Thanks for the update, it’s really nice to see you quantify the steps required to get out of Labs.
There is precedence for functionality coming out of labs before it’s fully featured (bill-splits, shared tabs) how do you plan on keeping the focus on fixing the existing bugs and working on the new functionality planned in your post? (I know that there are plenty more employees at Monzo now than 8/9 months ago so maybe that’s all it takes)
Really good question, thanks for asking!
Firstly, I don’t think features need to be fully featured before they leave Labs. I see Labs as more of a safe place to test changes with reduced risk. In most cases I’d err on the side of shipping an early version of a feature to everyone, then improving on it over time, rather than using Labs. It’s how most of Monzo was built, and as long as the iterative approach is fair to customers, and clearly communicated - is preferable.
We used Labs in this case because it was hard for us to test how well the integration performs just with staff, and we didn’t want to give the feature to everyone without understanding interest and performance first (especially given the account locking issues we saw with American Express). We now have enough understanding and confidence in what’s built to not use Labs, but instead return to a normal rhythm of iterative development.
I think often the discussion of features leaving Labs too early is conflated with features not being continually improved as we shift our focus between projects, which is definitely a challenge as a company and product still in its growth phase, shifting focus often to respond to changing needs.
All that being said, our squad is set to keep exploring the notion of Monzo as a hub for all your finances, and account aggregation will be key to that for the next few months. Right now we’re prioritising fixing bugs over adding functionality, but that doesn’t take our entire (small!) squad. So whilst we’re working with TrueLayer to pin down some of the connection issues, we’re also doing planning & design work for transactions.
hope this helps!
Really like it, added my First Direct card this morning and it was super simple.
When will we see more cards added like Virgin Money?
Not timeline on other card providers at this point. We’re waiting for banks to provide Open Banking APIs for their credit cards, which they’re due to provide now-ish, in time for them to be tested and proved to be working by September.
Will you still be using TrueLayer to manage that flow for you, as compared to using TrueLayer for screen scraping and incorporating APIs yourself?
I was wondering that too.
TrueLayer’s value will be in a “connect once and forget” model that’ll open up lots of providers. It’ll be interesting to see whether paying for that service would work out cheaper than the development time to connect each bank individually.
(The purist in my wants Monzo to use the native APIs, though!)
We’ll most likely still use an aggregator to connect to open banking APIs, at least to start, as it means we don’t have to go through as much of the integration teething pains with many providers. We’ll see though!
Thanks. Seems sensible and comparable with the previous approach for payment processing
Excellent feedback thanks and agreed about Labs and the iterative implementation; it’s great to get something to use and appreciate the community I very demanding when it comes to perceived issues/missing features.
Keep up the good work and looking forward to having Monzo as a one-stop in the future.
I am unable to add my Nationwide CC. Tried twice but after taking a couple of minutes in trying to connect it gets stuck in “Connected” 
Any idea on what’s the issue?
I can’t find the option to add this at all?! Is this because I have the ‘new nav’ enabled? If that’s the reason then I may have to do the “smash glass” option and disable it! Been waiting for this feature for a long time.
Yes, it’s in the new design. I believe the update came out yesterday as I didn’t have the “Add another card” feature before.
Hmm really frustrating! Ive been waiting for this feature for a while… don’t know why I cant see it?!
Did you join the waiting list through the form provided here? We're working on a new look for the Monzo app
Managed to find a link from the help section! Woo haha
this is something we’re seeing for a few people and are investigating with TrueLayer. Can you try once more? Thanks!
I’m not sure that approach will be sustainable the bigger Monzo gets - as you will attract a wider range of customers who just expect thing to ‘work’ on release.
Also, in the US market where attitudes are often different.
Being trying to connect for the last 5 minutes. I’ll try another day hoping it will work. Thanks anyway. 
