Does anyone else here feel that the quality within the Monzo team is getting worse?
Before you grab your pitchforks then hear me out.
There has been a few bugs in the mobile applications which should have been identified in QA.
There are obvious errors spelling errors on the website and even dead 404 links.
Features like the Spending tab were far too rushed out and a few users really didn’t like the feature and some even complained that it came out of testing far too early.
Those are just some examples right now that I can think of.
I do love Monzo, the monzo team and it’s community but I do think it’s time to get back and focus on quality and test things more vigorously before release because it’s only a matter of time before a really important feature gets rushed, and that could spell disaster.
If you’re referring to the chargebacks blog from earlier, it was deliberately pulled down because it needed some pretty major edits. It’ll be back tomorrow.
If you notice spelling errors please let one of us know immediately. Sometimes stuff just falls through the cracks!
With regards to bugs… Bugs are bound to happen. That’s why most apps, when they have updates, say “Bug fixes and improvements” right? That’s why we push to Beta channels and TestFlight first! Usually, if a bug slips through, it’ll surface before the update rolls out to everyone.
Summary was in Monzo Labs first, and based on the feedback we got from Labs, we felt it was ready for release. I think it’s expected that not everyone will feel the same way, but ultimately we have to make lots of judgement calls every day and not everyone will always agree.
I think trying to standardise “quality” across a company with a lot of moving parts is quite subjective. The average Monzo user wouldn’t notice anything that you just mentioned… whereas Monzo enthusiasts that visit here every day and want to explore every new release as soon as possible and in huge amounts of detail are obviously more likely to notice things.
That said, I don’t wish to sound dismissive and I do appreciate you posting this and opening it for discussion We’re a rapidly growing company and we’re all working very hard to keep our house in order!
24 Likes
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
4
This just confirms the OPs point, no? If it needs major edits, it shouldn’t have been posted.
I’d class myself as a fairly average user and I noticed them.
I appreciate the banking/fintech companies have a lot of moving parts but I’ve heard before that something in the team has been briefed but it hasn’t reached everyone within that team. This should never happen.
I think that’s fair, and had we noticed what needed changing earlier in the day, the edits could have just been made during working hours. As it turned out, in this instance we noticed after 7pm and so it was deemed easier to just pull it for the day. I’m not sure this one example, out of the dozens of blog posts we make every month, is worth labouring on, though.
Being an active member of this forum alone makes you one of the less than 1% that is actively engaged with noticing and knowing what’s happening and changing with the app and company. Not that that changes anything - but perspective is important.
more haste less speed - I too think Monzo is great, but as the company grows it will get fewer and fewer “free passes” - thats not the correct terminology , but it is a bank, it deals with peoples financial lives - I don’t expect it to make many mistakes as the OP says it does seem to be making more mistakes not on the scale of some financial institutions mistakes obviously , but it does come down to the checking systems in place that don’t pick up easily spotted spelling mistakes, spending summary sent out to all users that didn’t actually work rather than the usual test flight route - who decided that ??? and I know you work on min viable product and iterate , but it just didn’t work in the first place why not test it as is your usual route
OP isn’t saying Summary didn’t work at all, just that some people didn’t like it and it should have been optional for a longer period of time?
Were there bugs that meant it didn’t work at all, or was it just that it needed a fuller set of features (like the improvements that we’ve made recently) in the opinion of some?
Im not attacking and I appreciate your time in answering , I want Monzo to be the best that can be offered
it worked but didn’t give any useful information for me - the left to spend seemed to have a mind of its own saying one day I was ok till next payday , next I was going to run out of money , would only let me class some incoming entries as pay, etc etc etc - I, like a few that posted ended up turning it off when you shipped it to the few testers , I didn’t see much changed when it was shipped to all - there has been so many posts about things not working properly in it with examples - which is fine in the testing phase - not when you have shipped it en mass to all users - in my opinion
I found this statement bit strange. It gives an impression that oh bugs are just part and parcel of our App. Sorry @simonb but I think this needs to be acknowledged and at least you could say we will try to do better.
Its just as OP intended to say it seems to be bit more issues now than before.
I have same opinion. I think it was pushed out to public way too soon. It could stay in labs for a little longer so that feedback from community could be incorporated. I mean it couldn’t even recognise regular bills
and presumably it needs a history over a few payments to know its “regular” hopefully it learns over a couple of months , just like the pulse originally ?
You can’t account for every scenario, neither in staff testing nor user betas. We do work very hard to make sure there aren’t any bugs, but I personally think it’s unrealistic to suggest that there never will be any
Is that an excuse? No, and I’m not trying to suggest that it is.
But I see people working hard at this company every day, under extreme pressure and almost immeasurable challenges. We’re doing very well with growth, but we’re still a startup, not Facebook or Google with billions of dollars and unlimited engineering resources
One of the major challenges for any startup in any fast-moving environment is trying to balance development/release (whether software or content) with quality.
When we spent the better part of a year (2017) building out the new infrastructure because it was vitally important that we got the basics right for the new accounts, we saw a lot of feedback that development was slow. People were upset that we weren’t releasing new features.
Now the tide has shifted the other way, we’re shipping new stuff thick and fast. I think it’s at least fair that we entertain the notion that maybe we’re now moving too fast? Perhaps that’s the crux of this thread?
If so, I think it’s a natural reaction to being in a position again where we can finally work on awesome new features for users. And I expect there to be a split of opinion on whether the pace is right or not. I think this is something that will balance out in time
feedback is one of the tools you use to make your decisions I want Monzo to be brilliant, I expect it to be brilliant, if it falls short of that brilliance Monzo should be made aware to inform your decisions
Hope you guys do take most community comments as feedback and critique not an attack. Personally I want to see Monzo do well and get better so hopefully it doesn’t come across as unjustified criticism.
As I don’t use Monzo as my main account, I quite like getting to see features early on and I accept bugs are part of that but I can understand why many others wouldn’t feel the same
I think your comments are valid. Currently on my iPhone 10 the bottom part of screen gets squished. I reported this months ago & they still haven’t fixed it.
" But I see people working hard at this company every day, under extreme pressure and almost immeasurable challenges. We’re doing very well with growth, but we’re still a startup, not Facebook or Google with billions of dollars and unlimited engineering resources "
I feel really guilty now - I know how hard you guys are working , I know you’re still at an early stage of your business life - I think we all want you to succeed , I think in these threads we are mostly trying to help , with hopefully feedback that is useful
That’s why we push to Beta channels and TestFlight first! Usually, if a bug slips through, it’ll surface before the update rolls out to everyone.
team has been briefed but it hasn’t reached everyone within that team. This should never happen.
- I too think Monzo is great, but as the company grows it will get fewer and fewer “free passes” - thats not the correct terminology 
- I know how hard you guys are working , I know you’re still at an early stage of your business life - I think we all want you to succeed , I think in these threads we are mostly trying to help , with hopefully feedback that is useful