically lead to disrespect/annoyance with post-beta Monzo users.
I haven’t noticed this behaviour on forums (where Alpha/Beta badges are present), so why would it suddenly happen on larger scale and in environment where it’s visible to your friends?

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Implementation detail :wink:

Just kidding, we’ll probably combine both into just one ALPHA + INVESTOR or show multiple badges.

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I’m not sure about the extra badge on the profile picture in the card screen, I think that’s an unnecessary step to put it there.

The little tag in the profile screen looks great though! Just a tiny something for early users and investors. :heart:

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I don’t think it will lead to disrespect or massive arguments (though the discussion around the recent crowdfunding round is a counter-point to that :frowning:). But I do think a number of people would feel slightly annoyed/disappointed that they missed out and can’t be ‘special’, too.

After all, to a certain extent it’s just circumstance that allows some of us to be Alpha/Beta users. Someone who first hears about Monzo in November and signs up for an account won’t necessarily be any less of a dedicated user than any of us. They just happened not to hear about it earlier.

I just feel that it has the potential to generate a low-level negative feeling amongst some amount of future customers. Not deal-breaking, but also not great, especially as Monzo is so good at working to include everyone, and make everyone feel special! :wink:

To put it another way. A certain number of people seemed very disappointed not to be able to invest £10 recently. This wasn’t because of the potential financial upside, but because they wanted to ‘be a part of Monzo’. By creating a public status that no one new can obtain, it limits the ability to generate the inclusion and feeling like you’re fully a part of something, for future users.

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Forum discussions are most heated and engaged, but also represent very small percentage of Monzo population. Outside of forums, mood is a lot calmer, including investing stuff.

I can see how it’s better to resign from something that can upset - even small percentage of - population over functionality that ‘maybe’ can make unknown number of people happier. However, wouldn’t butthurt effect (no disrespect, I’m including myself here) disperse over the time? I can make a test and ask @anon4562461 if he’s still butthurt, but I might be taking an arrow to the knee now… :smiley: :joy: Or maybe it’s too soon?

So even though I would prefer to NOT make people sad, I’m slightly objecting because I don’t think it’s fair for all users. More volatile, but enclosed, forum behaviour (10k users where easily 50% or more is inactive) having an impact on 150k users (all monzo users up until now are alpha+beta and this number will grow prob until Current Account release).

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Now that you mention it, look what my colleague Anthony have just received…

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I’m totally butthurt :smile:

I like the look of the label but I’m not keen on them being there.
It’s creating a further divide between those who were lucky and those who weren’t.

Having had Investor on my Mondo prepaid card it is good to see that continue on the Monzo debit card