Moneybase PM Interview Assessment

Overview

This case study was part of a Product Manager interview assessment for Moneybase, a comprehensive financial platform that enables users to manage their finances, make cross-border payments, exchange currencies, and invest in stocks. The assessment focused on how I would approach implementing a fractional shares trading feature.

Product Management Case Study: Fractional Shares Trading

For this interview assessment, I was asked how I would implement value-based trading (fractional shares), allowing clients to trade equity by value rather than by units. The feature was described as a priority for the executive committee with a tight 4-week implementation timeframe.

The Challenge

In the assessment scenario, I would be responsible for delivering this feature with a small team consisting of:

• 1 frontend developer
• 1 team lead
• 1 backend developer
• 1 QA team member

The team was already handling other features and day-to-day support, with one team member being new while another was very experienced with the codebase and business logic.

My Approach

Week 1: Initial Planning and Setup

I focused on defining the feature scope and gathering requirements. My priorities included:

• Defining detailed feature requirements
• Brainstorming technical approaches for value-based trades
• Breaking down the feature into smaller, manageable chunks
• Allocating initial tasks to team members based on expertise
• Identifying dependencies and coordinating with other teams
• Creating UI/UX suggestions including toggle switches, value input fields, and confirmation screens

For the technical implementation, I worked with the team lead to identify key system architecture modifications:

• Data model changes to accommodate fractional share representation
• Transaction record updates to log value-based trades
• New API endpoints for value-based trading
• Ensuring backward compatibility for users who prefer the existing method
• Implementing conversion logic to translate investment amounts into fractional shares

Weeks 2-3: Development and Testing

During the development phase, I established:

• Daily huddles for quick team sync-ups
• Weekly progress reviews with stakeholders
• Continued customer interviews for feedback
• Balanced workload management to handle existing priorities
• Early QA involvement to identify issues proactively
• Coordination with marketing to prepare for launch

Week 4: Launch Preparation

In the final week, I focused on:

• Deployment preparation
• User documentation and final team review
• Performance benchmarking
• Intensive testing and final bug fixes
• Security review
• Planning a phased rollout strategy (beta launch followed by full rollout)
• Creating educational resources for users

Post-Launch Monitoring

I established several KPIs to measure success:

• User adoption rate of the new feature
• User feedback and satisfaction scores
• Technical performance metrics (load times, error rates)
• Transaction volume comparison between fractional and unit-based trades
• User segmentation analysis
• Financial impact analysis
• Conversion tracking from educational materials to feature usage

Proposed Results

In my assessment response, I outlined how the fractional shares trading feature could be successfully implemented within the 4-week timeframe, allowing Moneybase users to invest specific monetary amounts rather than being limited to whole share purchases. This would make investing more accessible, particularly for users with smaller amounts to invest, and position Moneybase competitively in the fintech market.

Key Learnings

This project reinforced several important product management principles:

• Clear scope definition is essential for tight timelines
• Regular communication keeps stakeholders aligned and informed
• Breaking complex features into smaller components makes them manageable
• Early QA involvement reduces issues later in development
• User education is crucial for adoption of new financial features
• Balancing team workload requires careful planning when handling multiple priorities