Monzo Plus - Weekly Update 3rd October 2019 📣

[richardcadman]

Hey ,

I’m Rich, and I’m the product manager working on the new paid account. You might recognise me from Monzo Points, Lending and the original Marketplace Beta work in early 2018.

Tom’s on holiday, so I’m here to give a quick update on what we’ve been working on this week, and some answers to your questions from last time.

Some things we’ve thought about, decided and done.

• We’ve narrowed the scope to two fixed tiers. To be clear, this is for now. We’re doing this because it helps to have constraints and massively simplify things. We’ve seen examples of this working well elsewhere and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel if this is how our customers already think about premium accounts. It won’t be for everyone, perhaps including some of you, but we think that’s ok.
  What else we’ve been doing:
• We’ve been putting together our dream “plans”; these are combinations of features with a consistent narrative, that feel Monzo, and are good value for money at a sensible price point. These are based on feedback from thousands of people. We shared these internally yesterday, and will be doing some iteration. Our main criteria is that we feel proud to ship these. Before you ask, we’re not ready to share these yet
• We’ve been planning our next rounds of testing; that’s usability testing (is the experience clear? does it work as expected?) and card testing (to gather qualitative feedback on how people feel about the new card designs).
• We’ve got started on the underlying infrastructure; Tim and Constantijn spent some time working out what to re-use of the old Plus infrastructure, and what to build from scratch. We’re leaning towards the latter.

Some answers to your questions.

You asked us about why we still think this is the right thing to work on:

Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces

Hello Tom. I want you to seriously answer something for me. Isn’t Monzo Plus just a solution looking for a problem? Isn’t this product just aping what legacy other banks do, rather than innovating? You’ve had to scrap the previous project, which is rather embarrassing. Why restart from the beginning without examining the premise in the first place? The idea of a random bundle of things that you pay for undermines the value of each of those things. If you have a product to offer - like a metal …

• We have questioned the premise. And we’re not just building this because others do. Both legacy banks, and newer players do this, and the offerings are valued by many many people; the research we’ve done confirms this. We also accept that this might not be for everyone.
• We fundamentally believe there’s a role for a paid account from Monzo. It won’t be a random bundle of things. We also don’t believe it undermines the marketplace vision (more on that below), nor do we worry about it confusing the product offering. We do agree that insurance can complicate things (if you have it already, or don’t want it), and so we’re currently leaning towards offering one of the plans without insurance.

You asked us about how this relates to our Marketplace vision:

Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces

@tomdavies Why go through all this bother to offer something that will never be as good as the idea of a marketplace where an individual can go in and get whatever they want? Make Monzo Plus a section of the app where you can purchase add ons plain and simple

• This team’s scope doesn’t include building “the marketplace”, but it’s still part of the wider Monzo vision. We are working with partners to provide features like insurance, but we won’t be doing this in a pick and modular way right now. To some people this is better. They trust us to pick a provider, ensure it meets their needs, and actively prefer not having to choose themselves.

You asked us about how we’re thinking about what to charge for, and how we feel about ‘paywalling’ valuable features:

Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces

Can I say, looking at the survey I’ve just filled out, it looks more and more likely you’re thinking of hiding budgeting features such as credit card integration or custom categories, behind the Plus ‘paywall’. Please don’t do this. Add value, don’t remove value from the current app. I also saw a priority support option in the survey, this is a huge no. All support options should be available to all customers with no priority. Don’t lose your ideals.

Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces

I completely agree. Things which would cost Monzo extra, such as Insurance deals or lounge access, or even virtual disposable cards can be put behind Plus features, but it would be a disappointing move indeed if Monzo started putting purely software features behind a paywall.

Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces

For some thoughts that may be more Plus specific (rather than research methodology related…): Pick and mix the things I want for the length of time I want. Allow insurance packages to be customisable. Especially if they are bundled - I don’t want to be under insured. Management of any insurance related claims in app - The biggest gripe for me is when you get a premium account with a bank and they are like “great here’s your 12 different policy documents from 12 different providers bye”. If I c…

Monzo Plus: a fresh start with some fresh faces

I tend to disagree and think advanced budgeting features (etc.) should be paid for. In the same way you pay extra for HD with Netflix you should pay for advanced features. E.g. get 2 custom cats for free but unlimited for premium subscription. Monzo is not a charity.

• We’re open to charging for new and advanced controls and insights. We admire what You Need A Budget, Emma Pro, Splitwise Pro and other paid tools do. These things won’t always cost us lots of money to provide, but we think that’s fine. Many non-financial apps have paid tiers (like Strava, Duolingo, myfitnesspal, VSCO, or Bumble) that provide sufficient value that people are willing to pay for them. We don’t plan to remove existing features, and we may choose to add these new features to the free account too, just with restrictions. We’re working on some principles that help decide what we should and shouldn’t consider including in the paid account.

Also, thanks for sharing comments like these . At the end of the day we’re a bunch of real people just trying to build the best thing for you and Monzo.

@gmclean

Seconded! Can you imagine working on something, working hard, putting time and effort in and trying to do your best job then… going on a forum and reading some of the comments we’ve seen here? Ugh!

