Octalysis Certification is provided to candidates who display an understanding and show application of the gamification framework to real world problems. This level one submission is about how to Gamify the Google Pay experience to improve business metrics.

1. Octalysis Level One Certification Submission
Devansh Doshi
Google Pay India

2. About Google Pay
▪ Google Pay is a peer to peer payments app for India
which does bank account to bank account transfer using
UPI interface
▪ It is extremely simple and easy
▪ It intents to be an app that enables fast payments with no
frills.

3. About Google Pay
▪ Send money home to your family, split a dinner bill with
friends, or pay the neighborhood street side stall. Make all
payments big or small, directly from your bank account
with Google’s new digital payment app for India.
▪ With Google Pay, you can pay directly from your bank
account, which means your money is safe with your bank
and you’ll continue to earn interest. There’s no need to
open a separate account or worry about reloading
wallets.

4. About UPI Interface
▪ Google Pay uses BHIM UPI (Unified Payments Interface)
▪ UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a
single mobile application (of any participating bank),
merging several banking features, seamless fund routing &
merchant payments into one hood
▪ It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which
can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and
convenience.

5. Features: Security
▪ A pin number for every transaction
▪ Your phone lock screen or a pin number for every login
▪ Google Fraud detection rules
▪ 24/7 support for any issues

6. Features: Tez Mode
▪ Users can send money
without needing to share
private details like phone
number or bank account
details
▪ This makes the transaction
simple like cash but with
more security
▪ This uses Audio QR code
technology which only
requires two devices to be
near each other.

7. Feature: Social Payments
▪ There are icons of your friends always
on tap with whom you have
transacted with
▪ You can also find your friends from your
contacts
▪ It shares a notification every time
someone from your contact list joins
the app
▪ It also has a chat feature where users
can chat and request/pay money

8. Feature: Business Payments
▪ It enables direct payments for
some utilities and insurance
▪ It is currently at a very nascent
stage
▪ Customers can still use the UPI
address for online payments on
various businesses

9. Features: Referral
▪ Invite for new customers
will fetch both the referrer
and the referee Rs. 51

10. Features: Scratch Cards
▪ Post every
transaction the
user may or
may not get a
scratch card
which contains
variable
rewards in INR
▪ He/she may
again not win
anything.

11. Current State Octalysis Analysis
Score: 140

12. Core Drive Analysis
CD1: Epic Meaning and Calling
Score: 0
• The app provides fast and secure payments with a clean user interface.
• Payment is mostly a factor in the customer’s transaction experience
• All payment features can be commoditized
CD2: Development and Accomplishment
Score: 6
• Cashbacks in money value along with prize money which can be won in
lottery adds a lot of economic incentive for the users.

13. Core Drive Analysis
CD3: Empowerment and Creativity of Feedback
Score: 1
• Suggested contacts are arranged in the order of transaction
CD4: Ownership and Possession
Score: 4
• The Cumulative cashbacks and prize money accounts for
accumulation of wealth
• Tez Mode allows users to have control over their identity
taking care of privacy needs

14. Core Drive Analysis
CD5: Social Influence and Relatedness
Score: 3
•Google Pay always has icons of contacts with whom there is regular
payments
•It also had a chat feature now where users can communicate, pay, and
ask for payments
•Referral adds a sense of pride as the referrer is leading the discovery for
his/her peers in discovering a payments app with cashbacks
CD6 Scarcity and Impatience
Score: 5
•Cashbacks not present in all transactions. There is an inherent scarcity in
the design for earning rewards.

15. Core Drive Analysis
CD7: Unpredictability and Curiosity
Score: 7
•Scratch cards are not earned on all transaction
•Not all scratch cards earn cashbacks
•Also, the element of lottery adds to the unpredictability.
CD8: Loss and Avoidance
Score: 2
•Most features can be easily replicated by any competitor giving users no
major reason to latch on to the app.
•However, once a user is used to making payments on the app and has
set up utility bills and UPI address details on other websites, the incentive
to switch payment apps reduces. (Sunk Cost Prison)

16. About Google Pay India Business
Goals
▪ Google Pay aims to capture a large share of the India’s
payment market (approx. $1 trillion)
▪ It targets young users who are interested in cashbacks
▪ The app supports several Indian languages
▪ It has tied up with various banks to provide instant loans to
users
▪ Google Pay might go the PayPal way by making small
margins on each money transfer post developing a
certain hold on the market

17. Business Objectives
▪ Primary Business Metrics:
▪ New users additions
▪ Value of transactions
▪ Volume of transactions
▪ Secondary Business Metrics:
▪ Integration with popular apps
▪ Number of referrals
▪ Numbers of active transaction pairs (at least one transactions
between two users/user-business in the past one month)
PS: These are inferences from the public material.

