Monzo · Strategy · Entry · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Monzo evolve support chat?

Monzo is a digital bank that lets customers manage their money through a mobile app. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

product strategy
build vs buy
prioritization
risk assessment
stakeholder communication

The situation

Monzo's head of customer support has asked you to review the bank's in app support chat. Today, chat relies on software from an external partner. It works, but the team is feeling friction in a few places: making changes depends on another company, connecting chat cleanly with Monzo's own systems is awkward, and security and privacy reviews are harder when sensitive support data crosses system boundaries. At the same time, support agents keep suggesting ways chat could do more than messaging, including helping customers complete simple account tasks without leaving the conversation. Why now? Chat is becoming a more important part of the overall support experience, and these limits are starting to slow improvement. Leadership wants a recommendation before the next planning cycle, because this choice affects engineering investment, customer experience, and operational risk. The hard part is deciding how much Monzo should own this experience versus relying on a partner, knowing that any transition must avoid disrupting customers who already depend on support chat.

What to produce

A 1 to 2 page product strategy memo.

Your answer must

State the core decision clearly and define the main problem Monzo is trying to solve.
Compare at least two credible paths, including staying with the current partner setup versus building more internally.
Evaluate the options using concrete decision factors such as security, customer convenience, speed of iteration, integration effort, and future product flexibility.
Make a recommendation and explain the main tradeoffs, including what you would do now versus later.
Propose a rollout and risk management approach that keeps support available while changes are introduced.
Include 3 to 5 success metrics or signals that would help Monzo judge whether the chosen approach is working.

Constraints

Customer support chat must remain available during any transition.
Any recommendation must protect customer data and meet a bank's security and privacy standards.
Keep the scope to the chat support experience, not a redesign of the whole support organization.
You may phase rollout by platform or customer cohort if that reduces risk.

Format

Use short sections with headings: problem, options, recommendation, rollout, risks, metrics.

How Monzo actually played it

Monzo explains why it replaced a partner's chat software with its own, built from scratch. The reasons are security and convenience from managing chat internally and flexibility to change the software as the support team has ideas. It also lists future features such as updating personal details inside the chat. A short build-versus-buy case from a customer support product.

Own the core support experience when speed of iteration matters.
Security and integration costs are part of the build-versus-buy decision.
Plan future capabilities (self-service actions in chat) that off-the-shelf tools cannot offer.
Roll out in stages by platform and sign-up date.

Built from Introducing Monzo Chat by Monzo.