On Saturday, we held our biggest community ever: the Future Of Monzo! It was an opportunity for our community to hear from teams and thought leaders across Monzo about what we’re working on, and our plans for the future.
We’d like to say thanks to everyone who came out and made the day a success (we’ve collected some of your best tweets in this Twitter moment). All the talks from the day are now online, and for those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s eight of the key things we learnt.
1. Most crime is financial crime!
Our Head of Financial Crime, Natasha Vernier, shared a ‘financial crime’ equation with us. She told us that most crime is for financial gain, and the use of that financial gain. And since the definition of financial crime is (illegal) financial gain plus the use of that financial gain, that means most crime counts as financial crime!
According to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, only 0.2% of the illicit proceeds of financial crime are seized. So for every £100 the criminals are stealing, the authorities are recovering 20p.
Watch Natasha’s full talk here.
2. We’re exploring the idea of checking your credit score in the app
In a ‘Show and Tell’ session, we heard from Product Designer Juliana Martinhago about some changes we’re making to our lending products. This could include letting you see your credit score, and the factors affecting it in the app.
Check out Juliana’s full talk for a longer demo of how this might work.
3. Soon you’ll be able to reorder, and even hide, your Pots
In our panel discussion with the team behind our app’s new look, they teased some new features that are in development. That includes the much-requested re-ordering of Pots...
...and a new way to hide them too.
And right now, you can set your Joint account as your main account - try it out in Monzo Labs.
Watch the full panel discussion here.
4. Big things are coming for Business Banking
In their talk, Sam Starling and Jordan Shwide shared some new features on the way for Monzo Business accounts, and announced plans to ramp up the rollout again at the start of 2020.
Some of the things they teased include:
Separate Pots for tax
Multi-user access
Employee spend card
A web app similar to web.monzo.com
Check out the full business banking update here.
5. We're exploring the possibility of managing dual UK and US Monzo accounts from one app
We heard from our Head of International, Thomas George, with the latest on our US launch. And we've got an exciting update for people who've moved from the UK to the US and are now residents: we'll be trialling the ability to view and manage dual Monzo accounts in the app with a small number of customers in the coming months.
We also got a quick update on US cards: we’re working on contactless cards for the US, and new cards will have the Beta logo on them!
Watch the whole talk here.
6. We’re looking at how the Monzo experience could be a powerful tool in countries where cash rules.
Principal Product Designer Zander Brade shared some early conceptual designs which showed how we’re looking at this problem. We took a look at three possible ways we could tackle it, and Zander talked through the pros and cons of each.
While we’re not planning on launching in any new countries just yet, the earlier we start thinking about these things, the better.
See Zander’s full talk here.
7. We’ll use a data-driven approach to analyse how we can support inclusion better as a company.
Our new Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Sheree, made her Monzo event debut by talking about how we can make effective change in an area that our industry is generally poor at. And she shared how data plays a big part in that:
“Let’s say in the interview process that has maybe ten stages: where can I see that most of the people that are selecting female on their applications are falling off? Is it Stage 3? Why is it Stage 3, what’s happening there?”
We can also use listening sessions and anonymised tools to crowdsource feedback on what is and isn’t working for people. We can use the qualitative scores to map where we’re at as a company right now when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
See more from Sheree here.
8. Basically everything breaks every time your team doubles
We finished off the day with a Q&A between our CEO, Tom, and long-time Monzo investor and supporter Eileen Burbidge.
Tom was asked a question about the biggest operational changes Monzo’s gone through. He shared how what started out as a small team of 13 or 14 doubled to 26 in the first year, then 60, and so on - and we’re over 1,400 Monzonauts today. And when you’re over a certain threshold, you can lose the “mind meld” that small teams have, and communication suddenly becomes really important.
Tom’s advice?
“If I was starting an early stage company, I’d stay small as long as possible, because that’s an incredibly productive state”.
Watch the full Q&A with Tom and Eileen Burbidge here.