18. Desired Actions
▪ Acquisition
▪ Signup and link bank account
▪ Value and Volume of transactions
▪ Send money to friends and family
▪ Pay utility bills/partner websites
▪ Recharge your mobile phone
▪ Buy items in shops with your phone
▪ Pay your AdWords bills
▪ Engagement & Rewards
▪ Refer friends and family
▪ Avail scratch card benefits

19. Improvements
Expense Share
Merging Loot
Design
Solo Chain
Combo: Google
Pay Month

20. Improvements
Expense Share:
Sharing and
Settling Expenses
now made simple
Merging Loot
Design
Solo Chain Combo:
Google Pay Month

21. Expense Share
▪ The design is similar to Splitwise or any other app where
users can keep account of spends made by their peers
and settle expenses
▪ Here the expense settling will be done by Google Pay
which will be one step beyond what the expense tracking
apps are doing
▪ The apps is targeted for a group of users in these scenarios
▪ Sharing trip expenses
▪ Flatmates sharing bills and expenditure
▪ Splitting usual hangout expenses

22. Expense Share Features
▪ Split a bill with your peers and keep track of expenses
individually made and settle using Google Pay
▪ You can create a group where expenses can be added and
settled with just one person who owes/owns the maximum
balance.
▪ Eliminates the need for multiple settlements between peers
▪ If one person is not involved in an expense then they can be kept out
of it during the expense entry phase.
▪ If someone is not present on Google Pay then their name only account
can be in place only for managing the expenses.
▪ The person will also be asked to join via the referral benefit
▪ Payments made via Google Pay can be easily added to Expense
Share via UI

23. Expense Share Features
▪ Users can settle using other payment methods as well and
just update in the account as ‘settled’ to clear the
expenses.
▪ If the group decides to settle using Google Pay, then
everyone earns a ‘Group Settlement Bonus’ scratch card
ensuring at least one person in the group gets a
cashback.

24. Core Drives Affected by Expense Share
▪ CD5 Social Influence and Relatedness
▪ Settling spends and expenses on trips or for roommates or a regular friend circle
becomes easier than ever with the payment mechanism already present along with the
tracking.
▪ Social groups which share expenses together are bound to be more socially
connected.
▪ It will also help in bringing referrals as everyone would try to earn the ‘Group Settlement
Bonus’ scratch card.
▪ CD7 Unpredictability and Curiosity
▪ Curiosity regarding who in the group will earn the cashback in the ‘Group Settlement
Bonus’ scratch card.
▪ CD8 Loss and Avoidance
▪ Shifting to other payment apps/methods would mean losing the set-up of having all
your expense settlement with friends
▪ It also affects everyone’s chances of earning the Group Settlement Bonus.

25. Improvements
Expense Share
Merging Loot Design: Now
even your ‘Better Luck Next
Time’ scratch card will earn
you a reward
Solo Chain Combo:
Google Pay Month

26. Merging Loot Design
▪ Many a times, users receive a scratch card which says
‘Better Luck Next Time’
▪ They are disappointed as they are at a very excited stage
where they could be earning a potential cashback and
then they don’t get anything.
▪ We can use a merging loot design where users can collect
all the ‘Better Luck Next Time’ cards and they can
exchange it for an assured cashback scratch card

27. Designing the Assured Cashback Card
▪ The design of the number of cards need to be collected
(n) which can be exchanged and the minimum value of
assured scratch card (x) that needs to be given needs to
be calculated considering:
▪ Rate of earn of scratch cards
▪ User Interest
▪ User Journey Stage
▪ Cashback budgeting

28. Designing the Assured Cashback Card
Rate of earn of cards
o The current rate at which users are earning the ‘better luck next time card’
o At what point do we see drop off of users basis the number of such cards collected
• n should also not be a high number (such as 10) as it might test the patience of the user
User Interest
o A user concept testing via in-app survey/in depth interview will help in understanding acceptability
of such a feature.
o It will help in determining approx. range of n and x variables.
User Journey Stage
o Past data analysis has insights on at what points in a user’s journey, exponential delight experiences
are required & what strategy should be followed for each user based on their pattern

29. Designing the Assured Cashback
Card: Cashback Budgeting
▪ Determine if the cashback needs to be budgeted within the
existing promotion budget or will additional budget be added
▪ If the cashback needs to be funded from the existing promotion
budget, then the value of cashbacks of scratch cards can be
reduced by a small margin instead of the number of cards as
users are still looking for instant cashbacks
▪ The value saved over the cards, can then be rechanneled via
the assured cashback scratch card
▪ The minimum assured value needs to be at least twice the
average cashback a user receives so that he/she feels that they
have saved enough ‘better luck next time’ to earn a reward.

