Venmo: Peer-to-World Payments

At one point or another, many of us have been in that awkward situation of trying to skilfully ask our friends to pay us back. Since 2009, Venmo has solved this problem in a big way with its peer-to-peer payment application in which users can pay or request money to their friends. This concept catapulted Venmo to a popularity level that FinTech companies rarely reach. Gone are the days where we would have to mutter, “Can you pay me back.” Venmo has become so popular that it is now a verb. “Just Venmo me” is the saying of today.
This rapid success begs the question: how can Venmo expand its scope and reach new heights?
My partner and I were set with the task of integrating a new feature into the existing Venmo application. The guidelines are detailed below:

Problem- The current lack of trust and accessibility to social good organizations online.
Goal- Introduce a way for users to search for social good organizations and send money via their application to causes they care about.
We went through a design process which consisted of our initial thoughts and research, the definition of our primary user, the design and iteration process, and finally the delivery of the new feature.
Venmo at a Glance
Venmo allows users to pay and request money from their friends. At its core, Venmo provides a social way for people to pay their friends when they owe them money and do not want to deal with cash.

Initial Thoughts
Currently, Venmo is all about the flow of money from one peer to another peer. When we first thought about the characteristics of Venmo compared to those of social good organizations, we realized that they are fundamentally different in regards to reciprocation, transparency, and trust. Venmo’s functions are centered around earning or giving money. At some point in the cycle, both parties expect reciprocation. However, acts of social good are centered around the idea of giving with no monetary reciprocation. In addition, there is a level of trust with financial technology companies because they are transparent. For instance, Venmo’s payment history shows users exactly when their transaction has been initiated. On the other hand, when people donate to social good organizations, it is not always clear how the money is being used at the organization. A major similarity tying social good and Venmo’s functions together, however, is social connectivity.
To test the social experience of Venmo’s competitors, we conducted a feature comparison chart with Venmo, other FinTech companies, and social good organizations. When we honed in on features that focused on social connectivity, it was evident that Venmo differentiates itself from its competitors by being the only app that focuses in on the social experience aspect of online payments.

Even Pay Pal’s CEO stated the power of social connectivity.
“The app’s social media-like quality, where users can leave a public comment or emoji after every transaction, is what makes it so appealing to millennials. 90 percent of all Venmo’s transactions are open to somebody’s friend or network so it is not a payment transaction but an experience for people…. Two things make Venmo successful: 1) Its ease in use and 2) the social experience.”
— Dan Schulman
This led us to believe that ease of use and social connectivity are key. Our hope is to seamlessly merge the different characteristics and build upon social connectivity so that Venmo is not only a place to reach the immediate friend circle but also a place to reach the broader community.
Synthesizing the Research
To solidify our initial thoughts, we conducted user interviews. We recruited people who use at least one online transaction platform and feel secure using them, specify how they usually hear about social good organizations, and be within the 53 percent who check their social media daily. Our participants were all in the 21 to 35 age range and have given back to their community at some point in their life. Two of our most poignant observations from the interviews are detailed below:

Observation 1: We realized that users tend to segment their donation experience into three parts: before donating, the conversion point to donating, and after donating. Before donating, all nine of our interviewees stated that they need to know the history and the future plans of their donations to convince them to donate. During the conversion point to donating, one of our users stated that the longer the form, the more time he had to second guess. This comment led us to believe that short processes led to more donations. Finally, after donating, all of our interviewees stated that they needed confirmation and proof of progress to feel content and continue to donate. When creating our feature, we would keep these three parts in mind to design for the best experience.
Observation 2: We observed that people had various levels of privacy. People who value high privacy tend to have more self-initiative in searching for social good organizations, whereas those who have lower privacy levels rely on their social feeds for information.
Our Primary User
Using the synthesized information, we created a primary persona who represented our target audience. The scenario is outlined below:
Our primary user, Lawrence Jones, is a 26-year-old consultant living in New York City. As a junior consultant, he spends a lot of time travelling which has made him empathetic to world events. He has an urge to give back to his community, but needs a quick and easy way to do so. He is an early adopter who has lower privacy levels; therefore, he relies on his social feed for information.
In order to solve our primary user’s needs, we prioritized our feature to focus on a short length of process, social connectivity, and trust.

The Piggy Bank and Points System
The intent of the feature is to build upon our primary user’s habit of sharing information publicly on the user feed. Since Venmo’s unique quality is its social connectivity, we wanted to reward those who shared by providing them with points, otherwise know as “points for charity.” You may be wondering why a piggy bank? What does it represent? The reasoning behind the points system is to ensure that users do not feel like they are giving away too much. Since they are already paying their friends back we thought it would be too much to then ask them to donate more. Furthermore, the piggy bank acts as an analogy for something each person is bound to have stashed somewhere: the jar of coins lying around waiting to be used. This is how the points system works.
- Users share their Venmo activity to the public friends feed.
2. Since Venmo is encouraging the social connectivity, these users earn a certain number points for their public share.
3. The points enters the new “points for charity” piggy bank.
4. Users are also able to search for charities and donate their points to their cause of choice.
5. Users can choose between Venmo Balance or their Points Balance. The points equate to a certain amount in dollars.
6. Once users donate their points, they receive a text notification with a picture of how their contribution is being used.
7. They are taken back to Facebook and encouraged to share.
There were some elements we knew were vital to incorporate, such as emojis because they are integral to Venmo’s character and success. Another important consideration was to ensure that the flow of the feature would always lead back to Venmo and encourage people to share.
Design, Iterate, Re-Design!
We created around five iterations of the prototype and user tested them with 15 people. The feedback helped us to improve the feature to what it is today. Below is an overview of the current prototype. For a more interactive look at the prototype, please click the link at the end of the page.

This is an example of the progress from iteration 2 to iteration 3 of the home screen.

Future Considerations
1. Integrate secondary user flow into the prototype
2. Continue to re-test methods of sharing donation activities
3. Ensure that Venmo’s social good feature is aligned with the overall brand image.
Link to prototype: https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/KACN6ZGH7#/244584459_Feed_Screen