It’s easy to say it all comes from the fact we want Monzo to be successful too but must be massively disheartening at times.

All credit for the updates, the communication and the openness. I hope you figure this all out (whilst being aware that you can’t please all the people all the time).

Thank you for continuing to engage.

@Peter_G

I do think we need to cut Monzo a bit of slack here. I’ve the same concerns as many of you, particularly about the paywall suggestions. But where else do we have this sort of access / conversation? Where else do we have folk like @nexusmaniac, @BethS and @simonb who will happily pass the time of day with us. No marketing messages. No spiel. Just honest access. Indeed, where else would you even find a “Community Specialist” where it’s acknowledged and accepted that community is an essential part of the organisation’s lifeblood and that investment in it isn’t a waste of money or something to be cut from the bottom line.

The point I suppose I’m getting to is that we do want answers, that’s understandable. And like many on here, I’m nervous about the direction of travel. But if we berate then we (imo, of course) will probably create the future we don’t want to see: either no forum at all, or preapproved sound bites or marketing speak that lacks the humanity that people like Marcus, Beth and Simon exhibit.

(And, because we don’t say this enough: thank you Monzonauts for coming on here and playing! )

[harryru (Harry)]

Thanks for the update.

@richardcadman

We’ve narrowed the scope to two fixed plans. To be clear, this is for now . We’re doing this because it helps to have constraints and massively simplify things. We’ve seen examples of this working well elsewhere and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel if this is how our customers already think about premium accounts. It won’t be for everyone, perhaps including some of you, but we think that’s ok.

Can you expand on this a little more? What do you mean by two fixed tiers? As in there will be two types of premium accounts which essentially will be two different bundled accounts?

[richardcadman]

Hey, I just made a small edit to my original post we’re actually calling these plans internally at the moment. You’re correct; it means there’s a lower cost and a higher cost premium plan, each with a fixed group of features.

@harryru

Can you expand on this a little more? What do you mean by two fixed tiers? As in there will be two types of premium accounts which essentially will be two different bundled accounts?

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

@richardcadman

• We’re open to charging for new and advanced controls and insights. We admire what You Need A Budget, Emma Pro, Splitwise Pro and other paid tools do. These things won’t always cost us lots of money to provide, but we think that’s fine. Many non-financial apps have paid tiers (like Strava, Duolingo, myfitnesspal, VSCO, or Bumble) that provide sufficient value that people are willing to pay for them. We don’t plan to remove existing features, and we may choose to add these new features to the free account too, just with restrictions. We’re working on some principles that help decide what we should and shouldn’t consider including in the paid account.

Please don’t.

[nickh]

@richardcadman

You might recognise me from Monzo Points, Lending and the original Marketplace Beta work in early 2018.

Got to this part, and read the rest of the update as if you were Troy McClure from the Simpsons - It was surprisingly an upbeat read after that.

My other comment seems to have been about a passage in your post that you’ve removed.

Basically, I was just going to query what you were going to do differently when it comes to calculating “value for money”…

A brief back and forth with Jonas when Plus first launched, showed that Monzo genuinely valued the coloured card, different URL and “swag” at £6 per month - I’m not sure how that figure was reached, but it would seem to only be worth that to a very very small section of Monzo supporters.

What is being done differently to work out what people want (and at what cost)?

[Feathers (MikeF)]

@richardcadman

We’re open to charging for new and advanced controls and insights. We admire what You Need A Budget, Emma Pro, Splitwise Pro and other paid tools do. These things won’t always cost us lots of money to provide, but we think that’s fine. Many non-financial apps have paid tiers (like Strava, Duolingo, myfitnesspal, VSCO, or Bumble) that provide sufficient value that people are willing to pay for them. We don’t plan to remove existing features, and we may choose to add these new features to the free account too, just with restrictions. We’re working on some principles that help decide what we should and shouldn’t consider including in the paid account.

This is where I get the most nervous as I see basic features that haven’t been invented yet disappearing behind a paywall. I guess (in my head) it’s the argument about whether I’m dealing with a bank or an App developer.

I’m biased to the extent that I don’t pay for any apps on a monthly fee model and I’ve never paid for a bank account so I know I’m acting to type. I also realise that there may be some super complex widgetry that takes a lot of effort to develop and justifies the cost so I’m not completely blind to that possibility.

Let’s see where we go I guess.

[adztaylor]

@nickh

Got to this part, and read the rest of the update as if you were Troy McClure from the Simpsons

Haha. Brilliant.

[nathanthomson8 (Nathan)]

@richardcadman

Duolingo, myfitnesspal

Funny you mention this, these are 2 examples of apps that I now use less because of how they market the “pro” version.

Used to love duolingo before the ads popped up and it asked me to watch videos.It just became a nuisance.

I am actually even more fearful after this weeks update than i was last week after the survey

[cosypyjamas]

Thank you, this was just the sort of update I was hoping for very transparent and detailed.

