Defining Business Objectives and KPIs for an Integrated Digital Product Combining Shared Mobility and Financial Services
Introduction and Context of the MeuMove Case
MeuMove is a fictional company operating in the shared mobility market. Through its mobile application, users and customers can find drivers who are close to their location and can take them from point A to point B, with payment for the journey made through the app.
Recently, the company added new features to the application. Users can now:
- make instant bank transfers;
- make payments using Multibanco payment references;
- top up the balance of the digital wallet associated with MeuMove;
- top up their mobile phone balance.
As a result, in addition to its mobility-focused business model, the company is simultaneously developing a new business area based on digital financial services, expanding the product’s value proposition and promoting greater integration between mobility and financial services within the same digital ecosystem.
The Product and the New Business Model
MeuMove is diversifying its core business, “Shared Mobility — MobiTech”, by expanding into the financial services sector — FinTech. Both sectors are technology-driven, but because they operate in different markets, they necessarily require different approaches when defining Business Objectives and KPIs.
Focusing on the features related to the FinTech sector, the following have been implemented: instant bank transfers; payments using Multibanco payment references; topping up the balance of the MeuMove digital wallet; and mobile phone top-ups.
Of these, I would say that only two are directly related to MeuMove’s core business in the short term and will therefore have a faster and more direct impact on the shared mobility product:
- making payments using Multibanco payment references;
- topping up the balance of the digital wallet associated with MeuMove.
On the other hand, the other two features are, in my view, much more closely related to the FinTech business itself and do not directly impact, or will not directly impact, MeuMove’s MobiTech business:
- making instant bank transfers;
- topping up mobile phones.
In other words, for the first two features we can and should define Business Objectives which, because they are cross-business objectives, we can assume will also contribute to MeuMove’s company-level objectives. For the two features mentioned afterwards, however, because they directly affect only MeuMove’s FinTech business, they will certainly have an impact on the company, but without further information it is more difficult to work with them globally across MeuMove’s MobiTech business. Therefore, I will focus on the first two features.
In practice, we would need to understand which Company Objectives relate specifically to those two FinTech features and determine whether, in the future, there will be projects to incorporate them in some way into the MobiTech business.
Regarding the new FinTech business model, it will be based on acquiring new customers who already use the MeuMove platform through its shared mobility product, with this becoming the main acquisition and growth channel. Naturally, there are also other acquisition channels for these new features.
Strategic Business Objectives
Before getting into frameworks and methodologies, it is important to state that, in my view, the objectives of any product, and consequently of the team responsible for it, should always be aligned with the Company’s Strategic Objectives.
In this context, we will define Objectives, OKRs and KPIs for each business line: MobiTech and FinTech.
There are countless methodologies for defining Objectives. I intend to present the OKR — Objectives and Key Results — methodology. However, I will start from the S.M.A.R.T. framework for establishing, or checking whether, the initial Objective from which the Key Results will emerge is properly defined, considering the S.M.A.R.T. methodology.
Identifying each letter of the S.M.A.R.T. methodology for setting Objectives:
S — Specific — They should address exactly what is intended to be achieved, who is involved and where it will take place.
M — Measurable — They should simply indicate whether the objective is being achieved and where we stand in terms of performance. Key Results can be considered here.
A — Attainable — They should be both ambitious and achievable — a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).
R — Relevant — They should contribute in some way to long-term objectives and be aligned with business priorities.
T — Time-Bound — They should have a finite time period.
Below are examples of what the Business Objectives could look like, based on the features:
making payments using Multibanco payment references;
topping up the balance of the digital wallet associated with MeuMove.
Objective 1
Achieve a 20% adoption rate for Multibanco payment-reference payments among MeuMove MobiTech users over the next 6 months.
Objective 2
Drive recurring use of the MeuMove Wallet among 30% of active platform users over the next 6 months. (Assuming that this is more advantageous for the business in terms of costs, fraud and collection times.)
A Brief Note — OKRs — Objectives & Key Results
I would like to add a note regarding OKRs.
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I chose to use the S.M.A.R.T. framework to define the Objectives. However, I could have followed the OKR methodology without needing to use the S.M.A.R.T. framework to define or validate the OKR Objective. This is because, within the OKR methodology itself, when defining the Objective and the Key Results, there are “similarities” or “equivalence” with the S.M.A.R.T. framework and, necessarily and “unconsciously”, we are applying it.
