Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

How to drive word of mouth | Nilan Peiris (CPO of Wise)

September 24, 2023

AI Summary

5 min read

Nilan Peiris, CPO of Wise, explains how the company drives 70% of its user growth—about 700,000 of one million quarterly acquisitions—through word of mouth for its cross-border money products, which move $12 billion monthly at 0.35% average fees while staying profitable at 20% EBITDA margins.

Measuring word of mouth

Wise tracks word of mouth by asking new users "How did you hear about us?" in an integrated onboarding popup, overlaid with web analytics and referrer data to attribute direct traffic. NPS serves as the key proxy: scores correlate strongly with sharing rates, doubling from detractors (0-6) to neutrals (7-8), then to 9s and 10s. Weekly company-wide NPS comments revealed recurring themes—price, speed, ease of use—as drivers of evangelism, prioritizing these over trust or convenience proxies like conversion rate.

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What you'll learn

1 `* (03:32) **Wise Overview and Scale**`
2 `* (05:36) **Measuring Word of Mouth**`
3 `* (07:41) **Why Prioritize WOM and NPS Correlation**`
4 `* (13:20) **Product Pillars: Price, Speed, Ease (10x Better)**`
5 `* (25:15) **Pricing Strategy and Cost Allocation**`
6 `* (29:49) **Execution Examples: Singapore eKYC and Mission Flywheel**`
7 `* (38:37) **Conviction Over Endless A/B Tests**`

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Brought to you by Pendo—The all-in-one platform for product-led companies building breakthrough digital experiences | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies | Masterworks—Invest in blue-chip art

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Nilan Peiris is Chief Product Officer at Wise, one of the fastest-growing (and profitable) tech companies in the world. Wise allows anyone to send money in more than 60 currencies to over 160 countries at low cost, and throughout its history has grown primarily through word of mouth. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Tactical advice on driving word of mouth (WOM)

• Strategies for measuring WOM

• How NPS surveys helped Wise determine their growth and product strategy

• How Wise incentivizes teams to do the hard things

• The small change that generated a 3x increase in referrals

• How Wise structures its product and growth teams

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-drive-word-of-mouth-nilan

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Where to find Nilan Peiris:

• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nilanp

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilanpeiris/