Nilan Peiris
Chief Product Officer at Wise
Nilan Peiris is CPO at Wise, where he has been for over 11 years. Wise moves $12 billion a month in cross-border payments, growing 30-40% year over year, with about 70% of growth coming through word of mouth.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Nilan Peiris breaks down exactly how Wise achieved 70% word-of-mouth growth by building experiences so good that users can't help but recommend them. He explains why optimizing for recommendation rather than conversion is the key to exponential growth, and shares the tactical playbook behind Wise's journey to moving $12 billion monthly in cross-border payments.
Leadership Principles
- → To get recommendation, you have to blow users' socks off — give them an experience they didn't know was possible
- → Optimizing conversion rate gives you a bit more growth, but recommendation-worthy products give you exponential growth
- → When you do something no one has ever done before, that's when word of mouth happens
Notable Quotes
"Some people focus on conversion rate. That's cool, you get a bit more growth. But to get to recommendation, you're going to blow your user socks off. You have to give them an experience they didn't know was previously possible."
— On why Wise focuses on recommendation-worthy experiences over conversion optimization
"When you are in that place of doing something that no one has ever done before, that's when you get it."
— On the secret to achieving 70% word-of-mouth growth
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