I agree there has been a lot of anger from people in the Plus threads (myself included), and I apologise if it’s had a negative effect on Monzo employees. It stems mainly I think from the lack of clarity/differing responses people have had re cancellations more than anything. I don’t think anyone could question the effort you guys put into this. It’s not gone well, but I’m sure you’re all working over time to make it work, and I’m sure you guys will make this work eventually

I’m definitely open to the idea of ‘plans’, as like you said that’s what I’m used to and would expect from a Plus account. Also don’t see the issues others have with paid features - I would have no issue paying extra to improve my budgeting/savings with tools. I do think these would have to be brand new features though, rather than putting existing features behind a paywall. One suggestion I have (which I mentioned in the Trending spending thread, it would be awesome to see the average spending/savings of people within my area so I could do a comparison and maybe set my budgets if they’re way off others.

I think the cancellations issue still needs to be addressed, but this update looks pretty exciting. Looking forward to hearing more!

[michaeltinsley]

So the feedback that was received from the survey told you that people like having a tiered premium account, might that be because that’s all that’s available?

Budgeting features have no cost other than dev time, so anything that’s done can be replicated by n26 or revolut for free.

Additionally, as it seems the final products are going to be the same as revolut and n26 premium accounts, I’ll put a fiver on the top tier account costing £15 and including a metal card

[danmullen]

@richardcadman

We’re open to charging for new and advanced controls and insights. We admire what You Need A Budget, Emma Pro, Splitwise Pro and other paid tools do. These things won’t always cost us lots of money to provide, but we think that’s fine. Many non-financial apps have paid tiers (like Strava, Duolingo, myfitnesspal, VSCO, or Bumble) that provide sufficient value that people are willing to pay for them. We don’t plan to remove existing features, and we may choose to add these new features to the free account too, just with restrictions. We’re working on some principles that help decide what we should and shouldn’t consider including in the paid account.

This is what I suspected Monzo would do and I think it’s a terrible move. Monzo is basically going to become a freemium product. I understand charging for insurance products, metal cards, etc. but budgeting features and spending analytics is probably Monzo’s most well known, well respected feature. To read that you’re even considering putting advanced budgeting features behind a paywall is extremely disappointing.

[duncang (Duncan)]

Hi Rich, thank you for a comprehensive response which addresses many of the points raised in the previous threads.

@richardcadman

We’re open to charging for new and advanced controls and insights.

As others above have noted, this is the troubling part. Putting budgeting features behind a paywall stands basically counter to the The Monzo Mission, which goes into much detail about how Monzo wants to help the disadvantaged, as part of a wide-ranging social mission. Please don’t paywall budgeting features.

[Ordog]

Thank you for the update and apologies in advance for this but…

From what you’re saying it sounds like you’re going down exact the same route that the last team did - which from what I saw nobody liked and as we all know didn’t end well at all. I’ve been thoroughly involved in all topics about plus so I’m not sure how research shows otherwise but I’m certain you guys know more than I do

That being said. From this update I’m now certain that Monzo Plus will never be the groundbreaking marketplace that was originally promoted, not to mention some of the paywall feature things you’re proposing don’t sit well with me at all. So I’ve therefore come to the realisation that Plus is sadly not for me.

I understand that some people will like this and that’s fine, but I’ve just sent my message to cancel my subscription.

I wish you all the best for what you’re building, I hope it works out!

[Feathers (MikeF)]

@Ordog

I’ve been thoroughly involved in all topics about plus so I’m not sure how research shows otherwise

I assume ‘off forum’ research when I read this. I’d be really scared for the future if all business decisions were based on the opinions of the forum community!

[Ordog]

You forgot the second part of my sentence

@Ordog

but I’m certain you guys know more than I do

[Feathers (MikeF)]

@Ordog

You forgot the second part of my sentence

@Ordog

but I’m certain you guys know more than I do

Not really, I nearly quoted it but it didn’t affect what I was saying so I decided not to in the end. I’m not disagreeing with it or discounting it in any way!

[Ordog]

We’re both saying the same thing . Let me rephrase:

“I’ve only seen the forum side which wasn’t good but I’m sure you know more than I do from all your research”

Dislaimer: this is not sarcasm.

[anon99402360]

@Ordog

exact the same route that the last team did

No, these are plans not bundles, can’t you read?

[HoldenCarver (Nick)]

@richardcadman

• We’re open to charging for new and advanced controls and insights

This part concerns me. New and improved insights are something customers have been asking for almost since Monzo launched - meaning the expectation is that an improvement of insights will still be part of the core product.

I said it in a previous thread, I’ll say it again now. Monzo’s stated aim of “Making money work for everyone” becomes false when you put ‘advanced controls and insights’ behind a paywall (emphasis mine).

The only way I would be happy with having advanced insights behind a paywall would be if instead of building your only solution to partnered with YNAB to create a direct integration, and if it was part of a package which would provide enough value that I felt it was better than paying for YNAB directly. And I must say here, I don’t pay for YNAB at the moment because it feels too much for what it is. So this is probably a very hard target for you to hit.

tl;dr, please don’t paywall budgeting insights.

[MichaelC]

Will these new tiers be travel based?

Revolut, N26 etc who do the same sort of thing are.