Plooto Instant
Enhancing trust and security with Plooto's fastest payments feature, resulting in a 12% increase in adoption.
Introduction
Plooto develops financial tools for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to provide greater control, convenience, and freedom over their financial practices. Plooto’s main product is an AP/AR automation software that helps users manage their business payments, quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.


Outcome
For this project, I worked closely with the Payments team to upgrade the MVP version of the Plooto Instant (“PI”) feature. I worked closely with the Head of Product, Sr. Product Manager, and CEO to deliver a tool that would accelerate payments 10x for SMBs.
Role
Lead product designer
Timeline
4 months
Team
1 designer, 2 SWEs, 1 PM, Head of Product, CEO
Background
Managing cashflow is the biggest challenge faced by most SMBs.
Small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) must accelerate their cash cycle by paying vendors at the last possible minute without missing deadlines and receive customer payments as quickly as possible.
Plooto Instant
Plooto Instant is Plooto’s “faster payments” wallet feature that allows users to make payments quickly, reducing processing times and cutting out hefty bank fees.

Plooto Instant is an important alternative to bank accounts for the following reasons:
Easy money movement
SMBs struggle with payments because of the closed-loop nature of bank, making it difficult to exchange funds between different financial institutions.
Faster payments
Normal direct deposit payments take 3-5 business days to complete. Plooto Instant cuts transaction time down to 1-2 business days.
Problem
Plooto Instant was lacking in all of the basic functionalities users expected out of a digital "wallet".
While Plooto Instant was experience steady, positive usage, its MVP state and limited functionality frustrated users.
Restrictive flow of funds
While pre-funding Plooto Instant was easy, transferring money out of a Plooto Instant account was frustrating. Users had to set themselves up as a “direct deposit” contact and send funds to the contact, rather than transfer money directly between accounts.
No faster than other payment processing methods
Because of account pre-funding delays, which was typically 3-5 business days, Plooto Instant still wasn’t any faster than other payment processing methods.
💡 It was absolutely crucial for us to fix these as enabling users to optimize their cashflow with accelerated payment options was a key component of Plooto’s mission to become the #1 AP/AR automation platform for finance teams across Canada.
Exploring & Ideating
Going broad, then narrow.
Starting with stickies, I led brainstorming session with the cross-functional team to ideate on different ways we could ensure positive and sufficient funds in a user’s Plooto Instant account.
Some standout ideas included:
Auto reload
Allow users to set rules that automatically adds funds to their Plooto Instant account when a certain condition is met.
Incentives for early pre-funding
Offer small incentives (e.g., fee waivers, cashback) for users who add funds early.
Visualization tool
Show a visual breakdown of upcoming bills, due dates, and account balance trends to help users plan better.
"Buy Now, Pay Later"
Temporarily credit the user’s account for the payment amount and allow them to pay it back at a later date.
At the end of the brainstorming session, we unanimously decided to move forward with auto reload  because it would automate the process of pre-funding.
Enabling Free Flow of Funds
Allowing users to easily move money between accounts.
One of the biggest pain points was how difficult it was to transfer funds between and out of Plooto Instant accounts. Users had to set themselves up as a “direct deposit” contact and then send money to their email instead of moving funds directly between accounts.
Initial designs
Early explorations
I started with pen and paper to quickly explore different ways we could allow users to transfer funds between accounts.
After reviewing these designs with my PM, we decided to move forward with building out the following design:
Design review
Once the high-fidelity designs were ready, I ran a design review with the Payments team, who provided me with critical feedback to iterate on.
Final designs
I iterated on the earlier designs and simplified the UI based on the feedback.
Ensuring Positive Account Balances
Adding the auto reload feature.
Another major pain point was account pre-funding delays. Adding funds to a Plooto Instant account took 3-5 business days to process. This was especially problematic because if users had insufficient funds in their account, they wouldn’t be able to pay for bills in a pinch.
Initial designs
Early explorations
Users needed to have sufficient funds in their Plooto Instant accounts at all times so that they could pay their bills in a pinch.
Design review
I created high-fidelity mocks and ran a design review with the Payments team, who provided me with critical feedback to iterate on.
Final designs
In the final designs, I pulled auto reload out of the Account Overview and gave it its own space. This provided more emphasis to the new feature and made it easier to see.
Results
Amplified balances, increased adoption.
We successfully shipped these changes and within 1 month, we saw positive returns.
Total balance held in Plooto Instant account increased by 10%, resulting in a corresponding increase in float revenue.
Increased Plooto Instant adoption by 12%.
Auto-reload activated by 25% of active Plooto Instant users.
Retrospective
Reflecting on the project.
There were lots of valuable learnings throughout this 4 month project.
Involve key stakeholders early in the process
My PM and I collaborated closely to craft high-fidelity designs in preparation for our product demo with the CEO. Following the demo, the CEO provided valuable feedback, identifying several areas for improvement in our designs, such as the confusion surrounding the second menu. Reflecting on this, it became evident that involving the CEO earlier in the design process could’ve preemptively addressed many concerns.
© 2024 Amanda Sim. All Rights Reserved.
Made with 💖 and lots of brown sugar milk tea 🧋(30% sugar, less ice).
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Last updated: Dec 2024