Was there ever really a time before Google Password Manager (GPM)? Ah, yes, 8 years ago…the memory is fleeting, 2015. GPM… what would I do without you?!

We were all there at some point, right? The same username and password for literally everything. We grew up, eventually, and began making new passwords for every site (appending a “!” counts). No matter the medium, credentials were stored and organized by some means whether mentally, physically, or digitally… but all manually.

Then at some point in our browsing and account-making careers, without foresight, without consciousness …. poof — our problems were solved. As if by magic, one by one, our credentials were eventually given to GPM.

No more storing, inventing, remembering, or typing!

No more effort.

The User Flywheel

Inevitably as a user continues to browse the web, the pain adds up. New websites, new job, new accounts, new passwords, new pins… AH!! Until one day, that Google Password Manager suggestion just looks too tempting — the path of least resistance.

Once taken, there’s almost never a way to turn back… Well, there is, but who’s going to painstakingly reset a bunch of passwords? Probably nobody.

Now all we have to do is click a button and we almost immediately get to do what we came for: browse a site, with less effort.

Thiccy Moat

The craziest thing about GPM isn’t that it solves our problems so effortlessly; that’s not what makes this the best product ever. It’s the best product ever because in solving our problems so effortlessly, it leverages its inherent stickiness to build and reinforce one of Google’s core moats.

Google’s advertising moat is made up of many things (like infrastructure and tooling) but none is more valuable than its iron-tight grip on every single individual’s preferences, interests, and behavioral patterns.

Of all the features of GPM, most important is the fact that GPM is attached to a users’ Google Profile. This means that passwords are managed, stored, remembered, and recalled across all devices, as long as a user is logged in.

This feature means that Google is able to enforce a user’s loyalty to Google chrome on every device, and track even more enriched data such as location.

In Conclusion

Through the user flywheel described above, users almost always inevitably reach an unconscious pain threshold at which they, without thought, allow Google Password Manager to solve their password management problems. Once on-boarded, users are then internally encouraged to continue using Google Chrome across all devices. This enriches Google not only with a users’ computer browsing behavior and data, but also inevitably a users’ mobile device(s) location and preferences, enabling incredibly powerful ad-targeting.

To sum it all up, Google Password Manager is an amazing product because it solves an inherent and painful user problem, in-turn inherently enforcing their browsers’ stickiness, thus enabling a widening of Google’s greatest moat: personalized data for ad-targeting.

Try to stop using GPM, I bet you can’t.

** I do want to acknowledge that there are popular password managers like LastPass, but those are effortful and require one to have built up enough conscious pain such that they seek out a solution (also, many cost money). Rather, Google Password Manager has built-in paths of least resistances, hooks, and triggers almost every day that a user is doing their normal thing — there is no conscious decision-making, just an easier route available at all times.

I haven’t written on Medium in a while, so if you enjoyed this and want to encourage me to write more, give me some claps and maybe a follow to let me know! Also, feel free to check out my other writings.

Michael

Google Password Manager is Epic was originally published in Product Coalition on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Back in August of 2018, I published a piece on Robinhood’s glorious and calculated growth story. As of late 2019, they announced their ten-millionth customer account opened. However, in my opinion, this chapter of growth is over. In this article, I discuss their hurdles and mistakes and illustrate why Robinhood’s next chapter will likely be slow and painful.

Part I — Three Percent Interest Rate

December 13, 2018 — In an attempt to widen their moat, Robinhood announces a ridiculous 3% interest rate on their zero-fee checking and savings account, higher than any credible bank offers. That’s great, right? Except it isn’t, because it’s illegal, according to the SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), Robinhood’s insurer. Yikes!

Part II — Infinite Money

In October of 2019, /u/ControlTheNarrative, a trader on /r/Wallstreetbets, discovered and published a bug allowing users to exploit their Robinhood Gold margin accounts for infinite leverage by selling margin-covered calls using margin, and using the proceeds to sell more margin-covered calls. About a month later, Robinhood acknowledged this by working diligently with the SEC, reversing all trades used in the exploit, fixing the bug permanently, and making a public statement. Just kidding. Instead, Robinhood acknowledged this by banning the accounts of those who exploited the bug. Not only was Robinhood at fault for not finding this bug in the first place, but they enabled their customers to become indebted. Also, aren’t bug bounties a thing? So much for “democratizing finance for all”.

Part III — Brokerage Fee Wars

Since their foundings (you can read about it in the Old Testament), old school brokerages like Fidelity and Vanguard have relied upon commissions-per-trade as their main source of revenue. Decades later, in October of 2019, that all changed. Several brokerages, namely Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and E-Trade, in what became known as the “brokerage fee wars”, announced their plan to roll out commission-free trading, and soon after, even the oldest of the old brokerages, Fidelity and Vanguard, followed suit. Adiós, value-statement!

