Tech Talks vol.38 – The Exceptional Talent that Turned PayPay’s Wallet Inside Out

About Tech Talks

In the Tech Talks series, we’re excited to bring you the unique culture and perspective of the PayPay Tech Team through conversations with our product members, representing diverse backgrounds from approximately 50 countries around the world.
In this issue, we will be talking to the product manager, designer, and developers who worked on the recently updated Wallet feature.

What was the mission of the Wallet renewal project?

Gwen:
Our mission is to renew the design of the Wallet screen to enable users to easily check all their assets on a single screen. This will help to make the PayPay app a reliable partner in users’ financial management, not just a payment tool.

The project was launched in early July 2023 and is now underway after having its development process broken down into several release stages. We just recently completed Phases 1 and 2 (Day 1 and Day 1.5), which have empowered users to confirm, first, the basic info on PayPay Invest, PayPay Bank, and PayPay Card ― investment and bank balances along with available credit ― and, second, current usage amount and statements for PayPay Card respectively. We set about delivering this feature around mid-August and it went live to users in late October. This is just a step toward fostering a world where paying “Anytime, Anywhere with PayPay” is a reality. We will continue to deliver new features, rearranging our priorities based on users’ feedback in the future phases.

This project involves lots of people from various fields such as the engineers and designers who craft our product, as well as business team members and group companies. Today’s interviewees are the core craftspeople engaged in developing products.

What triggered the renewal?

Gwen:
This update was based on information our business team summarized that came from requests customer service received from users and reviews on social media related to how we could make Wallet more user-friendly.

From this information, we found users don’t keep much Balance in their PayPay account out of concern for excessive spending and topping up, and thus tend to keep their expenses down by controlling the amount and frequency of their top-ups. Some users may be worried that adding a large amount of money to their PayPay balance at once would lead them to use it unintentionally.

Aiming to alleviate their concerns by making it possible to know their assets and expenditures at a glance, we set out on the mission of creating a simple UI that would display users’ financial status in an easy-to-understand way on the PayPay app.

What are your roles within the project, and what challenges have you faced?

Gwen:
My role as a Product Manager is to define the necessary functions, prioritize tasks, share goals with designers and engineers, and communicate with stakeholders so that we can move the project forward and resolve issues effectively.

One major challenge of this project was that amidst the communication with both internal and external stakeholders that accompanied collaborating with group companies ― especially with PayPay Securities, PayPay Bank, and PayPay Card ― we also had to align it with PayPay’s 5th anniversary.

We received many requests from concerned parties in the group companies to display various types of information on this screen. Being able to experience giving user-friendliness top priority even throughout the many discussions in such a sticky situation taught me a lot.

Ting:
Serving as a designer, I was responsible for proposing ideas and providing design solutions and UI/UX screens.

As Gwen said, this project was oriented toward synergy with our group companies, so one of the challenges for me was that I first needed to understand how mini apps such as PayPay Securities, PayPay Bank, and PayPay Card work.

What I learned from this experience is the importance of preparing for designs as soon as possible; that getting things straight at an early stage enables us to avoid subsequent blockers. With the various parties involved at each group company, we had to handle a large volume of reviews and faced disagreements about the screen design. I realized the importance of preparing early to avoid multiple adjustments just before release.

John:
I was in charge of developing features on the iOS platform and implementing the UI/UX we were to provide. The sheer size of this feature necessitated frequent changes in our development process and UI/UX, making the timeline our biggest challenge.

As always, we didn’t want to compromise on our code’s quality, keeping it reusable for when we incorporate additional features in the future. Plus, we communicated closely and carefully within the team to reduce bugs and issues from the development testing stage, aiming for a smooth development process.

Rizki:
My role as a backend engineer was to help translating the product specifications into engineering requirements, ensure smooth technical integrations with group companies, and support the financial service backend team in delivering their features.

Aligning with both internal teams and group companies simultaneously was a challenging task for me. It was very important to identify any and all potential issues related to integrating securely, traffic estimation, and server performance before integrating the technologies.

