Product Roadmap : Spotlight on Instamojo

Jeevan Prabhu
Sep 3, 2018 · 4 min read

Introduction

“Road maps are evidence of strategy. Not a list of features” -Steve Johnson

Product road map is a soul of any product, encompassing the prospectus, blueprint, timeline, projection — more than anything a product manager’s true commitment on how he or she is planning to solve market problems using the product in his or her kitty. From my experience, especially in B2B setup (VMware, Oracle & two of the startups in enterprise apps), every business enterprise who is a customer of our product always gained confidence looking at what lies ahead and if it falls in-line with their needs and expectations. At the same time, internal road maps fueled the organization right from design to engineering to sales teams on what they will be shipping and spending their valuable time on — an absolute motivator for each individual serving the customer. In essence, from both inward and outward viewpoint, road map as a business artifact carries an extremely valuable outlook and vision of where the product is headed.

Intent of this article is to experience the power of road map by taking example of Instamojo. What is Instamojo, CEO Sampad Swain briefly summarizes as “ It is a digital payments platform bundled with tons of e-commerce features to enable any business or individual to sell, manage & grow effortlessly, securely and cost-effectively”

Instamojo : Evolution

Instamojo has seen a spectacular transformation over the year, especially from 2014 onward. Looking at their high level road map by theme, it is very evident that it has evolved from simple payment gateway to grow gateway for SMB’s.

Source : Instamojo Blog

If we deep dive into each of the themes to look into some details, over the years Instamojo has re-branded itself and evolved as payment gateway to lead generation tool to comprehensive platform for SMB’s to manage and grow their business.

2014 : Social Pay, Physical Goods

Quarterly road map execution (approx.) for 2014

2015 : Instapay, Export Payment Details/Integrations

Quarterly road map execution (approx.) for 2015

2016 : Instamojo Appstore, QR Code Payment

Quarterly road map execution (approx.) for 2016

2017 : Analytics, Analytics & Analytics

Quarterly road map execution (approx.) for 2017

2018 : So far so good & Year ahead

Quarterly road map execution (approx.) expected for 2018

UPI Payments 2.0 :

According to NPCI, UPI transactions have crossed the 300 million mark in August 2018, with new version it is going to more and more business friendly, in-line with payment ecosystem created by Instamojo for SMB’s.

Mojocapital and Mojoexpress

Mojocapital : Sachet Loans — byte size microcredit to solve SMB’s cash flow needs, a spectacular addition to Instamojo portfolio where it will facilitate credit and lending for SMB’s.

Mojoexpress : Supreme logistics experience for SMB’s established via partnership with Delhivery.com, FedEx, and Ecom Express

Summary

Instamojo is a great example of how a strong road map is a reflection of a north star vision and how it is translated into tangible product features. In the era of Fin tech evolution, Instamojo’s road map conveys the message to consumer community that they really want to become “ Business Operating System” rather than being limited to payment gateway, and their road map truly reflects their conviction to make small and medium business truly enterprising.

References:

https://thoughtfarming.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/the-road-so-far%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8ainstamojos-roadmap-to-success/

https://www.instamojo.com/blog/future-of-upi-payments-india-growth-expect/

https://medium.com/@doddaprabha/product-roadmap-for-instamojo-1e071ff00c35

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/wealth-issue-2017-comeback-kids/sampad-swain-35-co-founder-instamojo

https://medium.com/@shanker005/product-roadmap-for-instamojo-fb8ea69fe00

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