Splitwise Case Study

Splitwise is a free tool for friends and roommates to track bills and other shared expenses, so that everyone gets paid back.

Why Splitwise?

I am an aspiring product manager. This is my first case study. I wanted to start with an app which I use regularly. So I decided to analyze splitwise.

Clean up:

I will first start with suggesting some clean up in the existing app.

• There is no preview of receipt or note while adding expense. User may get confused that changes are discarded.

• Quick add button is hidden. Quick add button is really helpful as user just need to add expense title and amount and it will automatically choose category and split equally.

• Change numeric keypad to calculator. While entering amount, keypad changes from alphabetic to numeric but it comes handy if it also allows basic calculation. Sometimes user need to do some calculation like calculating price of only one item. In this case, User will not need to switch to app like calculator.

I conducted some user interviews to see what problems users are facing and what other features they wish to have in the app. Based on the interviews, I identified some pain points and suggested features based on them.

Pain points:

• Limited options for payment.
• Users use other payment apps to pay. Sometimes they procrastinate to pay.
• Many users don’t like to remind or to be reminded to pay the amount

Feature suggestions:

Assumption: All the suggested features are applicable for Indian users. All suggestions are based on the splitwise android app.

Feature 1:

Add more payment options

Problem:

Currently UPI is the most popular local payment method. There are other options like eWallets, credit and debit cards, net banking and other payment gateways like PayPal, etc. Splitwise allows users to pay using only paytm wallet otherwise they need to pay using other apps and then manually settle up.

Solution:

Integrate different payment options. If payment is done within a splitwise app then allow users to see the details of the settlement like payment date, payment method, etc. Most payment methods provide receipt. If possible, save that receipt with the other settlement details. Also allow users to set different options to receive payment and set default. Users can link eWallets, set UPI id or give bank account details which will be displayed as an option to other users while paying. This will make the payment process easy and can help reduce procrastination.

Feature 2:

Reminders

Problem:

Many users don’t want to remind or be reminded by their friends or colleagues or flatmates to pay a due amount. It happens because users procrastinate and then forget to pay dues.

Solution:

It is useful if splitwise reminds users to pay the dues. By default splitwise will remind users to pay dues on the 5th day of every month. Users can modify it or even turn it off using the app’s settings later. If users click on the reminder notification, It will open the modal with a shortcut to pay all the dues one by one.

I would love to hear suggestions and thoughts in the comments!