Fintech Product Launch

What was actually broken

Joined a payment-processing product that was already four months behind schedule. Two developers on the team, no functional release process, no environment to validate changes before customers saw them, and no one on the team could give a reliable launch date. The client and the CEO had both run out of patience.

How I addressed it

• 01Spent the first week reviewing the code and observing how the team operated. By the end of that week I had identified three risks that would have prevented the launch if left unaddressed
• 02Over the following three weeks hired six people — front-end developers, back-end developers, QA engineers and a project manager — with clearly defined ownership for each role from day one
• 03Established a controlled release process so every change was validated before reaching customers. A development environment for the team to work in, a staging environment for final verification, and production for end users — each with automated checks to prevent regressions
• 04Replaced ad-hoc handovers with a structured release cycle. Weekly releases, daily check-ins, a single source for release notes, and clear ownership at every stage
• 05Worked directly with the two original developers on the most critical modules, so ownership transferred to the new team without slowing anyone down

The tools behind it

• Next.js
• React
• TypeScript
• Node.js
• GitLab CI
• Cypress