Monzonaut AMA - Minnie - Team Lead Retail

[o99]

To what extent does the bug reports section of the community inform what your team does?

Is it better for community members to use this for bug reporting or to report bugs via chat support?

[Minnie]

Hey there! Thank you for your warm welcome

1: I’m not in the team that’s closest to the Tesco issue (they’re known internally as the Disputes team) but I’ll try my best. Personally, I think it’s frustrating and disappointing. We’re doing everything we can, but the balls not entirely in our court to fix it fully. We’ve tweaked processes and we’re continuing to make sure we’re doing all we can for our patient customers! We’re putting out a blog post about this soon so bear with us

2: iOS and Android are two very different kettles of fish. Bugs and performance issues do slip through the nets on both of them, and sometimes it’s hard to get a hook, line and sinker to fix them (I think I’ve exhausted all my fishing puns/knowledge now). We do extensive QA on both apps to catch as many pesky bugs as we can, but we do appreciate that sometimes we can’t catch them. When a customer tells us they’ve found a bug we actively listen to how the app behaves, try to replicate it and then see if there’s any quick fixes we can do. If we can’t help, we’ll raise a bug report to ask our engineers for help.

3: Not yet - we know this is something we need to look into but it hasn’t reached our priority list yet. Please do continue to be fabulous and patient!

4: This is a great question, and unfortunately not my area of expertise. Maybe I can ask the Paid For team for an AMA

[Minnie]

Definitely rather have fingers for toes. Picking up things from the floor without bending down? Yes please!

[Minnie]

@AlanDoe

What is the biggest improvement you’ve seen happen within Monzo between starting and now?

Policies around absence. We’ve made sure our colleagues know they can take time off for loss of pregnancy, mental health, and other things that are human. It’s great to know we’re continuing to make improvements to improve our culture and inclusion.

@AlanDoe

What’s your favourite pet related Slack channel?

#dogs. Obviously.

[Minnie]

@N26throwaway

If you could improve one aspect of Monzo, what would it be, and why?

It’s not a Monzo-wide aspect, more of a societal aspect, but going on from absence policies I’d want to continue to encourage open conversations around flexible working, time off for life stuff, and mental health. The more we fight the stigma, the happier we’ll all be

[Minnie]

@michaelw90

What is the current state & forecast path with Merchant Info? It’s a long running annoyance and a few people on this forum would be happy to help contribute to improving it - is there scope for this? What are the current thoughts of it internally by the Monzo team?

A fab question - unfortunately it’s not in my scope. But I’ll pass the feedback on!

[Minnie]

@Nicbrown

How have you found it adapting to working from home?
Do you have any top tips for WFH?

I am a very sociable person so moving to working from home was really hard for me. It’s easier with Slack, but I’m still very much looking forward to having my routine back going to the office everyday. My top tip is have a routine. Make sure you remember breakfast, shower and get dressed. It makes a huge positive impact to your mental health, apparently

[Minnie]

@davidwalton

The problems reported will vary wildly between ‘reboot your phone’ and ‘complex server issue’ - do you have a scale/level of difficulty needed to resolve the issue that is applied to an issue report? Or is it simply levels of escalation that show how complex an issue is becoming?

I feel like my reply is a bit of a cop out Processes have changed massively since I was in the team. When I did bug reports etc, it was more of a “check with someone who’s more tech-ey than you” informal thing. Now the team has processes on how to raise bugs and what we’re able to do compared to what needs to be raised with senior leaders or engineers. I’m not 100% on that process, but it’s much better than it used to be!

[Minnie]

@BritishLibrary

If you were in a battle of the Dan’s against @danhughes and @dan5, who do you think would win. (Three way battle, to have the title of Best Dan)

I would definitely put money on me. My weapon of choice would be a wet skillet. Who’s arguing with a woman wielding a wet skillet?

[Minnie]

@Revels

Are you allowed to attend the company All Dans meeting?

No. Just in case I bring a wet skillet.

[Minnie]

@Throwingspoon

Hi @Minnie When a user reports an issue where do you/Monzo draw the line on “uninstalling the app will fax that” vs something that needs to be proactively fixed?

Related to that are you the right person to advise on this issue which I’m still experiencing?

