Role: Product Strategist
Shaping and executing the eftpos merchant product strategy
Grounding strategy in merchant needs to define, prioritise, and execute the FY25–26 roadmap
FOCUS: Product Strategy | Merchant Research | Value Proposition Design | Strategic Alignment
Business context
eftpos, Australia’s domestic debit network, has historically competed on cost. As global card schemes expanded their capabilities and merchant expectations evolved, competition shifted beyond price toward value-added services, insights, and integrated payment experiences.
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To remain competitive, AP+ needed to redefine eftpos’ role beyond low-cost routing and establish a clearer, forward-looking merchant strategy.
The challenge
Existing eftpos insights were largely driven by commercial and transaction volume data, with limited visibility into merchant needs, pain points, desires and behaviours.
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This created a risk that strategic decisions and investments were not aligned with where eftpos could deliver meaningful value to merchants.
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As a result, the organisation lacked:
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A clear, shared understanding of merchant reality across a fragmented ecosystem
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Alignment on where eftpos could differentiate beyond cost
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A structured way to translate insights into product strategy and prioritised product initiatives
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At the same time, external pressures were intensifying:
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Growing competition from international card schemes offering integrated, value-added services
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Increasing fraud complexity and rising expectations for security and reliability
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A fragmented payments landscape, with merchants navigating multiple providers and solutions
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Heavy reliance on acquirers and Payment Service Providers (PSPs), limiting direct visibility and control​
How I shaped the product strategy
1. Built a grounded view of merchant reality
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Conducted 22 in-depth merchant interviews across industries and payment maturity levels
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Synthesised insights from 30+ internal and external sources
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Identified 20+ recurring themes shaping merchant needs, pain-points, desires and behaviours
Conducted in-depth interviews with merchants across industries to understand real-world behaviours, needs, and operational challenges.
2 sets of interview guides were created to help the team tailor questions to different merchant types.
Why it matters:
Established an evidence-based understanding of merchant reality, reducing reliance on assumptions and internal bias.
2. Reframed the merchant landscape into clear problems and opportunities
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Synthesised qualitative and quantitative inputs into a structured view of merchant needs and behaviours
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Identified patterns and grouped insights into themes across the payments value chain
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Distinguished between core pain points and opportunity areas (desires and unmet needs)
From fragmented inputs to a shared view of merchant needs, pain points, and opportunities.
Why it matters:
Shifted the organisation from a commercial, volume-led view to a product-led understanding of merchant problems and opportunities.
3. Introduced strategic prioritisation to focus product investment
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Developed a prioritisation framework based on AP+ control (ability to influence outcomes) and strategic significance (long-term relevance)
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Mapped themes across the payments value chain to identify where eftpos could realistically play and create impact
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Aligned stakeholders on priority opportunity areas and key trade-offs
Prioritising merchant opportunities based on AP+ control and strategic significance to focus on high-impact areas. Click the image for full view.
Why it matters:
Enabled structured product decision-making, focusing effort on opportunities where eftpos could deliver meaningful value.
4. Turned prioritised insights into strategic direction
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Led cross-functional workshops with Retail Payments, Product Strategy & Innovation, and stakeholders to align on priority problem areas and solution directions
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Used the Value Proposition Canvas to connect merchant needs, pain points, and desires to potential product opportunities
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Converged on four key strategic themes:
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Informed merchants
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Fraud prevention & resilience
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Data, insights & analytics
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Dependency on acquirers and PSPs
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Mapping merchant needs, pains and desires to define value propositions.
Cross-functional workshops aligning teams on merchant problems and strategic priorities.
Why it matters:
Aligned teams on a shared product strategy direction, translating prioritised insights into clear areas for product investment.
5. Translated strategy into a structured roadmap​
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Translated prioritised themes into a structured product strategy and roadmap, refining eftpos’ value pillars
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Defined and evolved five strategic value pillars: Choice, Lower Cost, Control, Secure & Reliable, and Uniquely Australian
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Connected merchant needs and opportunities to each pillar, grounding the strategy in real merchant contexts
A simplified view of how merchant insights shaped, prioritised, and aligned product initiatives across the eftpos FY25–26 roadmap. Click the image for full view.
6. Product impact and execution
Informed Merchant Campaign
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Identified a key gap where merchants lacked visibility into payment options and optimisation opportunities.
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Defined an Informed Merchant initiative under the Choice pillar, with initial solution exploration focused on improving merchant awareness and decision-making.
Defined new product initiatives
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Prioritised themes informed the definition of new product initiatives across fraud resilience, data & insights, and merchant control, shaping the direction of future product work.
Reprioritised in-flight product work
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Existing product work was reassessed and realigned against merchant value pillars, influencing where teams focused effort and investment.
Business Impact
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Established the foundation for the FY25–26 eftpos Merchant Product Strategy, grounding direction in validated merchant needs rather than assumptions
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Enabled prioritisation of product initiatives across the roadmap by connecting merchant insights to clear strategic pillars and opportunity areas
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Directly informed the definition of new product initiatives and the reprioritisation of in-flight product work
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Aligned Retail Payments, Product Strategy & Innovation, and broader stakeholders around a shared definition of merchant value and priority problem spaces
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Shifted eftpos positioning from a cost-led network toward a value-driven, merchant-focused offering
