Monzo · Product sense · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Monzo support borrowers in difficulty?

Monzo is a UK digital bank that offers current accounts, payments, and borrowing products through a mobile app. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

product sense
strategy
prioritization
risk judgment
customer empathy

The situation

You are a PM in Monzo's borrowing area. The borrowing leadership team has asked you to recommend how Monzo should serve customers who are falling behind, or likely to fall behind, on repayments. Assume Monzo's borrowing products are growing and more customers are showing signs of repayment stress. Most banks would route this to a collections function focused on recovering debt, but Monzo worries that a standard approach may conflict with its brand, customer expectations, and long term outcomes. At the same time, Monzo cannot ignore credit losses, operational cost, or regulatory duties around fair treatment and vulnerable customers. Monzo already has public borrowing principles, but they have not yet been turned into a clear product approach for this problem. Legal, risk, operations, and support teams all have views, and they need a product direction that PMs can own, not just a policy document. The question is not whether to help these customers, but how to define the product area, what outcomes to own, and where to start.

What to produce

A 1 to 2 page product strategy memo.

Your answer must

Define the core problem and the customer groups you would focus on first, including how you distinguish different levels of repayment difficulty.
State the product outcome you would own and explain how it balances customer financial health with the health of the borrowing business.
Propose 3 priority product workstreams or bets, with rationale for why they should come first.
Explain how your approach connects to Monzo's borrowing principles and what product principles would guide decisions in this area.
List the main risks, including regulatory, customer harm, and operational risks, and how you would mitigate them.
Define success metrics and guardrails for the next 6 to 12 months.

Constraints

Your proposal must fit a regulated consumer lending environment and fair treatment of customers.
Stay within the scope of one product area over the next 6 to 12 months, not a full company reorg.
Do not assume new external partnerships, new revenue lines, or policy changes not mentioned in the prompt.

Format

Use short headings and bullets. Separate assumptions from recommendations.

How Monzo actually played it

Two Monzo product managers describe their Financial Health group, which approaches borrowers in trouble differently from a traditional collections team by building tools and support aimed at financial health while also helping the borrowing business grow. The post explains the role the group plays and how PMs work within it. A thoughtful example of product strategy in a sensitive, regulated area.

Reframe a function (collections) around the customer outcome you want.
Balance customer support goals with the health of the borrowing business.
Tie product principles to published borrowing principles.
Treat PMs as trusted owners of outcomes in regulated spaces.

Built from How we do product management in the financial difficulties space by James and Carla, Monzo.