Part IV— System-Wide Outage

And finally, today, March 2nd, 2020, in the midst of the Corona Virus sell-offs, the Dow Jones Index returned its single greatest digit gain in the history of its existence. Today was a glorious day for investors and traders alike…(drum roll please)

…except today also happened to be the day that every Robinhood user experienced a system-wide outage for the entirety of the trading day. No buying positions, no transferring money, but worst of all, no selling positions. This meant that those in levered positions in either direction were unable to take risk off the table today, and unless fixed overnight, will not be able to tomorrow either. To add salt to Robinhood traders’ wounds, it’s maybeee possible that the problem was caused by Robinhood engineers not coding for the leap year… Further evidence suggests that this happened the last time we had a leap day, in 2016. LOL.

Concluding Thoughts

Since their founding, Robinhood has consistently attracted tons of users within the demographic of broke and young adults because it boasted a completely unique commission-free structure, an elegant and simple interface and user experience, and a founding team of budding young adults, not unlike their user base.

Now, their commission-free structure has been adopted by their competitors, their user experience is completely unreliable and often broken, and their leadership team has proven irresponsible.

Forfeiting your main value-add is bad, but breaking your own customers’ trusts (and wallets and credit scores) is worse. Regaining that trust will prove to be a slow, arduous, and painful hill to climb.

What’s the value in commission-free when you can’t trade?

What’s the point of a sexy interface that doesn’t function?

What’s the purpose of a mission statement that isn’t followed?

I believe Robinhood is going downhill, at least until something changes.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed this and would like to read more, clap this article and/or follow me! 😎

My Two Cents: A Robinhood Failure Analysis (a sequel) was originally published in Product Coalition on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“You’re responsible adults. If you need to use the bathroom, just leave quietly.”

Yes, I have a small bladder. Yes, I abused this privilege. I didn’t use the bathroom, I used it. It was second-semester senior year of high school. Amidst the lull of teachers and teenage angst, all I could think about was striking it rich in biotech. Everyday like clockwork, I would leave my seat quietly like a responsible adult and I would walk to the bathroom to sit on the toilet, only to stare at my precious Robinhood account of $300. How did stock trading, an activity for “grown ups”, become so entrenched in my 18 year old mind?

In this piece, I discuss what I believe led to the hyper-growth of Robinhood and its remarkable ability to attract such a young user base.

What is Robinhood and what is its goal?

Robinhood is a “freemium” stock brokerage with the unique value proposition of commission-free trading. free. free. FREE.

‘How do they make money?’, you might ask.

“The easiest way to get 1 million people paying is to get 1 billion people using.” — Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote

As with most freemium models, the company needs to be able to attract a ton of free users, while converting a small percentage into paying customers. In Robinhood’s case, it is able to profit off both segments of users. As its base source of revenue, Robinhood makes money from interest earned on its customers’ cash balance. The paying customers are those that choose to sign up for a margin account, or Robinhood Gold.

With these two sources of revenue in mind, Robinhood’s main goal is to expand and retain its user base.

So how does it accomplish its goal?

Product / Market Fit

“Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” — Marc Andreessen

Good Market ✓

I believe the notion and impression that investing is for “grown ups” stems from the fact that commission fees are too costly for young people. Therein lies the blue ocean (the “good market”): an untapped segment of people who 1. want to invest but can’t afford it or 2. haven’t considered investing.

Satisfactory Product ✓

By designing the app with novice users in mind, Robinhood is able to capture the youngest group of investors. Coincidentally, these investors are also the most technology savvy, and the most likely to use social media — allowing for explosive viral growth and rapid market share capitalization.

And capture market share they do. The proof is in the pudding (lol): As of March 2018, Robinhood is valued at $5.6 billion, a valuation worth over a third of E*Trade. On top of that, Robinhood now has over four million brokerage accounts, three hundred thousand more than E*Trade.

User Experience and Interface

If you were new to investing, which terminal is more inviting?

By utilizing a no-bullshit, minimalistic theme, Robinhood allows even the most novice of users to become investors. This is exactly what their target audience desires and exactly what the large financial service institutions are lacking.

Spicy

What better way to incentivize your customers than to give them exactly what they came for: money?

To really spice things up, Robinhood throws in a variable reward mechanism — a chance at a share of an expensive stock.

With such a fun and “free” prize on the line, customers become advocates for Robinhood, essentially an enormous team of brand ambassadors on commission. Combine this with the aforementioned social media inclination and you’ve got an explosive rate of growth.

