Abra is a powerful, yet simple investment app that sets itself apart from competitors with the following distinctions:
Enables users to invest in the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Token (BIT10)
Allows users to buy crypto with credit cards
Has strong industry backing from American Express
Abra isn’t yet top of mind when it comes to investing in crypto. Currently, that distinction belongs to Coinbase. In order to improve Abra’s market penetration, I have detailed 2 opportunities that I, as a candidate for the Associate Product Manager position, can potentially help address.
#1 Real Time Tracking of the Crypto Markets
Enable real time tracking of the crypto market right within the app. Coinbase and the Apple Stocks app currently has charts within their respective apps that allow users to see how specific assets are doing throughout a point in time. It lets users keep a pulse on the markets.
COINBASE EXAMPLE: Graphs from the get-go
Coinbase homescreen showcases graphs for each cryptocurrency
Tapping into each currency will give you a graph that you can segment via different timeframes. You can also place your finger on the graph to pinpoint exact price points at specific dates/times.
This feature can be further improved in the future to track the gains and losses of each of the user’s cryptocurrency investments in his/her portfolio. Adding popular stock investment order types such as Market and Limit can also be on the roadmap.
Another iteration would allow users to carve out “separate investment funds” i.e. a Honeymoon fund or vacation fund which will be marked as funded when the selected value has been met. Users can also invite other users to contribute to the fund as well in a similar fashion as GoFundMe or HoneyFund.
#2 Improve “Send to an Abra user” feature
As a user myself, I am currently confused regarding what the “Send to an Abra user” CTA does. After clicking the button, I see my contact list, which the app confusingly labels as “Abra Users”. Only when I attempt to send to myself do I realize that this feature is to send money. This experience can be improved. Sending bitcoin/money to other users can be as simple and easy as sending/receiving funds from Venmo or the Square Cash app.
ABRA “SEND TO AN ABRA USER” FEATURE ANALYSIS: A LITTLE CONFUSING
“Send to an Abra user” CTA meaning isn’t clear
Button directs to user’s contact list that shows “Abra Users” at the top which can be confusing
VENMO EXAMPLE: A SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
Social Feed on Venmo
Homepage showcases a social feed of people who recently paid their peers on Venmo. Paying someone is as simple as clicking on the top right “notepad with pen & dollar sign” icon.
Easily Select Who to Pay/Request Payment
Only those who have a Venmo account will show up. For those who don’t have Venmo, you can still send him/her/them a request/payment and those users will need to register before they can pay/receive payment.
Easily Send/Request Money to Venmo User(s)
Simply type the amount you want to request/pay and state “What’s it for?” and whether you want this transaction to be public or private. Click on the request or pay button to initiate/complete transaction.
SQUARE CASH EXAMPLE: SUPER SIMPLE UX
Square Cash’s intuitive home screen s
howcases a simple key pad and request/pay CTAs
After clicking one of the CTAs, the user is directed to select who he/she wants to send the request to and the reason for the request. Tapping on the top right CTA initiates / completes transaction.
Long Term
The success of Abra will be dependent on improving/creating relevant investment products and iterating on the app experience while continually educating new and existing users on the value of investing in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are here to stay. However, I believe the long term play is for Abra to grow the cryptocurrency market through finding innovative ways to increase adoption and usage.
Cryptocurrency Investment News Hub
Abra can be a news hub for cryptocurrency to continue to get users to keep returning to the app. Abra can aggregate and curate the most recent news on cryptocurrency investing from the most reliable sources for users to stay in the know. Furthermore, Abra can also push its amazing blog posts into the app so users can get in-app notifications regarding new Abra editorial content and read directly within the app. This is similar to how the Yahoo Sports App curates and aggregates news that users can click on and view in app:
Yahoo Sports App features curated news that users can click on.
Users read news directly in the app.
After validating that this feature is technically feasible and aligns with Abra’s long term business goals, we will need to evaluate user interest. We could survey our existing users via in-app notifications and email to gauge interest. If 33% of users respond they are interested, we should work with the Design and Engineering teams on building an MVP to A/B test for another round of validation. Based on the A/B test data, we would decide whether to iterate further, expand to a larger audience, or scrap the feature all together.
Expanding Real World Acceptance of Bitcoin through Exclusive Partnerships
Another long term play would be to build strong partnerships with POS systems such as Square, Clover, and Breadcrumb to streamline acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies exclusively through the Abra app.
Abra can further realize its vision of being an open, global financial system through becoming a digital wallet that is accepted all over the world. With countries like China becoming a cashless society that doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, there is an opportunity for Abra to partner with Alipay and WeChat Pay to allow Abra Users to use their Abra Wallet to transact with those 2 prevalent Chinese mobile payment solutions.
Highlighting websites such as Purse.IO that offer discounts for using Bitcoin is another way to encourage Bitcoin adoption and investing. We would do extensive surveys and user research on our target audiences first before prioritizing the partnerships to go after.
Summary
Crypto is a very interesting and exciting marketplace. As it is still an emerging technology, I am really excited for the opportunity to join Abra’s Product Management team to delight end users and shape the direction of crypto investments in the long run.