Venmo Feature Design: Running a Shared Household's Bills for Roommates

You are a product manager at PayPal working on Venmo, its peer-to-peer payments app. Design a feature that makes it easier for people who share a home with roommates to keep track of, and settle, the costs they share. ```hint Start from what makes a home different Before proposing anything, ask what makes sharing a home financially different from splitting a single restaurant bill among friends, and let that difference shape the design. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the goal to deepen engagement among existing Venmo users, to win people who now track shared bills in a dedicated splitting app or a spreadsheet, or to grow payment volume? - Must every roommate have a Venmo account, or should the feature still work when one roommate pays some other way? - Are bills paid to outside parties, such as a landlord or a utility company, in scope, or only reimbursements between roommates? - Can the design use what Venmo already knows, such as card purchases and past payments between the roommates, or should it rely only on what users enter? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal tied to Venmo's business and a specific roommate segment chosen with a reason - Pain points particular to shared households, such as recurring bills, unequal splits, chasing late payers, and people moving in or out - A prioritized set of solutions with one first version described concretely, including how it fits Venmo's existing request and payment flows - Success metrics with guardrails, such as unpaid balances, disputes between roommates, and privacy complaints - Risks and trade-offs, including the privacy of household spending on a social payments app and competition from dedicated bill-splitting tools ### Follow-up Questions - A roommate moves out in the middle of the month and still owes money. What does your design do? - Venmo has a social feed. What, if anything, about rent and utility payments should be visible to friends, and why? - How would you tell whether the feature brought new activity onto Venmo rather than reshuffling payments roommates were already making on it?