Background

Identity is prismatic. Every app you love has a little bit of your personality on it and that's how you build a "relationship" with it. It's not just Instagram, Spotify, Twitter. It's 'your' Instagram, 'your' Spotify, 'your' Twitter. Each app knows something about you and that's what makes it yours.

In contrast, Groww looks the same for every user. What makes each person's payments unique? Them, their friends and their habits.

Why QR codes?

UPI QR codes are everywhere in India. Paying for your cab? Scan the QR on the back. Buying yourself coffee? Scan the QR. Every business has it on their counter. It's fast, reliable and convenient. General lingo for it is ‘Scan GPay' or ‘PhonePe QR'. We felt it was an opportunity to allow users to have their own QR, instead of the app's.

Provocation

For research, we prepared a prototype to get some initial reactions on desirability.

In the prototype, one could change themes and add a personal mark by drawing on their QR. We found drawing interesting as it gave space for expression – write, draw, sign, anything. A way to signal personality.

Research

I partnered with Vipul to validate whether customisable QR codes would resonate with users and drive engagement on Groww Pay.

We hypothesised that while frequent QR users would appreciate the customisation, infrequent users might be drawn to the uniqueness—potentially boosting their activity.

We surveyed users across three cohorts—regular QR users, sporadic users, and UPI ID-only users—showing examples of customised QR codes to gauge initial interest. Follow-up interviews with interested users helped us understand their payment preferences, which customisation aspects appealed to them most, how they'd use the feature, and how they connect custom QR codes to their personal identity.

Learnings

From our conversations, people got really excited about being able to customise their QR on Groww Pay. It brought out the exact sentiment we were aiming for – 'I made this QR, it represents me'.

Scribbles on a QR code led to a lot of confusion. Instead of a space to draw, an option for emojis resonated much more.

WYSIWYG

The initial prototype followed a setup flow, but after a few iterations, we shifted to a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach. Users start with a default QR code and see their changes in real-time. This felt more intuitive than a step-by-step wizard.

Improving discovery

Before this project, a user's QR code was accessible only via an option 2 layers deep inside the tab. Discovery was unreasonably poor when you consider how high of a use case they are for small-businesses.

I explored ways to make the QR code more accessible in the app and also outside it.

Conclusion

With Groww QRs, we built a way for users to express themselves on the app and to their peers. A small feature that turns a transactional moment into something personal, making Groww feel a little more like theirs.