Onboarding project | CRED

Continuing my onboarding project with CRED itself

Small brief for context :
CRED is a fintech company that was officially launched by Kunal Shah, former founder of freecharge, in the year 2018. The initial product was built to provide users a platform to manage and pay off credit card bills and get rewarded for timely payments - AKA good financial behaviour The marketed themselves to be a members-only app curated for the trustworthy & credit-worthy individuals of the country to make financial progress and get rewarded for good financial behaviour.

Let's begin!
ICPs

Our Ideal customer profile is split by 4 key factors for user’s motivation to use CRED

convenience - to pay off multiple credit card bills on one app.
rewards - to maximise all rewards available for them via a credit card & more.
financial management - to manage family’s money & credit cards being used by the user himself and their family’s folks.
exclusivity - wants to be part of exclusive CRED club events & the 1% club.

We’ve identified & categorised 4 different potential ICPs basis user calling exercise + one HNWI assumption : evaluating potential ICPs below

Giving each of them some personality ✨

	High-Value Credit Card Users	Frequent Reward Seekers	Financially Savvy Millennials	Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts
Name	Shashank	Rishank	Sachin	Rahul
age	30-55	25-35	35-55	30-55
city	Tier 1	Tier 2/ Moved to tier 1	Tier 2/ Moved to tier 1	Tier 1
income / year	15-25L	7-15L	10-20L	20L+
number of credit cards	3+	1-3	2+	3+
living situation	living with small - medium sized families	Living with flatmates / partner	living with small - medium sized families	living alone / with medium sized families

Their relationship with money 💰

	High-Value Credit Card Users	Frequent Reward Seekers	Financially Savvy Millennials	Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts
Name	Shashank	Rishank	Sachin	Rahul
Income	15-25L	7-15L	10-20L	20L+
goals	optimising rewards & utilising CC benefits, thought out investment plans	strategic about purchases, optimising & maximising rewards/ referrals	strategic spending, saving for big buys, investing for the future	Will buy for premium experience, cares about lifestyle & status. Have high ROI investments across assets etc
Personal spends	They can afford to spend quite a bit on themselves m-o-m without worrying too much	will try to buy value added products during deals, rewards, sales	Informed buyers only when need arises	Will buy as & when they see fit that improves their lifestyle, social status, rarity
Family / living expenses	Kids education expense Groceries / food orders Gym membership - for self & spouse OTT subscriptions Fuel m-o-m travel	Groceries / food orders transport Social outings OTT subscriptions cult membership Quarterly/ bi-yearly travel	Kids education expense Groceries Gym membership - for self & spouse & kids activities OTT subscriptions Fuel	Luxury purchases Luxury dining experiences education expenses premium gym membership/ club membership OTT subscription frequent travel
Rent	no	yes	yes	no
cc limits	2L	1L	1-2L	5L

Their relationship with CRED

	High-Value Credit Card Users	Frequent Reward Seekers	Financially Savvy Millennials	Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts
Name	Shashank	Rishank	Sachin	Rahul
Income	15-25L	7-15L	10-20L	20L+
goals	optimising rewards & utilising CC benefits, thought out investment plans	strategic about purchases, optimising & maximising rewards/ referrals	strategic spending, saving for big buys, investing for the future	Will buy for premium experience, cares about lifestyle & status. Have high ROI investments across assets etc
Personal spends	They can afford to spend quite a bit on themselves m-o-m without worrying too much	will try to buy value added products during deals, rewards, sales	Informed buyers only when need arises	Will buy as & when they see fit that improves their lifestyle, social status, rarity
Family / living expenses	Kids education expense Groceries / food orders Gym membership - for self & spouse OTT subscriptions Fuel m-o-m travel	Groceries / food orders transport Social outings OTT subscriptions cult membership Quarterly/ bi-yearly travel	Kids education expense Groceries Gym membership - for self & spouse & kids activities OTT subscriptions Fuel	Luxury purchases Luxury dining experiences education expenses premium gym membership/ club membership OTT subscription frequent travel
Rent	no	yes	yes	no
cc limits	2L	1L	1-2L	5L

Keeping the 5 core principles to choose our ICPs

Params	High-Value Credit Card Users	Frequent Reward Seekers	Financially Savvy Millennials	Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts (HNWIs)
	Shashank	Rishank	Sachin	Rahul
Adoption curve	low - medium	low	low - medium	low
Frequency of use case	high	high	medium	high
Appetite to pay / spend	high	medium	medium	high
Sizeable TAM	6.75Mn	12.15Mn	15Mn	2.87Mn
Distribution potential	high	high	medium	niche

Key Observations and Patterns for High-Value Credit Card Users and Financially Savvy Millennials

Focus on Financial Management and Long-Term Goals:
- These users engage with the app primarily from a perspective of financial management and long-term financial goals, rather than seeking immediate short-term rewards. Their app usage is consistent and aligns with their broader financial strategies, making them potential highly scalable users.
High Loyalty and Feature Stickiness:
- Unlike those who use the app mainly for discounts and rewards, which may lead to quick switches if a better deal arises elsewhere, High-Value Credit Card Users and Financially Savvy Millennials show a strong commitment to the core features of CRED. Their loyalty is grounded in the app's value for their financial management and planning needs, leading to potential greater retention and lower churn.
Similar Lifestyle Choices and Card Usage:
- Both ICPs exhibit comparable lifestyle preferences and credit card usage patterns. Their significant spending limits and the likelihood of adopting new credit cards or using advanced payment methods (like RUPAY CC on UPI cards) suggest a high level of engagement with their credit cards. This openness to new products and features facilitates smoother adoption of additional products from CRED.

USER GOALS

Let’s define user goals with ICPs : basis user calling

ICP 1 : high value credit card users

Who is signing up : All 4 of the above potential ICPs are the types of users signing up on CRED today. let’s focus on high value credit card users & financial savvy millennials.
what are they trying to do : Let’s add a customer journey map for high value credit card users Awareness: They discover the app through targeted ads, google searches, referrals from friends or colleagues & they explore CRED’s website first.

Consideration: The website helps users go through almost all the features with the primary focus being bill payments & payments section, secondary being other lifestyle products available for them

onboarding : our user downloads the app, completes the account set up process and verifies their card & links 2 cards on the app to get started with.

1st product used on the app : User started off their journey on day 5 of downloading the app and linking their card since their 1 credit card bill was due.
User received a reminder notification of their cc bill due date coming closer. User landed on the app & paid their first cc bill via CRED

AHA moments overall : being reminded when bill is due, payment experience being smooth & convenient unlike bank apps.

user delight: receiving a cashback which could be used to pay off their second credit card bill.

Most used products on the app : credit card bill payments, UPI payments, bill payments & rewards.
Why are they signing up
using the JTBD framework for this :

User goals		High-Value Credit Card Users
Primary	Functional	Manage their credit cards & utilise maximum benefits from the same
Secondary	Financial	Optimize spending to earn more rewards and manage credit efficiently.
tertiary	Personal	Achieve a high credit score and demonstrate financial responsibility, use rewards efficiently
least	social	Influence or share credit card benefits and strategies with peers

ICP 2 : financial savvy millennials.

Who is signing up : All 4 of the above potential ICPs are the types of users signing up on CRED today. let’s focus on high value credit card users & financial savvy millennials.
what are they trying to do : Let’s add a customer journey map for financial savvy millennials Awareness: They discover the app through referrals from friends or colleagues & they explore CRED’s website first.

Consideration: The website helps users go through almost all the features with the primary focus being bill payments & payments section, secondary being other lifestyle products available for them.

onboarding : our user downloads the app, completes the account set up process and verifies their card & links 2 cards on the app to get started with.

1st product used on the app : User started off their journey of downloading the app and linking their card but had no cc bill due. User received a reminder notification of their post paid phone bill payment due date coming closer. User landed on the app & paid their first phone bill via CRED

AHA moments overall : being reminded when bill is due, payment experience being smooth & convenient

user delight: receiving a cashback which could be used to pay off their credit card bill.

Most used products on the app : bill payments, credit card bill payments, rewards.
why are they signing up :
using the JTBD framework for this :

User goals		Financially Savvy Millennials
Primary	Functional	To build and maintain a strong credit score while managing finances & credit effectively.
Secondary	Financial	Access tools and features that aid in financial planning and budgeting.
tertiary	Personal	Achieve long-term financial goals such as investments or savings growth.
least	social	Engage in financial discussions or share financial strategies with their network.

Notice a pattern in both ICPs primary goal being functional
It is to maintain & manage their credit cards & credit score while optimising their finances effectively.

CRED chooses to solve for the same primarily & an additional bonus is to be reminded to never miss and payments or let your bills be due for longer than required & be rewarded for paying bills on time.

This is exactly what we’ll be / should be solving for in our onboarding journey Let’s do a teardown of the current onboarding journey

CRED - onboarding teardown (2).pdf

Time to find out what our activation metrics should be

After talking to a couple of power users, their primary goal for downloading the app was to manage 2 or more credit cards that they own. Most users didn’t download the app until they faced difficulty in managing both credit cards with different due dates.
Core value prop is to be able to manage multiple credit card bill payments, additionally pay off mobile bills, use UPI, check spends data, pay on merchant funnels and make it their core financial payments platform.

Activation metric hypothesis

Hypothesis 1 :
Users that make 1 credit card bill payment on the app within D30 of onboarding have higher retention.

The why’s :

Making a cc bill payment within the first 30 days allows users to quickly realize the core value of the app. Seeing the immediate benefits, such as reward points or cashback, reinforces the utility of the app, leading to higher satisfaction and a stronger inclination to continue using it.
Early engagement with the app's primary feature (cc bill payment) helps users form a habit. Consistent use in the initial stages leads to routine behavior, making it more likely that users will continue using the app as part of their financial management which would impact our retention curve.
When users complete a bill payment and see immediate rewards or benefits (user delight) , the perceived value of the app increases. This helps in justifying their investment of time and effort in setting up and using the app, creating LTV for the user.

Metrics to be tracking

Adding some milestones since a 30 day cycle is a long time to keep a user engaged.

Activation metric	why
percentage of users completing initial onboarding process & linking a credit card	it’s a time consuming process to set up the account, link CRED protect, link a card which shows intent to solve for users primary goal.
number of users linking atleast 1 or more credit card with successful verification	again shows higher intent with more credit cards linked to solve for their major pain point.
Percentage of users that click on the notification to make their first cc bill payment	Users that click on the first notification received from CRED to pay their cc bill that’s due are more likely to retain since reminders help reduce effort and cognitive load for us humans.
Percentage of users who make their first credit card bill payment; average time to first payment.	Within user’s D30 journey, if user makes their first cc bill payment - they realise the true core value of the product. Seamles, fast & secure payments Added with user delight of being rewarded with a cashback for making their first CC bill payment
Percentage of users that redeem/claim their cashback	Directly impacts M1 retention. Users that claim cashback have a higher intent to come back and use the cashback to make their next month’s credit card bill payment.
Feature adoption percentage of users adopt any other payment product in their D30 journey	If users adopt any other payment product like UPI, bill payments, rent payments they’re more likely to activate & retain to pay their credit card bill. User delight directly integrated to core feature Cashback received via any other payment product to be directly used to reduce your credit card bill.
D60 - D90 journey Referral numbers based on NPS survey	Would/does user refer the app to their friends/ family for convenience & ease of use?
Part of the referral streak journey	If user makes their first referral, they will definitely retain for long. if user makes more than 1 referral in their D90 journey and gets on the referral leaderboard - they become loyalists.

Hypothesis 2

User that becomes a payer AKA makes any payment on the app in their D7 journey - has higher retention and LTV for CRED

The why’s :

Making any payment on the app let's user realise the core value features the app has to offer which co-relates to user's primary or secondary goal of being able to manage their finances & bill payments on the CRED app.
Earlier engagement being the first payment experience can lead to regular usage, reinforcing the app as part of their financial routine.
Unlike credit card bill payment which is a D30 cycle, this would be a more frequent use case, in case they use the UPI feature in the D1-D7 journey - habit formation begins for a user to visit the app more frequently affecting retention
Users who make a payment within the first week are likely to be satisfied with the app’s functionality and user experience. Satisfaction early in the journey can lead to higher retention and positive word-of-mouth. Could become loyalists & affect the LTV

Metrics to be tracking

Activation metric	why
percentage of users completing initial onboarding process & linking a credit card	it’s a time consuming process to set up the account, link CRED protect, link a card which shows intent to solve for users primary goal.
percentage of users giving us camera / contacts permission in their onboarding journey	Users that enable camera & contacts permission are more likely to adopt one out of the 2 UPI features to start their journey with - p2p, scan and pay Higher chances of them becoming a payer on the app & using CRED more frequently
Percentage of users making their first UPI payment on the CRED app in their D1-D7 journey	Users that adopt another feature apart from the core feature of cc bill payments in their 7 day journey are more likely to experience the payment & rewarding experience & retain + become a DAU user with the high frequency of this particular product feature
Percentage of users making their first utility / rent/ recharge payments on the app in their D1-D7 journey	Users that adopt another feature apart from the core feature of cc bill payments in their 7 day journey are more likely to experience the payment & rewarding experience & retain.
cashback/ reward redemption claim rate	Users that claim their rewards have a higher use case of using CRED for their primary goal of managing and paying their credit card bills ensuring LTV & m-o-m retention.
D60 - D90 journey Referral numbers based on NPS survey	Would/does user refer the app to their friends/ family for convenience & ease of use?
Part of the referral streak journey	If user makes their first referral, they will definitely retain for long. if user makes more than 1 referral in their D90 journey and gets on the referral leaderboard - they become loyalists.