Case Study 03 — Fintech / Payments
Mobile Merchant Payment Application
Identified a market the business wasn't serving — face-to-face merchants — and defined the product that would open it up: a single mobile app that turned any smartphone into a payment terminal.
The Challenge
A payment gateway had a solid online business but was completely invisible the moment a merchant needed to take a card in person. Hardware was expensive, slow to deploy, and not what SMBs wanted. The mobile opportunity was obvious — 35% of dashboard visits were already on phones, with nothing native to offer. This wasn't a technical gap. It was a product definition problem: two very different types of merchant, one app, and a clear commercial case to get right.
The Approach
- 01Mapped the existing merchant base against the face-to-face segment to understand where the product needed to flex and where it could stay consistent
- 02Benchmarked competitors to separate table-stakes from genuine differentiators — so the roadmap reflected real choices, not just a feature list
- 03Designed a phased roadmap with Phase 1 built around the features that would move payment volume, not just complete the set
- 04Ran workshop-based design sessions to get from requirements to testable prototypes — and back again when assumptions turned out to be wrong
Taking Payments
- SoftPOS turned the merchant's own phone into a card terminal — no hardware procurement, no waiting
- NFC tap, QR codes, payment links, Apple Pay, and mobile money covered every way a customer might want to pay
- Real-time financial dashboard so merchants always knew where their money was and when to expect it
- Full and partial refunds handled in the app — no workarounds, no support calls
Running the Business
- Staff access with role-based permissions so the owner could delegate without losing control
- Biometric authentication — because merchants move fast and security still matters
- Multi-currency architecture designed into Phase 1, not bolted on later — building for Africa from the start
Outcomes
- A fully designed and validated product handed to engineering — clear requirements, tested flows, no ambiguity
- A new merchant segment opened for the first time — face-to-face businesses the gateway had never been able to serve
- Phased roadmap gave the business a clear sequence: ship, learn, expand — not everything at once
- A credible path to payment volume growth from both existing merchants and net-new acquisition
Key Takeaway
The hardest part wasn't the features — it was designing one app that made intuitive sense for two very different types of merchant. Get that reconciliation wrong and you ship something that confuses everyone and converts nobody.
Customer name withheld by agreement.
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