What would your roadmap be for Google Pay? 1 year vs 3 years.

My idea of a good answer to this product strategy question.

1. CLARIFY: 
   1. Should I focus on web or mobile? Your choice. 
   2. Do you want to focus on a specific market or global strategy? Your choice.
   3. Do you have a specific goal in mind? Your choice.
   4. Do you have a specific user I should focus on? Your choice. 
   5. Is there a preference for expanding existing functionality v. rolling out net new features? Your choice.
2. GOOGLE PAY BACKGROUND: Google Pay is Google's payment ability that is allows for digital payments. On web, Google Pay is integrated into Chrome, Safari and Firefox. It allows a user's payment info to be pre-populated in eCommerce shops. On Android mobile / watch, Google Pay allows for contactless payment via near field communication. In both channels, Google Pay authorizes payment via pin.
3. GOAL: Google's overall goal is to provide everyone access to information. Google does not charge fees for Google Pay payments from either the buyer or the merchant. Google only charges a 1.5% transfer fee if you use instant transfer from your debit card. (Free if you use 1-3 transfer.). Because Google normally doesn't charge fees for purchases, the big benefit Google receives from Google Pay is information / data on the user, which helps them with ad tailoring. To maximize its data collection on user, the goal for Google Pay should be to increase the number of users.
4. USER GROUPS: There are 4 main user groups to think about in the Google Pay transaction. I'd like to focus on Buyers to increase the number of users of Google Pay. They are the biggest bucket / will help us towards the goal of increasing users on the platform most directly. 
   1. Buyers: Using Google Pay to make purchases on web or mobile.
   2. Merchants: Accept Google Pay payments. 
   3. Banks: Provider of bank accounts for Google Pay. User may have debit card in Google Pay linked to their bank account.
   4. Card Networks: Credit card networks (ex. Visa, Mastercard and AXP). 
5. SUB USER GROUPS: Within the buyers bucket, there are a few classifications of users. In line with the goal of increasing users on the platform, I'd like to focus on the Never Used bucket. 
   1. Never Used: Never used Google Pay. May have not signed up for it.
   2. Rare User: Rarely uses Google Pay. May only make 1 transaction / week if that.
   3. Medium User: Medium user of Google Pay. May make 2 transactions / week.
   4. Power User: High use of Google Pay. Almost all transactions are on Google Pay. 10+ / week. 
6. USER JOURNEY: There are two potential journeys for Google Pay: web and mobile. I'd like to focus on the mobile journey because contactless payments are growing in importance particularly during COVID. 
   1. Awareness: Buyer must learn of the existence of Google Pay.
   2. Learn: Buyer must learn how to set up and use Google Pay.
   3. Set Up: Buyer must set up Google Pay on phone. Provision at least 1 card: debit or credit.
   4. Payment: Buyer makes first payment on Google Pay. 
7. USER PAIN POINTS:
   1. Ability: Does not have Android smart phone. 
   2. Awareness: Does not know Google Pay exists.
   3. Learn: Does not know how to set up Google Pay - i.e. provision a card to Google Wallet.
   4. Set Up: Provisioned wrong card to Wallet. 
   5. Payment: 
      1. Unable to complete payment in store - i.e. does not understand how to open Google Pay or complete payment.
      2. Forgets pin to authorize transaction. 
   6. Data Security: Concerned about providing Google with payment data / does not want to set up.
8. PRIORITIZE PAIN POINTS: Given the prioritization, I'd like to  

   1. Theme	Pain Point	Impact to User
      Ability	Does not have Android smart phone.	Medium: High Android smart phone presence in US - main market. Potentially bigger issue in other markets. iPhone less than 15% of smartphone global market.
      Awareness	Does not know Google Pay exists.	Medium: Older users may not know that Google Pay exists.
      Learn	Does not know how to set up Google Pay	High: Big issue for non-users.
      Set Up	Provisioned wrong card to Wallet.	Low: If user has set up 1 card, likely can set up another. (Requires taking the physical card out.)
      Payment	Unable to complete payment in store	High: Non-user may not know how to use.
      Payment	Forgets pin	Low: Pin is likely not reason for never using Google Pay. User would likely find pin for next transaction / still needs to know pin for general card transactions.
      Data Securityye	Concerned about providing Google with payment data	Medium: Misinformation / misunderstanding could stop someone from activating Google Pay.

