Donāt get me wrong, itās admirable!
However, would you want a surgeon, who has extensive experience and training, to ask a group of Nurses, who donāt have the said experience and training, how he should attempt a surgery?
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But this comparison is totally different.
You wouldnāt have the fraud team asking the community on how they need to tackle fraud, this is a different concept entirely.
A surgeon asking a group of patients to give ideas and feedback on there experience during and after surgery to find out ways that the hospital could improve would be an amazing thing.
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Donāt see how itās different? An expert, asking those who arenāt experts, to decide on options that they have less expertise with?
Donāt see how your fraud example is any different? Why wouldnāt you give options to the community on how Monzo should tackle fraudā¦because they arenāt experts.
To answer your analogy, the experience of patients is peripheral to the actual job of surgery. Did the surgery do what it needed to do, yes. A patientsā experience; I was āillā, now Iām better, my trust in your expertise has been rewarded.
Your comment of feedback, in this instance, would be around the experience of coming into the hospital, the bed, the information before and after the surgery etc, which for Monzo would be the customer service, app experience etc. not the product itself.
Which is exactly why I used this example. A Surgeon would not ask a group of Nurses how to perform a surgery, because they arenāt experts. 
Looking at it from that point of view, if this were a community for the NHS. The concept would be to listen to patients and improve the NHS overall. Maybe both our comparisons were a bit vague?
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So, therefore why ask people who werenāt experts in product creation?
Agree though, maybe both examples are a bit vague and there are nuances that arenāt replicable!
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Or you might say, should a hairdresser with all their years experience be asking the customer what hair style they want? surely the hairdresser knows best
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But thatās what Monzo is about. Thatās what sets them apart from traditional banking. They want to know where we feel legacy banks have failed and be able to adapt the product to fill these gaps 
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I think of it more like this. The doctors have found a problem. They have given three options that will slow/prevent/stop any further issues. Each has a different cost. Instead of one person, we are multiple minds in one body making the choice.
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As Iāve said, itās great! But at scale, which is where we hope Monzo ends up, what does Joe Bloggs think of being asked this question.
To reiterate, Iām not saying openness is a bad thing, itās the impression it gives when it involves something as intricate as pricing/products.
Completley understand this, but pricing is a very good example of where Monzo needs support from the community.
If they didnāt take our ideas in to consideration, surely they would just work out a pricing point that makes them the most money and seems simple enough for Joe Bloggs to understand, then hope to retain his custom in the long run.
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You own the hair, and youāre not purchasing it from anyone.
You also have experience with hair as youāve always had it on your head, and have had your haircut before.
Good point, although I hope they do make money so they can keep going!
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This is something Iāve always found extremely interesting about Monzo and Iām really excited to see how they tackle it in the long run.
There will always be compromises. But at least through the Community, they can make them in view of the end user 
And looking at the hair example, if you are thinking of it in that way, we effectively do own the hair.
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I think that voting in the future should be done, but with some requirements:
- Voting should be done inside the app to capture the opinion of lesser engaged folk
- Every option should have real world examples
- Options should be expertly equal (no major downsides)
I think itās important to realize that a decision of this calibre almost always comes down to personal choice and so will always annoy some people. The decision would have happened internally. Monzo gave transparency and the customers the power to choose.
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This. I make no secrets that Iām strongly on the side of how ATM fees turned out, and Iād have been annoyed with any other option. I find it very fair because it is allowing reasonable usage for people whose overall pattern is more likely to be profitable/at least financially beneficial to retain. For example, I think cards should always be free - they shouldnāt be line item billed. If someone wanted a new card a week for looks/to make a mosaic of them/whatever, I think billing would be reasonable at that point.
However, letās not hide in āitās unfairā and all those things that have been thrown around. It isnāt unfair, and itās a distraction when terms like that are thrown around lightly. The reality is, some people (like me) like the new charging scheme if there has to be one, and others donāt. Iām actually surprised how many donāt, since some free use is better than nothing, and I certainly would never pay for use. But thatās me.
I think that on something like fees, getting community input is huge and a vote was a great idea. Fraud protection requires a bit more expert knowledge, but even there community input - not voting - would be great. Iāve already given some of my thoughts on that topic.
I like this idea. Make voting easier will encourage more people to voice their opinion and capture a more unbiased estimate of the customerās sentiments!
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I guess the difference is that in this case, Monzo explicitly stated that this will not be a āprofit-makingā exercise, so all the options that Monzo presented is basically ārevenue-neutralā or something along those lines, which is why theyāve decided to ask the user base rather than to decide it themselves?
Iād imagine if itās an exercise to increase profit margin, then they probably wouldnāt want to ask the user base.
Then again if itās an exercise to increase profit margin, and they come up with 3 options which are equally profitable/ un-profitable, then I think itās still valid to ask users which method they prefer Monzo to make money I think, since they essentially have no impact on the bottom line, and the question is more on āethosā rather than āprofitabilityāā¦
I do like that they are asking the customers though - shows that they appreciate us and how community-focussed they are. Maybe Iām a bit too left-wingā¦ ahaha
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The thing is that legacy banks are starting put together some of the features that Monzo/Starling/Others have introduced to their users. Eventually there will be little difference 
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Monzo needs something to stand out from the crowd and a stark openness to itās user might just be that. No other bank operates in that way, and so it is important that Monzo holds onto those policies.
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Thatās actually why I use Monzo now over Starling. Both have amazing products that are so much better than my previous experience with HSBC but I actually believe in Monzoās goals and even more I actually believe they really want those as opposed to just making money off me
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In the future, weāll be doing this for sure 
Think of the ATM fees vote as version 1 ā weāve got big plans!
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