As an example, the most obvious one would be the icons shown against each transaction. At present it’s a bit of a mishmash between correct logos being shown for some places, and the coloured letters for others. Looks unfinished/unpolished and could lower confidence in the app.
So there’s my ‘polish’ item - transaction logos and a clear way to get them updated in a timely manner.
I’ve moaned about this on this forum elsewhere. It doesn’t happen regularly enough, if at all. I’ve submitted three logos for businesses I use a few times a week (small local eateries) several times and they’ve never been updated.
If they are going to offer this feature, then they should have a mechanism for handling the submissions, but it seems it’s a ‘if we get to it’ kinda thing. I’d rather they removed the mechanism in this case.
I definitely agreed the expectation management for this one could be a LOT better - however I suppose for this, there has to be some “real person” management of it. For instance, if it was just automated and updated, I’m sure the App would be inundated with updates and in all likelihood would tank the apps speed. Also what would stop someone from suggesting inappropriate or offensive logos for say Tesco or Morrisons.
TL;DR: definitely needs better management of “when” we can expect merchant updates, but at the same time I can see why their needs to be a personal touch.
The merchant data system is a complete mess - see the other thread for all sorts of stories.
Merchant data quality
PayPoint is a disaster
Loans are pretty limited
Savings accounts aren’t available
Cheques are no longer on the roadmap
International money transfers are limited
Summary, account, and payments tab are all looking pretty messy these days - the fundamental app design hasn’t kept up with the pace of change since the prepaid days
It’s not all bad at monzo - that’s why i’m still here. But the place is looking increasingly untidy, with half finished/abandoned/poorly implemented ideas littered all over the place. Someone needs to get a grip.
I have to imagine it would take X hours to apply X logos. So that time could be budgetted. One person does it one week, another the next, perhaps? Or it falls to a specific team. Either way, stating ‘will be updated within one working week’ would be enough (or month, or whatever, just tell us), and then making that happen.
How many of these do they receive everyday? 10? 100? If it’s not manageable, remove it.
The only thing I’d have to say to that is how much more valuable is that person’s time on their own projects - although I agree that it should be done more regularly. As we saw with custom pot images, this was done on “Monzo Time” and not directly part of any projects or teams.
Agreed, but then we are at the mercy of a “messy” Merchant Data.
I know the data isn’t the best - I was just mainly responding to the merchant images part.
In this case, would you rather something is iterated on until absolutely pitch perfect, and then move onto the next thing? This would surely result in much much slower growth and development.
I agree that there are a plethora of small tweaks and refinements that could be made, but I’d honestly rather they focus on larger projects that take up arguably more development time to set up.
I agree, quite a few things seem to have been rushed out to get them out rather than getting them working as expected first.
Custom images for pots is one. The greyed out part of the image selection is all over the place. It was known to Monzo but they still released it. Yes, it is a minor bug that doesn’t really effect use… But it is untidy and seems worrying that monzo are so happy to release features to the public that are not finished, and not put them into labs or something!
The problem, I think, is that these small jobs don’t ever go away. With every new feature, comes more small annoyances, more rough edges. It’s not glamorous, but I think monzo are getting to the point where they just need to knuckle down and tidy up some of these things.
I don’t expect them to administer it - I expect them to create a system that allows for crowd sourcing of data, local experts who can approve/deny changes, a tracking system so users can tell whether their request is waiting/approved/rejected, and so on. The current system is clearly proving impossible to manage.
I’ve said it before but I’d be really happy to see a smaller sweeper team at Monzo who are dedicated to ironing out existing problems and strengthening existing features rather then working on solely new features.
ISAs - whilst delayed, its been pushed back - I don’t think a “firm” date was ever set…
Loans - still in test and learn phasing, so feedback needs to be received so further iterations can then be developed
International Transfer - if work is still being done, why is that a problem?
Business Banking - a very small pilot started - you can’t just go gung ho with something like that?
Savings accounts - will be following the ISA Oaknorth partnership
You’ve then had more business developments:
Big Issue
Credit Card Integration
Small Mortgages Testing
Monzo Plus Testing
and I’m sure (this is off the top of my head) a few more pieces of development that are currently being undertaken.
Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean there isn’t a team back at Monzo that are currently developing requirements, rules, standards, concepts etc etc. Although we can’t see it, I don’t think Monzo are just sat there in a board room twiddling their thumbs.
They’re at a crucial point in their development as a business, so whilst a Sweeper Team like @anon99402360 has suggested is a brilliant idea, can they afford it? do they have the time to bring those guys in? do they have the time to section those guys off from a current development team?
I’m not saying that there are not little niggles and little bugs and things that need improving and iterating on - but other things are currently having to make way.
