Product Managementof Fintech Projects-Ili N

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Product Management of Fintech Projects
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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31933.54242
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Educons University
Faculty of Project and Innovation Management
Project Management Studies
GRADUATE THESIS
Product Management
of Fintech Projects
Nikola Ilić
Belgrade, 2022.
2
SUBJECT:
Product Management
of Fintech Projects
THESIS COMMITTEE:
Jasmina Đurašković Ph.D.
Jovanović Milenković Ph.D.
Sanja Stojanović Ph.D.
3
Abstract
In recent years, we have seen an increase in the implementation of innovative financial

projects. Fintech projects are gaining more and more importance in the financial industry,
determining the direction of its development. However, the fintech area has not been
covered thoroughly in the literature and much remains unclear about this influential
phenomenon. This graduation thesis aims to make a contribution to the study of the
fintech phenomenon, by answering the question of what the fintech product development
process looks like. Therefore, the main goal of this work was set, which is to determine
the general characteristics of the fintech product management process and its phases
and activities, necessary in that process. The content of this thesis and the data presented
in it were obtained through a systematic search and a detailed review of the academic
literature. A total of 296 papers were reviewed, from which, by means of revision,
applying the comparative method and synthesis, material from 163 papers was selected,
which was included in this specific paper. The research resulted in the definition of the
general methodology of product management, which is applied in the fintech industry.
This work established a product management process consisting of three phases:
conceptualization, implementation and commercialization. In this way, the different views
of other authors regarding the phases in product management were included. Also, this
paper represents a contribution in terms of distinguishing the taxonomy of fintech
projects. Important limitations in research are primarily caused by the insufficient
coverage in literature on fintech and the lack of measurable data and information from
practice. Final conclusion of this research is that the management of fintech products
essentially represents the implementation of the process of managing the development
of software products in the financial industry, and that there are no significant differences
in its application. All other researchers, as well as practitioners, who embark on research
into fintech and product management fields can benefit from the views supported in this
thesis.
Key words
Fintech; Financial technologies; Product management; Fintech Product Management;

Project management; Fintech Project Management; Software Product Management;
4
Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 6
2. Introduction to Fintech ......................................................................................................................... 8
2.1. Brief History of Financial Technology ........................................................................................ 8
2.2. Definition of Fintech ...................................................................................................................... 9
2.3. Fintech Industry Landscape ...................................................................................................... 10
2.4 Classification of Fintech Projects ............................................................................................... 13
2.5 Fintech as a Software Product ................................................................................................... 15
3. Software Product Management ........................................................................................................ 17
3.1 Definition of Software Product Management ........................................................................... 17
3.2 Product Manager Role ................................................................................................................ 19
3.3 Product Manager vs. Project Manager ..................................................................................... 20
3.4 Software Product Management Methodologies ...................................................................... 21
4. Research Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 23
5. Conceptualization of Fintech Product.............................................................................................. 24
5.1 Product Discovery........................................................................................................................ 24
5.2 Product Definition ........................................................................................................................ 27
5.3 Product Planning .......................................................................................................................... 29
5.4 Product Feasibility........................................................................................................................ 31
6. Implementation of Fintech Product .................................................................................................. 33
6.1 Architecture Design ..................................................................................................................... 33
6.2 User Interface Design and Prototyping ..................................................................................... 34
6.3 Product Development.................................................................................................................. 35
6.4 Product Testing ............................................................................................................................ 37
6.5 Product Documentation .............................................................................................................. 40
7. Commercialization of Fintech Product ............................................................................................ 40
7.1 Product Delivery ........................................................................................................................... 40
7.2 Product Support ........................................................................................................................... 41
7.3 Product Maintenance .................................................................................................................. 42
8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 44
Literature .................................................................................................................................................. 47
5
1. Introduction
We have been witnessing dynamic changes everywhere in our environment, caused by
the unrestrained penetration of information technologies into our everyday life. All
aspects of life are affected by it, including economic life.1 Through digital transformation,
information technologies are applied as an alternative for solving traditional problems,
thereby transforming traditional business.2 It seemed that while things were changing all
around, the financial industry was staying out of it, or at the very least, going through the
changes at a noticeably slower pace. However, during the last decade, a significant
number of innovative financial products appeared, which many believe is a unique case
in the history of finance. Cryptocurrencies and tokenization are just some of the concepts
that have become mainstream, almost overnight. But that is only the tip of the iceberg, in
relation to the changes that the financial industry is going through and that are yet to
come.
Innovative technological applications in the field of providing financial services are often
combined under the term Fintech. The development of fintech is driven by the need of
clients for easy access to information on various aspects of personal finance. 3 Systems
that were designed decades ago cannot meet all the expectations of a society where
instant information has become the norm.4 The catalyst for the emergence of fintech are
new technologies, which lead to the emergence of new applications and new financial
service providers.5, 6 More will be said about the consequences of these developments in
the continuation of this thesis, but for now we can conclude that fintech products are
undeniably having a serious impact on the financial industry, changing user expectations
and raising standards. Therefore, it seems that fintech is the future direction of the
development of the financial industry.
