TrellisPay · Execution · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

Should TrellisPay build a physical wallet?

TrellisPay is a hypothetical consumer fintech company with a mobile app for managing money and payments. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

prioritization
experimentation
product judgment
stakeholder communication
risk assessment

The situation

The CEO and Head of Product have asked you, a PM at TrellisPay, to evaluate a new idea: a branded physical wallet that customers could carry every day. Leadership believes a tangible product might strengthen the brand and create a stronger connection with users than software alone. Others on the team are skeptical and worry that a physical product could take significant time and focus away from the core app without solving a meaningful customer problem. Why now: annual planning is about to lock, and the leadership team wants a recommendation on whether this should become a funded product initiative. You do not yet have strong evidence that customers want a physical wallet, how they would use it, or whether they would choose it over what they already carry today. The challenge is to avoid a large commitment based on enthusiasm alone while still giving leadership a practical path to learn quickly. Your job is to recommend how to test the idea and what evidence should be required before TrellisPay commits to building.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product recommendation memo.

Your answer must

Make a clear recommendation on whether to pause, validate first, or commit further resources now, and explain why.
Identify the 3 to 5 most important questions or assumptions that must be answered before full development begins.
Propose a two week validation plan, including methods, target users, and what evidence each step is intended to produce.
Define explicit decision criteria for moving forward, pausing, or stopping after the validation work.
Explain the main risks and opportunity costs of pursuing a physical product instead of staying focused on software.

Constraints

You cannot assume validated demand for a physical wallet today.
The leadership team needs a recommendation before the next roadmap planning cycle closes in two weeks.
You may propose lightweight research, concept tests, or simple prototypes, but not a full production build or manufacturing commitment.
Any major investment in this product would compete with TrellisPay's existing software roadmap capacity.

Format

Use short headings such as recommendation, key assumptions, validation plan, decision criteria, and risks.

How TrellisPay actually played it

A post-mortem of a physical wallet project that failed after years of work, arguing that about two weeks of proper research could have predicted it. It lists the questions that should have been asked and why mentors help.

Test demand before building
Ask hard questions early
Get an outside mentor

Built from The Physical Wallet Project Failed - Could 2.5 Years of Work Have Been Solved in 2 Weeks? Yes. by Peter Mucka.