Spec: Self-Serve Referral Flow — Spec

Owner: Growth Engineering | Target: End of week | Status: Not Started

Build self-serve referral program enabling users to invite friends via unique codes, with automated attribution tracking and reward distribution to drive organic growth.

Clarifications & Assumptions

Proceeding with these assumptions (update as decisions finalized)

• Qualifying event: Sign-up completion (email verified) — simplest MVP, Legal/Finance to confirm before launch review
• Reward: $10 account credit for both referrer and referee — standard industry practice, Finance to confirm
• No per-referrer cap for MVP — can add throttling post-launch if abuse detected
• Fraud prevention: Email domain blocklist + rate limiting (10 codes/user/day) — MVP approach, can add device fingerprinting in Phase 2
• Platform: Web first — mobile in Phase 2, faster to market for launch review
• Share surfaces: Copy link + email are P0, WhatsApp/SMS deferred to Phase 2 — reduces scope for tight timeline
• Launch behind feature flag — gradual rollout, can disable if issues arise
• Referral codes: 8-character alphanumeric, case-insensitive — short enough to share verbally, unique per user
• Link format: app.example.com/join/[CODE] — clean, shareable URL

Needs answer before launch review

• [BLOCKER] Qualifying event: sign-up only vs first paid action? Legal/Finance must confirm before reward logic is finalized.
• [BLOCKER] Reward amount and form: $10 credit assumed — Finance to sign off on unit economics.
• Per-referrer cap: none for MVP assumed — confirm acceptable fraud exposure.
• Eng leads (Growth-BE, Growth-FE) still TBD per spec — need assignment.

Requirements Summary