High-Growth FinTech Company Strategic Market Innovation & Exploration

Brightwell Payments

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Results:

New mobile app launch for direct-to-consumer customer segment.

Competencies:

Design Research (Generative Research)
Design Strategy
Market Research
User Experience (UX) Research

Brightwell Payments, a leading fintech company, dominates the international remittance market for over 100,000 cruise line employees through its mobile app platform. With a strong market position, the company sought to explore how its borderless payments technology could be leveraged in new industries, markets, or user segments.

Now that they have the majority of market share within the industry, they wondered:

How does our existing technology platform for borderless payments translate into other industries, markets, and/or user groups?

PHASE I APPROACH: MARKET PRIORITIZATION + STRATEGIC INSIGHTS

To streamline exploration, a structured evaluation framework was developed to assess and prioritize industries with the highest market potential. This approach enabled efficient decision-making while ensuring focus on the most viable opportunities.

Over a 16-week engagement, the team’s discovery included:

  • 37 industries analyzed
  • 65 expert and consumer interviews
  • Global market assessments across multiple countries
  • Identification of four high-potential industries

The findings were synthesized into empathy maps, customer personas, and market sizing models, providing data-driven insights for executive and product teams to consider. These insights validated Brightwell’s opportunity to expand into direct-to-consumer global payments.

PHASE II APPROACH: MARKET VALIDATION + MARKET READINESS

Following the strategic assessment, product concept testing and usability research were conducted with 30+ global direct-to-consumer users. These insights revealed key market-specific nuances, enabling targeted product refinements ahead of launch.

OUTCOME

This strategic exploration positioned Brightwell Payments to confidently enter the direct-to-consumer markets, leveraging its proven technology while mitigating risk. The result: a clear roadmap for global expansion, informed by real user needs and market potential.

This project is representative of work completed while employed at Three Five Two. 
Brightwell Group Facilitation
Co-faciliation with clients helped to focus research and strategy efforts.
Brightwell Rubric Research
Multiple and potential markets were researched. The use of a rubric assisted with prioritization of more promising markets.
Brightwell Phase 1 Insights
Insights were shared from extensive research to help inform and validate new market opportunities.
UX research was conducted to gain understanding around the nuances of international users.
Brightwell Phase 2 Insights
UX insights were shared about global consumers to help refine a direct-to-consumer product.