The subject of interest of this work is the fintech product, that is, how the fintech product
is created and what are the steps in the management process of fintech projects, as well
as what activities are common to the development of fintech products, regardless of their
1
Kočović J; Koprivica M; Tešić N. (2019) The Impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 on the Development of the
Insurance Market. Ekonbiz.
2
Moro Visconti R. (2020) FinTech Valuation. SSRN.
3
Valverde S.C; Fernández F.R. (2020) Financial Digitalization: Banks, Fintech, Bigtech, And Consumers. Journal of
Financial Management, Markets and Institutions.
4
FIS (2015) Flavours of fast. White paper.
5
Arner D.W. (2015) The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm? University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
Research Paper.
6
Gimpel H; Rau D; Röglinger M. (2018) Understanding FinTech start-ups – a taxonomy of consumer-oriented service
offerings. Electronic Markets.
6
differences. In this sense, there was a need to research fintech project management
methodology. When we talk about fintech projects, we should keep in mind that it is a
subtype of IT projects, that is, software development projects. In essence, a fintech
product is a software product and carries all of its features. That is why it was necessary
to research the management of the software product, in order to get the desired answers.
Today, the software industry is increasingly showing a movement from project-driven
software development towards product management practices, i.e. development driven
by market needs.7 Accordingly, the main goal of this work was set, which is to determine
the general characteristics of the fintech product management process.
In the text, chapters two and three, named the theoretical background of fintech and the
theoretical background of software product management, represent an overview of the
viewpoints from the relevant literature. In the theoretical background of fintech chapter,
we deal with different definitions of fintech and the history that preceded it, then
determine the types of fintech projects and gain insight into the sector, and finally
consider the features of fintech as a software product. In the chapter on the theoretical
background of software product management, we analyze the variety of definitions of
product management and gain insight into the role of the product manager and perform
a comparative analysis according to the role of the project manager, as well as an
overview of relevant product management methodologies. Then, in the fourth chapter,
we deal with the methodology of the conducted research.
Chapters five, six and seven provide a synthesis of the results of a detailed review of the
scientific literature, which established the specific dimensions of fintech product
management to which the chapters refer, namely: conceptualization of fintech products,
implementation of fintech product concepts and commercialization of fintech products.
In the fintech product conceptualization chapter, we learn about the phases of product
discovery and the definition, then we learn about what planning and feasibility analysis
are and why they are important. The chapter on the implementation of the fintech product
concept deals with the design of both the architecture and the interface, the creation of
prototypes, the development of the product itself and the testing of the developed
product, as well as the documentation that accompanies the entire process. Then we
have a chapter on the commercialization of fintech products, in which we consider the
processes of distribution, support and maintenance of the product. Finally, in the eighth
chapter, the author's conclusion derived from the research results is given.
7
Vlaanderen K; Van de Weerd I; Brinkkemper S. (2013) Improving software product management: A knowledge
management approach. International Journal of Business Information Systems.
7
2. Introduction to Fintech
2.1. Brief History of Financial Technology
Financial technology is a sector of the economy where companies offer different financial
services by using new technologies to make this process more efficient for themselves
and more convenient for customers.8 Financial technologies are not a novelty in the
financial sector and every progress in financial operations was a consequence of the
introduction of new financial technologies.9 The emergence of Fintech did not come all
of a sudden and relies on a long legacy of financial technology, therefore some consider
it more to be an evolution than a revolution.10
Most of the authors recognize two major technological breakthroughs in the financial
industry, prior to the Fintech revolution: (1) The first phase (Fintech 1.0) spanning from
1866-1967, started with use of telegraphy and mainframe computers to speed up
financial transactions and transmit financial information and these technologies brought
up related products of financial technology, such as SWIFT and ATMs; (2) The second
phase (Fintech 2.0) ranges from 1967-2008 and it utilized internet technology and is
described as the development from the analog to the digital age; (3) The third phase
(Fintech 3.0) begins in 2008 and extends to the present, where we can witness the
transition period between Fintech 2.0 to Fintech 3.0 with more data technologies being
developed.11, 12, 13 Nevertheless, because of the pace at which new technologies are
introduced and for the reason that innovation comes mostly from outside the financial
industry, from startups, some consider the Fintech revolution unique.14
The breakthrough point for Fintech could be marked in 2008, where the loss of trust in
central banks and the financial system, following the global financial crisis, served as a
catalyst for the emergence of Fintech. This emergence was propelled by the Fourth
Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) as an amalgamation of technologies that enable new,
often distributed and smartly automated business models, fuelled by data and machine
8
Kalmykova E; Ryabova A. (2016) FinTech Market Development Perspectives. Ekaterina EDP Sciences.
9
Tadić Živković D. (2019) Financial Technologies and Innovation as Key Determinants of Further Development in
Banking Sector in the Balkans. Ekonbiz.
10
Alt R; Beck R; Smits M.T. (2018) FinTech and the transformation of the financial industry. Electron Markets.
11
Leong K; Sung A. (2018) FinTech (Financial Technology): What is It and How to Use Technologies to Create
Business Value in Fintech Way? International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology.
