Fintech product metrics: map business goals to a north star, KPIs and guardrails

Pick one fintech product you know well, such as a payments app, a digital bank, a lending product, a brokerage or a crypto exchange. Describe what the business behind it is trying to achieve, then define the key performance indicators (KPIs) you would use to tell whether the product is meeting those objectives. ```hint Start from how it makes money Before naming any metric, work out how the product earns revenue and what could hurt it, such as fraud, regulation or market swings. Each objective should then lead to a short list of KPIs rather than a long unranked catalog. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Can I choose any fintech product, including one from the company I am interviewing with, such as Coinbase's consumer crypto app? - Should the KPIs describe the health of the whole business, or the goals of one product team inside it? - Is the audience leadership reviewing the business, or a team setting its quarterly targets? - How much weight should risk and compliance metrics get next to growth and revenue? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A short, accurate description of the chosen product, its customers and how it earns money - Ranked business objectives that follow from that model, with the reasoning for the top one - One north-star metric and a KPI set across the customer journey, each KPI tied to an objective - Trust, fraud and compliance guardrails specific to a product that handles people's money - How outside forces such as market cycles or interest rates move the numbers, and how to read the KPIs despite them ### Follow-up Questions - Your north-star metric rises sharply in the same month the wider market surged. How do you separate the product's contribution from the market's? - Which KPI would you refuse to make a team target because it could push the product to harm customers, and why? - How would your KPI set change if the company's priority moved from growth to profitability?