Creating Transformative Software Solutions with African Fintech - Part 1

In 2020, shortly prior to the start of the pandemic, I had the chance to become the lead product developer for a major software initiative. This African fintech was aiming to grant financial access to small/medium organizations across the country. With branches in both Kenya and Uganda, their services had extended a great deal, yet their existing programs were no longer meeting their needs for further growth. Thus, my purpose was to maintain a continuous journal, although I only wrote down random notes from time to time. As of December 2023, I have been able to construct these notes into a group of articles that will enable you to reminisce the journey. My skills and knowledge should ideally be of use to anybody with an aspiration to start something similar, particularly if you are in product management wherein you are commonly in charge of such projects. This project was launched before 2020, yet suffered plenty of false starts. It's not unexpected that I spent my first year trying to navigate yet another misstep. Although Covid-19 had an effect, it was not responsible for the most recent setback. Looking back at it three years later, the element that was missing from the equation is crystal clear. The aim was clear, most of the tools required were in place, and the key decision-makers were on board. However, there was no consensus about ways of working, which made it difficult for the engineering and product sections to collaborate and cooperate to reach the end goal. We only managed to introduce a USSD App as a customer access channel during this period. This was a significant advancement from the SMS channel which had been previously utilized, but it was still a very minimal solution in comparison to the capability we were aware of that could be unlocked with more comprehensive platforms. Fast-forwarding to late 2021, new tech leadership had been brought onboard with a shared understanding of how to work together and a fruitful working relationship. It was due to the dedication of Ross Breadmore (CPO), Tish Vadher (CTO), and Corne Nagel (CDO) that such a team collaboration was made possible, which in turn enabled the delivery of significant tech transformation projects. The results were immediately noticeable. The ship having been securely set on the proper flight path, we set out on a mission to modify existing platforms as well as alter existing procedures. This was a chance to make things simpler, discard processes that had become obsolete, and bring in fresh processes with the intent of achieving huge gains in efficiency. We had to cut the time it took for employees to carry out designated tasks, which would decrease the amount of time customers needed to acquire a service. It soon became clear to us that ahead of our vessel lay an iceberg. At first sight, this appeared to be a straightforward challenge. We needed to devise the capabilities for onboarding, lending, and collecting, which seemed to be simple solutions. However, lying beneath the placid waters were corporate operations that had matured over five years. Trying to change them was comparable to telling a soldier, amid a heated battle, that you would like to take his weapon and make a few changes to it - a suggestion that would be met with distrust. We were presented with a great challenge: to deconstruct the complexities, create better, more straightforward approaches and earn approval from all the main stakeholders in less than 12 months. Stay tuned for the second installment!

Source: https://medium.com/@robertowino02/building-transformational-software-solutions-at-an-african-fintech-part-1-6e6fa3091da3?source=rss------fintech-5