Windy:
Acting as a backend engineer, I worked on designing and developing the API, coupling it with backend modules, and providing them to the front-end teams. Due to the huge amount of data we needed to handle and the integration with other back end services, ensuring the reliability, speed, and stability of the API was crucial. It was challenging to learn all current and various behaviors of the features end-to-end and collaborating with other teams among diverse stakeholders.

Understanding product specifications and user behaviors from an engineering perspective was ‌an important and vital part of my duty as a developer.

How do you feel now that the Day 1 and Day 1.5 releases are complete?

Gwen:
Post release, our main concern was how users would feel about them. We are on the lookout for any further areas to improve, comparing the usage of the old and new Wallet screens. We are very happy to see from the data that users are performing various actions with the renewed UI.

Ting:
As Gwen said, we have received generally positive feedback from users since the release. Although there were some difficulties along the way, we are very happy to have delivered this renewed Wallet.

John:
From a developer’s perspective, I would give the release an 8 or 9 out of 10 on the satisfaction scale. The renewed Wallet is more convenient, as users can now check their PayPay Card balance immediately without leaving the PayPay app. I myself make good use of this feature!

What part of the project left the strongest impression on you?

Gwen:
What struck me the most was the enormous and immediate support my team members gave me whenever I encountered any changes or questions in pushing the project forward as a Project Manager.

Ting:
I would say the interactions regarding the information to be incorporated into the Wallet screen. The purpose of this renewal was to give users an instant picture of their financial standing and enable them to take quick action on it via other mini apps. In designing, there were various trade-offs on which information should be included or excluded, and from diverse perspectives: whether we’re giving the users too much information, whether the flow is appropriate…

Finding the sweet spot for information volume required me to communicate closely with Gwen and the business team, as well as group companies, which was really difficult and required a lot of time.

Rizki:
Since the Wallet screen was going to showcase the various services of our group companies, we assumed both the new screen and each individual service would have to withstand a large volume of traffic. Therefore, we jointly conducted a series of performance tests with those companies for the integration, which was particularly memorable for me.

What is your team’s vibe?

Windy:
We had to tweak the design occasionally, but our team is always very proactive and cooperative, so we were able to resolve such issues quickly.

John:
We were able to work closely together because the project members were very easy to communicate with, and always open to suggestions.

What do you want to take on in the future?

Ting:
The thing I value most in my work is taking a user-oriented approach.
To that end, I want to provide solutions in the PayPay app that come from an understanding of users’ needs fostered through implementing user interviews and surveys. At the same time, I hope to strike the balance between those needs and our company and its business strategies in the designs I create moving forward.

Rizki:
I would like to deliver a slew of features through the PayPay app to make the lives of PayPay users even more convenient. I also hope to drive our group synergies through active communications among stakeholders, especially among group companies.

Gwen:
The Wallet screen features transaction history and analysis sections, which I would like to make more convenient and user friendly in the future. Moreover, I would be happy if I could contribute to the company’s sales performance by designing a system which reduces users’ burden, allowing them to use our financial services easily.

And a message for our readers, please!

Rizki:
PayPay has a massive user base. We are now moving out of our initial growth phase and provide our services to over 60 million users. At PayPay, you can be involved in work that influences society at scale.

John:
We would love to work with product-crafting engineers, those of you who want to find something challenging in your work, and those on the hunt for an environment that requires diversity and professionalism.

Gwen:
If you want to plan, design, or develop products that are deeply embedded in the daily lives of many people, PayPay is the perfect place for you. PayPay is characterized by its diversity, meaning you can work with people from many different cultures and backgrounds.

Ting:
For those who want to work in a flat and diverse workplace, I highly recommend joining PayPay.

Windy:
PayPay is the best place to create products that have a big impact on society. I’m sure our diverse environment is teeming with wonderful experiences that await you. We look forward to meeting you!

*Job openings and employee affiliations are current as of the time of the interview.