Platform Discovery - Financial Services
Sector: Fintech
Role: Technical Consultant
Engagement Type: Platform Discovery & Delivery Strategy
From greenfield ambition to a credible, investor-ready plan - through architecture-led discovery and delivery strategy.
The Challenge
A FinTech startup had a bold ambition: replace three regulated tools with one unified platform. But with no delivery team, no working software, and limited stakeholder availability, they faced a familiar trap - a product vision too broad to fund, too risky to build.
They needed a credible platform blueprint: fundable, feasible, and rooted in clear technical strategy.
The Starting Point
- No delivery team. No codebase. A greenfield platform in a regulated domain
- Stakeholders were spread thin - hard to access, harder to align
- Scope was ambitious but undefined, with no clear MVP or delivery boundaries
- Everything was still possible - but nothing was yet credible
What I Did
Technical Architecture & Strategy
- Designed a secure, multi-tenant architecture grounded in zero-trust principles and FCA expectations
- Mapped regulatory requirements into data flows and architectural controls - enabling traceability from day one
- Authored the technical backbone of the Discovery Report - System Overview, Architecture Description, and co-led Delivery Strategy
Clarity & Communication
- Created visual artefacts that aligned business ambition with technical reality - from onboarding workflows to cloud tenancy models
- Used wireframes to surface hidden assumptions and unblock product conversations across time-poor stakeholders
Planning & De-Risking
- Built a 12-month roadmap with effort, sequencing, and hiring assumptions - balancing ambition against team capacity
- Defined a delivery model fit for early-stage growth - showing how to scale without losing control
What Changed
From Vision to Execution
- The board secured a clear, fundable delivery plan - with architecture, roadmap, and hiring assumptions ready to activate
- Leadership moved from speculative ambition to a grounded, investor-ready strategy
From Ambiguity to Alignment
- Stakeholders aligned around a realistic MVP - with scope, trade-offs, and milestones made visible and actionable
- Internal discussions shifted from what’s possible? to when do we start?
From Blank Slate to Strategic Readiness
- The business gained a blueprint for cloud, vendor, and team strategy - reducing time-to-decision in a high-stakes environment
- Investor decks, RFPs, and team plans drew directly from the artefacts I shaped
Reflections
A bold vision is useless without a delivery strategy you can believe in. I turned ambition into architecture - and speculation into a fundable, board-level plan.
If you’re shaping a new product or platform and need a delivery plan investors will believe in - I can help.
Book a 20-minute discovery call