Casting Nets

Buying and selling stock was the only functionality available when Robinhood was first publicly released in 2015. Since then, a flurry of features have steadily been rolled out.

Nov 1, 2017 — Robinhood introduces Robinhood Web, desktop platform. (Appeal to those who are smartphone-averse)

Dec 13, 2017 — Robinhood introduces the ability to trade options free. (Appeal to options traders + risk*)

Feb 22, 2018 — Robinhood introduces the ability to trade Cryptocurrency. (Appeal to crypto traders + risk*)

Jun 13, 2018 — Robinhood introduces the ability to write multi-leg options. (Appeal to seasoned options traders + risk*)

Aug 1, 2018 — Robinhood introduces extended market hours for everyone. (Appeal to day traders and active traders)

*risk — Those who tend to take on more risky investments are those with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Who does that sound like? Young people who don’t have much money, don’t have any dependents, and don’t have anything to lose? Yup!

With every feature rollout, Robinhood solidifies its appeal to young investors while simultaneously casting a net over another customer segment, seizing yet another cohort of users.

All things considered, it is absolutely no surprise that Robinhood has become a Unicorn.

There you have it: my 2 cents on Robinhood’s absurd user growth and adoption.

Thanks for reading! If you liked this and want more, clap or follow me!

My Two Cents: A Robinhood Growth Analysis was originally published in Product Coalition on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Overview

How did Tinder, popular dating app, grow from launching across a few college campuses in 2012, to 12 million daily matches in just 2 years? I believe, intentionally or otherwise, it utilized a rendition of The Hook Model, a user retention recipe proposed by Nir Eyal in his book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. So what is the Hook Model? Glad you asked, my dedicated reader… today, we learn through fictional character Jimmy Jr.

Trigger

The Hook Model begins with a trigger. A trigger is defined as an actuator of a specific behavior. A trigger is something that the user sees, almost always a CTA (Call To Action). In the case of Tinder and most mobile apps, it manifests itself as a notification.

“Ding!” hears Jimmy Jr, handsome protagonist. “Start swiping again!” he reads. A thick air of suspense fills the atmosphere.

Action

Jimmy swipes left for profiles that don’t interest him. He swipes right for those that do. When he inevitably matches with a partner who catches his fancy, he will likely send a poor excuse of a pick up line. What do these things have in common? They are all performed in anticipation of something. Jimmy swipes left in anticipation of a future profile being right-swipe-worthy. Jimmy swipes right in anticipation of a match. Jimmy sends a text to a match in anticipation of reciprocation and validation. Thus, an action in the Hook Model is defined as a behavior performed in anticipation of a reward.

Variable Reward

“It’s 2:49 a.m.”, Jimmy thinks, as he lies in bed alone staring at his phone, a feeling he is all too familiar with. A dash of self-deprecating thoughts. A pinch of negative feedback loop. The defeatist concoction simmers in his head. Agonizing seconds turn to apathetic minutes as he swipes with no results, until…

Despite the weary-eyed apathy, despite his realization that it was 2:49 a.m., Jimmy kept swiping. Why?

The answer lies in human nature. The seemingly endless conveyer belt of profiles delivered to Jimmy after each swipe feeds his human need to know. The same motivation behind scientific discovery throughout history is the same mechanism happening here, the human need to uncover what is unknown.

Every right-swipe that yielded “nothing” at least uncovered what was once unknown. Every new profile shoved in his face thereafter is yet another opportunity to feed this intrinsic human desire. And with only two options: a match or a lack thereof, the possibility of a match is always in the back of his head. This is what is called a variable reward. The unpredictability and the prospect of winning the positive option, no matter the odds, is what drives the gambling industry, the stock market, and in this case, Jimmy’s nightly Tinder binge. With all this time and emotion invested into Tinder, the last step is…

Investment

Jimmy may have asked someone to take photos for him, specifically for Tinder. Jimmy may have carefully chosen his 6 profile photos. Jimmy may have edited those photos. Jimmy may have spent a couple minutes thinking of his caption. Jimmy may have asked his buddies for their opinion on his profile. The list goes on.

By definition, an investor invests with the intention of realizing a profit. With Tinder, and arguably, many successful mobile apps, investment comes in the form of time and effort. Jimmy, our investor, has invested his time and effort with the intention of realizing a romantic partner, and thus, is left in anticipation for …

a Trigger.

If you liked what you read, leave a 👏 below :-) Follow me with expectations of stronger writing as this is my first article on Medium.

A Tinder Product Analysis à la Jimmy Jr. was originally published in Product Coalition on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.