If it’s something we’ve already fixed in a recent update, a reinstall will fix it. If we recreate it and it looks like it’s due to weird cache stuff, a reinstall will fix it. If we’re not 100% sure and it’s a big blocker, we might suggest a reinstall to see if that’ll do it for now while we work out what happened to fix it for the future.

I am not the right person, but I’m sure @nexusmaniac can have a nosey. They know all the things

[Minnie]

@BritishLibrary

Can you explain what the retail element of your role/title means - and are there any counterparts of your role that aren’t retail facing?

Yes! We have different domains. Some squads will be experts in different things, like Disputes, Complaints, Vulnerabilities, etc. Our domain is “Retail” which covers things that generally aren’t covered by separate regulatory guidance. An example of some expert areas in Retail are Payments (payments schemes like CASS, BACS and other cool acronyms), Social Media, Calls, and Business Banking.

@BritishLibrary

• What’s the best thing Monzo have done during the pandemic to support you, and what stuff will you “keep”?

Keeping our morale high with virtual socials and the option to work from home or slowly opening the office. I want to keep the cool Monzo brand face-masks

@BritishLibrary

• What’s the most bizarre problem that your team has had to solve?

I asked them and no one could come up with anything that cool. I’m disappointed but I’ll get over it.

@BritishLibrary

• Can you tell us more about your career journey at Monzo; what’s been your favourite role / how does the Monzo career journey work from your experience?

My favourite role is my current… but it’s a joint top with being a Vulnerable Customer specialist. I loved that job so much. I got to talk to so many lovely customers and be an advocate for them through difficult situations.

@BritishLibrary

• What did you do before Monzo?

I worked in a charity in Glastonbury called Chalice Well. It was very calm on the outside and very busy on the inside

@BritishLibrary

• Is there anything you’re working on at the moment that you’re particularly proud of and want to boast about a bit?

I want to boast about how wonderful our lovely team is. I am biased but I reckon we’re the best team in Monzo probably

[Ordog]

@Minnie

Monzo brand face-masks

You’re saying we could have all been running around in Hot Coral face masks for the last year? Why weren’t these made a thing for us normal folk

[BritishLibrary]

@Minnie

Who’s arguing with a woman wielding a wet skillet?

Fair. So far Minnie is in the running for Best Dan.

[SouthseaOne (Michael)]

@Minnie

I want to keep the cool Monzo brand face-masks

I think the email to CC to get one of those must have gone missing @AlanDoe

[Minnie]

@SouthseaOne

What is the quickest turnaround from report to fix to the internal systems you have managed (in rough handfuls)?

@danhughes is wonderful and has turned stuff around in a day for us. I don’t manage internal systems, thankfully

[Minnie]

@danhughes

How have you found the move to squad captain? What’s your day to day routine like now?

I’m in the swing of things now. I had to learn a lot of new data analysis skills which have honestly taken about 6 months to master. Thankfully I have a really great squad who keep me right and look after each other. It means I can focus on helping newer teamies and bigger picture things. It’s a bit odd managing people I used to work alongside, but again, my team have been absolute legends.

[Minnie]

@HoldenCarver

What’s your favourite scary movie?

I absolutely cannot cope with scary films. My scariest film is probably Pirates of the Caribbean. I love Pirates of the Caribbean.

[Minnie]

@o99

To what extent does the bug reports section of the community inform what your team does?

Is it better for community members to use this for bug reporting or to report bugs via chat support?

Honestly it’s definitely better to come through chat if it’s a bug. If you’re helping each other with support (ie. “I had that too! XYZ fixed it”) that’s really awesome, but we can track and triage stuff through chat so we can keep an eye on trends much easier. I know it’s extra work for y’all but it is much easier for us

[Revels]

If I’m honest, that seems the opposite from what I’ve seen on here.

People report bugs, like the one from @Throwingspoon, they’ve tried and tried with support but only got the answer because another Monzo staff member saw it in this thread. I know that seems to be a niche issue, but Monzo are clearly aware of it. Do you have like a bible of problems? “Ahh, the classic you searched for Boots, then Halfords and then RSPCA and that causes a crash if you have a combined 94 transactions”

A lot of the time it seems like a “Thanks, we’ll look into it” and it gets filed in the bin and you’re on to the next person but if they ask on here, someone, usually rudedog, has the answer.