9. SOLUTIONS: I will divide solutions into 1 v. 3 year potential solutions. Solutions I estimate will require heavier technical lift etc. will be put in the 3 year bucket.
   1. 1 Year: 
      1. Marketing Campaign (Email / TV): Google pays for marketing campaign to teach potential customers how to use Google Pay - i.e. only takes a few simple steps to set up / use.
      2. Pixel Onboarding: Google requires all newly activated Pixels to set up Google Pay (i.e. changes onboarding experience.) (Does not affect all Android devices.)
      3. Pop Up: Google sets up pop up booths in big city centers / populated areas (ex. Grand Central station in NYC or big malls) that teaches people about Google Pay 
      4. Merchant Partnership: Google purchases with merchants to get them to post instructions or videos in their shops re. how to set up / use Google Pay.
   2. 3 Year: 
      1. New Markets: Google launches in high priority new markets with lots of potential users. For example, China could be a big market (regulations, competition would need to be assessed, etc.O
      2. Phone Set Up: If Androids do not allow users to set up Google Pay when they first activate phone, add to onboarding experience.
      3. Pixel Automated Set Up: Google offers automatic Google Pay set up to anyone who purchases an Android phone. 
      4. Partnerships: Google partners with banks / networks with mobile apps to build button in their apps that automatically provisions cards to Wallet.
10. PRIORITIZE SOLUTIONS:
    1. 1 Year: Based on prioritization, I will focus on merchant partnerships in short term. I will provide merchants with posters or potentially short video clips to run in their store to explain how to set up Google Pay and why a buyer should use it. I'd focus on select priority markets with high potential (ex. US). 

       1. Solution	Impact to User	Cost to Google
          Marketing Campaign	Medium	Low
          Pixel Onboarding	Low	Low
          Pop Up	Medium	High
          Merchant Partnership	High	Low

    2. 3 Year: Based on prioritization, I'd focus on phone set up to ensure Google Pay is added to all new Android device onboarding. If the average user is cycling through their phone every 2ish years at least in priority markets (based on what I see in the US), Google should be able to acquire a lot of users as they upgrade their phones. Admittedly this solution will only impact users setting up a phone. (Would need data to validate solution choice.) 

       1. Solution	Impact to User	Cost to Google
          New Markets	High	High
          Phone Set Up	High	Medium
          Pixel Automated Set Up	Low	Medium
          Partnerships	Low.	Low

11. METRICS: The north star metric will be the # of new Google Pay users in both cases. 
    1. 1 Year:
       1. # of new Google Pay users
       2. # of merchant partners
       3. Estimated audience who viewed merchant marketing campaign 
    2. 3 Year: 
       1. # of new Google Pay users
       2. # of Android devices impacted with new onboarding experience
12. SUMMARY: My 1 year solution to grow Google Pay users would be to focus on merchant partnerships to run a campaign to show buyers how to set up / use Google Pay. My 3 year solution would be to focus on changing the onboarding experience of Android devices (prioritizing the most purchased Android devices) to make Google Pay set up automatically part of the experience. 

What would your road map for Google Pay ? 1 Year Vs 3 year

Clarify the question

1.       I’m going to be honest I’ve used google pay once or twice.  You load all your credit cards into the app.  You can then use the phone app to pay instead of taking out your wallet.  It’s supposed to be more secure.  I believe you can do peer to peer payments?

Is there anything that I missed?  I don’t know if I missed anything – cause that is all I know

2.       Are there any strategic goals for Google pay that I should be aware of?  You are the PM

3.       When you say roadmap can I assume that roadmap covers both product development and go-to-market strategy.  Yes

Company and product

Google is a leading tech company with the mission of organizing the worlds information and to make that information accessible and useful.  Payment is part of the worlds information and fits into the Google mission.  In addition, payment information provides valuable BI about user behavior including where they spend and how much.  As I understand Google Pay it is a phone-based app where the user loads their credit cards into the app and then the user can pay for merchandise by unlocking their phone.  I also understand that users can do peer to peer payments.  In addition to users there is another side of the equation which is merchants that accept Google pay and a 3rd dimension which is the aps, systems and hardware that merchants purchase or license to run their transactions.

Pay seems to be a good fit within the google ecosystem – for the user they get to use a trusted 3rd party to manage the use of their credit cards and Google has the expertise to handle huge amounts of data associated with all the purchases that happen in the world.

Personas / Stakeholders

This question seems to sit between a strategy question and a design question so I’m going to play around with the different personas just enough to make sure we look at the major stakeholders and ensure that we cover ideas that impact those stakeholders. 

It seems that the major stakeholders include

1.       Users

2.       Merchants

3.       Credit Card Companies / Banks

4.       Hardware / app developers that include Google pay

Summary

Google Pay it is a phone-based app where the user loads their credit cards into the app and then the user can pay for merchandise by unlocking their phone.  I also understand that users can do peer to peer payments.  In addition to users there is another side of the equation which is merchants that accept Google pay and a 3rd dimension which is the aps, systems and hardware that merchants purchase or license to run their transactions.

Based on my current understanding I would focus the next year of roadmap to work or programmatic excellence with features and program focus that looks to grow the most robust marketplace (ecosystem) of users, merchants, banks and 3rd party apps.  So ideas might include cross pollination of other google services and apps with Pay.  I would also look for areas of market expansion and penetration to grow the exiting business by looking at underserved geos and demos.

In the year 3 roadmap the goal would be to fundamentally change the game for google pay by looking at how we change our position in the funnel.  Two game changing ideas would de to move up the funnel and develop hardware and software to handle the transaction at merchants.  This would google a wave of new BI about product / user purchasing behavior that will power our ad and personalization businesses.  I also presented an idea of moving down funnel and being the credit card gateway and or setting up bank of Google.  Of these two game changing ideas I like the software and hardware idea as it is a better company fit and leads to a source of rich product / user level BI.