Developing a Premium Subscription for High-Income Audience – Z1 Pass

About Z1

Z1 is a Brazilian neobank designed for teenagers, offering services like prepaid credit cards, fee-free digital accounts, Pix payments, savings accounts, and  gift card purchases and top-ups.

• Startup
• Brazil
• B2C fintech
• Near 1M users 
• 2023

The Challenge

As a rapidly growing startup, Z1 needed to continually explore innovative growth strategies, diversify revenue streams, and enhance user engagement, all while encouraging greater app adoption among its core user base.

The Goal

• Increase average time spent within the app.

• Increase user Total Processing Volume (TPV) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

• Establish a clear path to sustainable monetization and revenue generation.

The Hypothesis

Through continuous user research and discovery processes, we identified a segment of users with significantly higher incomes than the average. These users also exhibited higher app usage, TPV, and account balances. We hypothesized that this high-income segment had distinct financial needs and would be receptive to a premium subscription offering tailored benefits.

My Role

As Product Manager, I led the development and launch of Z1 Pass, taking ownership of:

• Monetization Strategy & Pricing: I defined the overall monetization strategy, designed the subscription package, and established pricing. This involved determining the specific features and benefits included in the premium offering and validating the proposed value proposition with users, internal teams, C-level executives, and key stakeholders.

• Scope Definition & Prioritization: Working closely with design and development teams, I defined the scope of the project, outlining the required features, functionalities, and technical specifications.

• Stakeholder Alignment & Communication: I managed communication and alignment with founders and stakeholders, ensuring everyone was on board with the project scope, deliverables, monetization strategy, and revenue projections. This included close collaboration with the FP&A team.

• User Story Creation & Development Oversight: I translated the product vision into actionable user stories, documented requirements, and closely monitored the development process to ensure alignment with the defined scope and quality standards.

• Stakeholder Enablement: I worked across teams (legal, compliance, support, and marketing) to ensure they were prepared for the launch of the new subscription feature.

• Go-to-Market Planning: I led the development of the go-to-market strategy, providing the marketing team with essential information such as the value proposition, target addressable market (SAM), target audience, and key benefits.

• Launch Execution & Rollout: I developed and executed the launch plan, including phased rollout and rollback strategies to mitigate risk.

• Metric Definition & Performance Monitoring: As this was a new product line with no existing conversion baseline, I defined and monitored key metrics to track performance against financial goals and forecasts.

• Performance Reporting & Iteration: I regularly reported results to C-level executives, aligning on next steps and strategic adjustments based on data and user feedback.

Results and Impact

• Rapid Revenue Generation: Within just one month of launch (with only 20% of the user base having access), Z1 Pass generated revenue equivalent to the combined revenue of the previous six months from three other existing features.

• Exceeded Revenue Targets: The subscription service achieved the net new revenue goal set for the first quarter after launch.

• High Customer Satisfaction: 80% of subscribing customers reported being satisfied or very satisfied with Z1 Pass in our CSAT surveys.

Key Learnings

Developing Z1 Pass provided invaluable experience in business modeling, revenue structuring, and monetization strategies. We achieved strong business-model fit and demonstrated the revenue potential of a premium offering with significant growth and high margin. However, we also identified areas for improvement in product-market fit. User engagement data revealed that subscribers primarily utilized a subset of the available features, suggesting the need for further iteration and refinement to fully address the needs of our target market. (I subsequently left the company as they continued working towards achieving optimal product-market fit.)

Team (with much appreciation for their hard work): Ana Helena, Natalia Thiel, and Rachel Sarra.