Problem Statement : You are working as PM for a private bank and you have an OTP
based login which is safe and secure based verification. However, it has been found out that
OTP SMS doesn't always reach users on time due to network congestion due to which many
users are dropping off from the login page.
You have been tasked to define a better experience for the user to overcome the above
problem statement.
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Preliminary Questions
● I am willing to explore more about what the banking product actually is ?
○ I am assuming that this is a regular bank with its offerings such as Get a New
Savings Account, Open a New FD etc. ?
■ Users with already an account will be able to login to the bank portal &
check their bank balance, credit cards transactions, reward points on
the app etc.
■ New Users will be offered from the huge variety of products available
including : Open a New FD, Savings Account etc.
○ Are there any additional offerings for the user on the portal such as UPI, Bill
Payments etc. something similar to HDFC PayZapp ?
○ Does an OTP based login mean that the user is sent an OTP on their mobile
numbers every time while they are trying to log in ?
● Why are we trying to solve this problem ?
○ Are we trying to improve the login/signup experience for the users ? : Depends
on the offerings which we are trying to solve for
○ Are we trying to improve the overall number of signups per day which will mean
more engagement & higher revenue ? : Depends on the offerings which we are
trying to solve for
● What does dropping off users mean to our business ?
○ Are we making more money through higher engagement on the platform or are
we only concerned about making the user experience better ?
○ Do we have UPI/Bill Payments & other certain categories on to our platform as
well the numbers of which are down & we don’t want to miss out on the
revenue
○ Have we recently seen an increase in the delay of customers receiving the
OTP due to which we are trying to solve this problem ?
○ Are we only trying to improve the login funnel or are we trying to solve for the
entire OTP based verification on the app ? Because banks typically have
multiple places where there is an OTP based verification i.e at the login/signup
page, view your credit card details page, setting up a UPI pin page etc.
● While solving the problem mentioned above, is there a specific channel which we
should look into ?
○ If it’s a regular banking product we should try to solve for all channels i.e
website & app
○ If it’s a hybrid banking product then I believe we should only be concerned with
the app as of now
● Is there any specific resource or time constraint which we should be acquainted with
while we are trying to solve the problem ?
Summarizing from the above : We have a regular banking product which allows users to
check their bank balance, credit card transactions etc. along with the convenience to send
money across to their friends, family etc. through UPI with added features such as bill
payments etc. We’ve observed a significant drop in the number of users who’re moving from
the login/signup page to the homepage because of the delay in OTPs received due to network
congestion at times which make them drop off from the platform altogether. We want to solve
this problem because of the following reasons
● Users log into the banking app securely
● We want to reduce users dropping off from the platform which would mean higher
engagement -> higher volume of transactions -> higher revenue
User Personas, Pain Points & Journey
User Personas
● Casual users : First Time Users who use UPI for their daily transactions & stick to a
single app for all of their transactions.
● Regular Banking Customers : Users who are already a banking customer of the app
& visit the app only to check their balance, FD details, credit card transactions etc.
● Rural Users : This can typically involve users from tier 3 or tier 4 cities where there is
low network connectivity or where the villages are at the border.
User Journey :
● First Time User : Signup -> Verify your mobile number -> Link your Bank Account ->
Mission Complete
● Existing User : Opens the app -> Verifies the mobile number -> Mission Complete
Pain Points
● Users in certain demographics regularly face mobile network congestions leading to
delays in receiving OTPs
● First time users almost abandon the app altogether when they actually have to wait a
lot in getting OTPs & finally signing up on to the platform
● When users end up requesting repeatedly for OTP’s & there is a delay in the OTP
received & when the OTP’s arrive, there is a huge chance that they will all arrive at the
same time creating confusion as to which one is the latest OTP. This leads to a
mismatch in the latest OTP which was sent to the user’s device vs the OTP which was
the last to be received on the user’s device.
● The user has to manually go to the SMS section or check the SMS from the notification
& enter the OTP
Solutions/Features
● Whatsapp based Authentication
○ User clicks on Login via Whatsapp
○ User receives an OTP on Whatsapp
○ User enters the OTP
○ User successfully logs in
● Biometric Authentication
○ The app should support biometric authentication such as fingerprint or face ID
to allow the users to sign in
● In-App Authentication
○ Telegram does this even now. Every time you try logging in to your telegram
account, they send you an in-app message on your telegram account.
○ There can be an in-app notification within the banking app which allows me to
login upon approving the notification.
● Auto Read OTPs
○ The app should auto read OTPs for the user & directly log them in to their
account while they are waiting for the OTPs
Priority of Solutions
● Whatsapp Based Authentication : Low Effort, High Impact (1)
● Biometric Authentication : High Effort, High Impact (3)
● In-App Authentication : Low Effort, High Impact (2)
● Auto Read OTPs : Low Effort, Low Impact (4)
Will be prioritizing solutions 1 & 2
Metrics to Track Success
● No. of users logging in with Whatsapp
● % of successful logins via whatsapp vs % of successful logins via SMS vs % of
successful logins via In-App authentication
● % change in drop-offs from the login/signup page to the homepage
● Avg. Time for a user to log-in/signup onto the app
