Outflanking Incumbent Products With AHA Moments

One of the chief ways in which we help software companies is by introducing “aha” moments in their new products. It’s almost not necessary to define “aha” moments. The term is quite self-explanatory. We see them all around us. A few “aha” moments that come readily to my mind are: Google Assistant: Google Assistant is … Read more

When Upgrades Turn Out To Be Downgrades

In Latest Is Not Greatest, I covered four products whose new versions have omitted key features from their older versions. Microsoft Windows Lenovo Laptop Apple iPhone ATM In this post, I’ll speculate on the causes of the “latest is not greatest” trend and how users can cope with it if their upgrades turn out to … Read more

PINless Card Payments – Innovative Or Harebrained?

I’ve been asked many times to weigh in on the new PINless regime for credit and debit card payments in India. Most recently it was on Quora, where I was asked to answer the following question: Why is it not required to enter a PIN to authenticate a credit or debit card in many countries? … Read more

Are Digital Natives Losing Their Data Chops?

According to the popular narrative, new age companies leverage data in virtually every facet of their business (as against traditional companies that run on intuition). To a large extent, this belief is right. Many digital natives owe their spectacular rise in the last decade or two to their prowess with data and analytics. A big … Read more

One – And Maybe Only – Way To Revive Payments Banks

Every time I go to this leading public sector bank, I see a long line of people outside the branch. “Outside the branch” is the operative phrase because these people literally stand outside the branch. I found out that they’re migrant laborers who queue up to send money from large cities where they work to their family … Read more

Five Google Backdoors You Probably Didn’t Know

Sometimes you can use Google to find information stored in a certain website or app that you can’t by using the website or app itself. I call these hacks “Google Backdoors”. Here are five Google Backdoors I use regularly. #1. BUSINESS FINDER A new restaurant opened in my neighborhood. Its owner said they delivered via … Read more

Communications – Low Hanging Fruit For Enhancing CX

In Poor Communications: The Seventh Deadly CX Killer, I described the painful experience of activating the new credit cards I recently received from my bank. To recap, I didn’t get a paper PIN mailer as was customary during the previous renewals, and the instructions given by the bank on how to activate the new cards on … Read more

Why Have Payments Banks Flopped?

When Payments Banks were launched in 2014-15, they were greeted with a lot of fanfare. They were expected to bring hundreds of millions of unbanked Indians into the folds of organized financial services because their digital-only footprint would make it cost-effective from them to go to the rural hinterlands where traditional banks with branches have not … Read more