30. Core Drives affected by Merging Loot
Design
▪ CD2 Development and Accomplishment
▪ Always having a win state while gathering ‘Better Luck Next Time’ cards
▪ CD4 Ownership and Possession
▪ Users feel proud about owning a ‘Better Luck Next Time’ card

31. Core Drives affected by Merging Loot
Design
▪ CD6 Scarcity and Impatience
▪ It actually reduces the feeling of scarcity of rewards as every
card can now lead to a reward.
▪ However, the perception of being an always rewarding app will
improve top of mind recall. It will encourage users to seek this is
as the payment method for most transactions
▪ Waiting for a reward will test patience of the users; mildly
nullifying the above effect
▪ CD8 Loss and Avoidance
▪ Shifting to other payment methods will lead to a loss of rewards
▪ This builds a stronger sunk cost prison

32. Improvements
Expense Share
Merging Loot
Design
Solo Chain
Combo: Google
Pay Month

33. Google Pay Month
▪ Google can have a month-long solo chain combo design activity
for each of its members
▪ This can be called the ‘Google Pay Month’ and can happen
once every quarter
▪ All users will receive a personalized set of tasks called the ‘win list’
to be done in a fortnight of entering the competition in order to
receive an assured cashback scratch cards/additional deals on
the preferred partner
▪ There will be a countdown timer on the home screen to complete
the win list
▪ The objective is to reward users for a mix of regular and new
actions

34. Win List Items
▪ Settle bills
▪ Shop on one of the partner sites
▪ Referral
▪ Pay contacts
▪ Collect ‘Better Luck Next Time’ scratch cards
▪ Use Tez mode
▪ Using Expense Share
▪ Add a merchant/share a merchant lead
▪ Any other new feature that gets introduced

35. Win List Design
Action a User
Generally Takes
50%
Action a User has
not taken in the
past three months
30%
Engagement
Avenues
20%
These are easy wins where users engage
with the platform and share more data
about themselves
This includes:
▪ In depth surveys
▪ Participation in contests
▪ Asking users for avenues where they
would like to use Google Pay
▪ Suggest an additional feature and so on
▪ It can be feature not used
in the past three months or
features never used before
▪ This is important to improve
usage of the platform
▪ A ~30% share of tasks
makes it looks a doable
stretch
▪ Rewarding users for
regular actions which
improves top of mind
recall as an always
rewarding app
▪ Also, stretch the number
of times a user needs to
take the action to
potentially replace
other payment methods
being used

36. Core Drives affected by Google Pay
Month
▪ CD2 Development and Accomplishment
▪ Achieving the final chain combo will lead to an assured cashback scratch card along
with exclusive partner deals.
▪ CD4 Ownership and Possession
▪ Engagement avenues in solo chain combo will require users to express their opinion about
the experience which when incorporated can make users feel in charge of the
experience
▪ CD6 Scarcity and Impatience
▪ A list of tasks to be done in a fortnight along with a countdown timer will add a sense of
urgency for the users
▪ CD8 Loss and Avoidance
▪ With half the actions being familiar and high frequency in nature for most users, not
completing the solo chain combo will be perceived as a loss of an easy chance to earn
rewards.

37. Final Octalysis Graph
Score: 279 (+100%)
▪ Changes in Core
Drives
▪ CD2: +2 points
▪ CD4: +2 points
▪ CD5: +5 points
▪ CD6: -1 point
▪ CD8: +5 points

38. Changes in Core Drives
Core Drive Current Score Expected Score Added features
1: Epic Meaning and
Calling
0 0 -
2: Development and
Accomplishment
6 8
• Merging Loot will ensure
cashbacks on all scratch cards
• Solo Chain Combo’s Assured
Cashback scratch card will
increase rewards
3: Empowerment and
Creativity of
Feedback
1 1 -
4: Ownership and
Possession
4 6
• Users feel proud about owning a
‘Better Luck Next Time’ card
• Inputs from Engagement
Avenues incorporated in the
experience will make users feel
in charge of their experience

39. Changes in Core Drives
Core Drive
Current
Score
Expected
Score
Added features
5: Social Influence
and Relatedness
3 8
Expense Share will ensure peer groups being formed
and used for expense settlements
6: Scarcity and
Impatience
5 4
• Merging Loot and Solo Chain Combo design will
reduce the scarcity of the cashbacks
• Waiting for a reward in the merging loot design will
add some impatience
• Countdown timer in solo chain combo adds
urgency
7: Unpredictability
and Curiosity
7 7
Curiosity regarding who will earn the cashback in the
‘Group Settlement Bonus’ scratch card
8: Loss and
Avoidance
2 7
Merging Loot, Solo Chain Combos, and Expense Share
will ensure the user is invested and rewarded for their
actions enough to not shift to other payment method;
hence developing a stronger Sunk Cost Prison

40. Change in Before and After Improvements
Before After

41. Thank You
Devansh Doshi
devansh1221@gmail.com