Context: This case study was a Product Management Challenge issued to me at an interview. I really enjoyed the experience and had the choice to pull together a response in either 2 pages or no more than 10 slides. Check out my approach and let me know your thoughts! Disclaimer: I am a continuous learner so by the time you have consumed this my Product Thinking probably would have evolved. Link to Backlog: https://trello.com/b/JP4LIdnB/whatsapp

1. Whatsapp vs Skype Challenge
By Andy Ayim
Twitter: @andyshvc
www.andyayim.com

2. Product Manager’s Challenge
You're a product manager at WhatsApp. Things have been going
perfectly since you joined but suddenly out of the blue Microsoft's
Skype (although thought to be a dying app never to be
resurrected) has turned things overnight and their growth rate is
insane approaching 1 billion users and will eclipse your MAUs in a
few months.
The CEO of your company immediately pulls you into a tense
boardroom meeting where he lays out the fact that this could
break the company if nothing is done. You're the company's only
hope for survival and have been given full ownership of the
product's immediate direction in order to turn this around.

3. What would you do?

4. Current
Situation
SITUATION > PROBLEM > SOLUTION
Biggest impact is on retention as users choose to switch platforms
from Whatsapp to Skype.
It can cost up to 7x to acquire new customers than retain existing customers
1 million installs
80% send their 1st
message in 7 days
70% send 10+
messages in 7 days
1 billion DAUs
Do Nothing
900,000 installs
80% send their 1st
message in 7 days
35% send 10+
messages in 7 days
500 million DAUs
Do
Something
RETENTION
PROBLEM
?
Understanding the Only Metric That Matters

5. OKRs: Ruthless focus on retaining our core users
OBJECTIVE
Increase Daily Active Users in order to retain our core users
and continue to grow LTV
KEY RESULT
1. Increase DAU’s who send 10+ messages in a week
from 70% to 90% in 90 days
2. Increase LTV: CAC ratio to 4:1

6. Highest Risk Assumptions to Validate
Business Customers
1. Core users are leaving the platform
because:
○ Users cannot hold Group
Phone or Video Calls
○ No Business features such as
Skype’s Chatbots
○ No discovery feature to find
Businesses on Whatsapp
1. The number 1 value a customer wants to get out
of Whatsapp is effortless messaging between
businesses and customers
2. Whatsapp will make money by selling services to
Businesses such as Chatbots to automate
onboarding and customer support
3. My primary competition in the market will be
Skype
4. Whatsapp will beat them due to the price of our
Business Services
5. My biggest product risk is that users may not be
willing to pay for Whatsapp’s new Business
Services
=Riskiest assumption to validate

7. Prioritisation
Low
Low
Hi
Hi
Business Value
Risk
no discovery function to find
Businesses on Whatsapp
users may not be willing to
pay for new Business Services
users cannot hold Group Phone or
Video Calls
Would users be willing
to pay for it?
If so/ not why?

8. We believe that customers want to be able to hold Group Phone and Video Calls
3
Hypothesis Statements
We believe that Business users are willing to pay for new Business services.
1
We know this is true when over 90% of participants sign up for a paid services within 60 days post-launch.
We believe that customers want to be able to discover Businesses on Whatsapp
2
We will know this is true when over 70% of participants sign up and use our discovery services within 14
days post-launch
We will know this is true when over 70% of interview participants reveal this as a pain point from conducting
20 interviews with core customers

9. Zero Code
Experiments
1. Manual MVP “AndyBot”
2. Landing Page Test
3. Customer interviews
We could explore different
channels for little or no budget
such as:
● Twitter/ Instagram/
Facebook
● HackerNews
● Trial Businesses
Newsletter e.g.
Spaces4Hire
● Spaces4Hire customer
facing staff
We believe that Business users are willing to pay for new Business services.
1
Over 90% of participants sign up for paid services within 60 days post-launch.

10. Goal-orientated roadmap
Now (0-30 days) Next (31 - 60) Future (61 - 90)
Name Manual MVP “Andybot” Pricing Plan A/B Test Automated Chatbot
Goal Validate the unique value
proposition of Whatsapp’s new
Business Service
Validate customers are willing to pay
for the new service
Increase Daily Active Users in order
to retain our core users and
continue to grow LTV
Features Human controlled Chatbot for:
● Onboarding
● Customer Support
● Booking Services
Three page landing page:
● Unique Value Proposition
● Three pricing plans
● 30 day Free trial + enter
payment details
Automated Chatbot for:
● Onboarding
● Customer Support
Metrics Over 90% of participants sign up for
the new business service within 14
days post-launch.
Over 50% of participants pay for trial
services within 30 days post-launch
● Increase DAU’s who send 10+
messages in a week from 70%
to 90%
● Increase LTV: CAC ratio to 4:1
Risks &
Mitigations
● Doesn’t consider complexity of
onboarding or customer
support processes
● Start the trial with Businesses
with easily replicable
processes such as Virgin
Holidays
● Businesses may not see the
value of the service in just 30
days and therefore leave
before the trial ends
● Prioritise ‘Happy path’ use
case that delivers value within
a short timeframe then iterate
● Assumes a standardised
solution could be rolled out
to a large number of
businesses
● Businesses should be able to
tailor the Chatbot for their
process (80% standard, 20%
80% certainty 20% certainty

11. Build, Measure Learn
https://trello.com/b/JP4LIdnB/whatsapp
1. Establish a hypothesis
2. Determine a quantitative or qualitative
method to evaluate that hypothesis.
3. Build an experiment to test that
hypothesis
STEP 1
1. Build an experiment to test that
hypothesis
2. Measure meaningful metrics
3. Learn whether we have taken a step in the
right direction or not (pivot or shut down!)
STEP 2

12. Appendix
1. The Only Metric That Matters by Josh Elam (Greylock Partners)
2. Customer Acquisition can cost 7x Retention by Kissmetrics blog
3. Lean UX Book Review by Marc Abraham
4. RICE Framework for Prioritisation by Intercom blog
5. Storytelling by Sarah Doody
6. The Go Agile Product Roadmap by Roman Pichler
7. Whatsapp Business Services by TechCrunch