Put very simply:
- Objectives should be Attainable and Relevant.
- Key Results should be Specific, Measurable and Time-Bound.
In other words, by applying the OKR methodology, we are not being less objective. The difference is that, while objectivity in the S.M.A.R.T. framework is immediately visible in the Objective itself, under the OKR methodology objectivity is distributed across the creation of the Key Results that form and support the Objective.
Metrics
I am considering the metrics for the two features that matter to both business lines, as discussed in the “The Product and the New Business Model” section.
Making payments using Multibanco payment references:
# Multibanco payment references generated
# Payments made via Multibanco payment reference
# Users who activated the Multibanco payment-reference feature
# Expired Multibanco payment references
Topping up the balance of the digital wallet associated with MeuMove:
# Daily, weekly and monthly wallet top-ups
Average top-up value per wallet user
# Payments made via Wallet
# Users who activated the Wallet feature
Achieve a 20% adoption rate for Multibanco payment-reference payments among MeuMove MobiTech users over the next 6 months.
KPIs for the Shared Mobility and Financial Services Products
I am considering the KPIs — Key Performance Indicators — for the features that matter to both business lines, as discussed in the “The Product and the New Business Model” section. Achieve a 20% adoption rate for Multibanco payment-reference payments among MeuMove MobiTech users over the next 6 months.
Objective 1
Achieve a 20% adoption rate for Multibanco payment-reference payments among MeuMove MobiTech users over the next 6 months.
KPIs
Adoption rate of the Multibanco payment-reference feature
Conversion rate of Multibanco payment references (# paid references / # generated references)
Let us assume that a Multibanco payment reference expires after 48 hours.
Objective 2
Drive recurring use of the MeuMove Wallet among 30% of active platform users over the next 6 months. (Assuming that this is more advantageous for the business in terms of costs, fraud and collection times.)
KPIs
Adoption rate of the Wallet feature
Recurring Wallet usage rate
Average total amount loaded per user per week (total monetary value of a user’s top-ups per week / # Wallet top-ups made by that user during the week). If this is difficult from a data perspective, we can instead use:
Average total weekly Wallet top-up value (total monetary value of weekly top-ups / # weekly top-ups).
Defining the North Star Metric for the Shared Mobility and Financial Services Products
By definition, the North Star Metric should represent the metric that best captures the value delivered by the product to its users and, simultaneously, to the business. The tendency is to immediately turn to monthly revenue generated by these two features. Although this is one of the Company’s most important financial metrics, it means nothing to the user and therefore does not fully demonstrate that the product is delivering on its value proposition.
Taking into account all the reasoning around Context, Business Objectives, Metrics and KPIs defined throughout this article for MeuMove, I consider the most appropriate North Star Metric for MeuMove to be the number of Monthly Active Paying Users (MAPU). In other words, the percentage of monthly active platform users who used at least one of the payment features offered by MeuMove (payments via Multibanco payment references or Wallet) during the last 30 days.
The choice of this metric is aligned with the strategic business objectives defined above. On the one hand, it measures adoption of the new payment features by users of the mobility service. On the other, it makes it possible to track recurring usage over time, reflecting the value actually delivered by the product.
From the user’s perspective, using these features translates into greater convenience, flexibility and integration of the digital experience provided by the platform. From the business perspective, greater use of these features may contribute to higher user retention within the MeuMove ecosystem, create new monetisation opportunities and reduce dependence on external payment methods.
Conclusion
Diversifying MeuMove’s business into the FinTech sector represents an opportunity to expand the platform’s value proposition and strengthen its relationship with users. However, introducing new features, particularly payment features, also requires objectives and metrics that make it possible to monitor their evolution and their direct and indirect impact on the business (for example, attempted fraud, tighter margins and API costs).
Throughout this article, strategic objectives aligned with the SMART framework were defined, the main metrics and KPIs associated with the selected features were identified, and a North Star Metric capable of reflecting the value delivered to the user and the business was proposed. Above all, the aim was to demonstrate that defining relevant indicators should always be a consequence of the product’s strategic objectives, rather than an isolated data-analysis exercise.