12
Varga D. (2017) Fintech, the new era of financial services. Vezetéstudomány - Budapest Management Review.
13
Arner D.W. (2015) The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm? University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
Research Paper.
14
Goldstein I; Wei J.G; Karolyi A. (2019) To FinTech and Beyond. The Review of Financial Studies.
8
learning.15 These advances in Information Technology and the adoption of a customer-
oriented perspective, as well as the startup mentality, represent aspects that lead to
discontinuities in Financial technology evolution and this has also been reflected in
definitions of Fintech in the last decade.16
2.2. Definition of Fintech
There is a consensus in literature that Fintech represents a fusion of finance and

technology,17 a crash of the two worlds18 and an integration of technology into the
offerings of financial services.19 However, there is no agreement on the full meaning of
the term Fintech and still no standard definition of Fintech could be found.20 As far as
public is concerned, a representative study among German consumers recently
highlighted the need for definitional education: 70% of the respondents did not know the
term Fintech at all.21
Drawing on the use of the Fintech term in popular media, they conceptualized Fintech as
a digital innovation focused on creating, changing, improving and disrupting information
technology applications in finance and creating competition in the sector, achieved
through new services, products, processes or business models.22 The most authoritative
source for British English, the Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, suggests that
Fintech are “Computer programs and other technology used to support or enable
banking and financial services”.23 Similarly, Schoeffel defines Fintech as “a new financial
industry that applies technology to improve financial activities.”24 According to Bettinger
“Fintech is an acronym which stands for financial technology, combining bank expertise
with modern management science techniques and the computer.”25 Although, Fintech
can be broadly defined as any technology that enables or enhances the provision of
15
Trbovich A.S; Vučković A; Drašković B. (2020) Industry 4.0 as a Lever for Innovation: Review of Serbia’s Potential
and Research Opportunities. Ekonomika preduzeća.
16
17
18
Galvin J.A; Han F.V; Hynes S; Qu J; Rajgopal K; Shek A. (2018) Synergy and disruption: Ten trends shaping
fintech. Global Banking.
19
Treu J. (2022) The Fintech Sensation - What is it about? Journal of International Business and Management.
20
Schueffel P. (2016) Taming the Beast: A Scientific Definition of Fintech. Journal of Innovation Management.
21
Absatzwirtschaft (2017). Ein Großteil der Deutschen kann mit dem Begriff „Fintech“ noch nichts anfangen.
22
Mention A.L. (2021) The Age of FinTech: Implications for Research, Policy and Practice. The Journal of FinTech.
23
Oxford English Dictionary (2016) Fintech.
24
25
Bettinger A. (1972) Fintech: A Series of 40 Time Shared Models Used at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.
Interfaces.
9
financial services, such a definition is of limited use for empirically identifying and
classifying real-world Fintech.26
Further, Leong and Sung considered Fintech as "any innovative ideas that improve
financial service processes by proposing technology solutions according to different
business situations, while the ideas could also lead to new business models or even new
businesses.”27 Catalini, Halaburda, King, and Vergne, presented multifaceted nature of
Fintech as “a movement toward the digitization, decentralization, and disintermediation
of economic transactions, powered by information technologies such as Peer-To-Peer
networking, Big Data analytics, Machine Learning, Blockchain technology, and open
APIs.”28
Still, the main challenge in defining Fintech is the versatility of the prevailing applications
and perspectives, as well as the fact that this phenomenon is in a very active stage of
development.29 Although the term Fintech can be traced to the early 60’s of the last
century, its modern use according to Arner, started in the early 1990s and referred to the
“Financial Services Technology Consortium”, a project initiated by Citigroup to facilitate
technological cooperation efforts”.30 Today Fintech is used to refer to the relatively new
category of companies whose business models are based on digital products. 31 In that
sense, the Financial Stability Board tried to cover the prevailing aspects with the definition
of Fintech as “technologically enabled financial innovation that could result in new
business models, applications, processes, or products with an associated material effect
on financial markets and institutions and the provision of financial services.”32
2.3. Fintech Industry Landscape
Ever since its inception Fintech has been pivotal to innovation in the financial services
industry,33 allowing access to new products and services and changing the traditional
26
Chen M.A; Wu Q; Yang B. (2018) How Valuable Is FinTech Innovation? Review of Financial Studies.
27
Leong K; Sung A. (2018) FinTech (Financial Technology): What is It and How to Use Technologies to Create
Business Value in Fintech Way? International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology.
28
Catalini C; Halaburda H; King M; Vergne J.P. (2017) The First Annual Toronto FinTech Conference. Scotiabank
Digital Banking Lab.
29
Rupeika-Apoga R; Thalassinos E. (2020) Ideas for a Regulatory Definition of FinTech. International Journal of
Economics & Business Administration.
30
Arner D.W; Barberis J.N; Buckley R.P. (2015) The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm. Hong Kong.
31
Van Loo R. (2016) Making Innovation More Competitive: The Case of Fintech. Information Systems & Economics
eJournal.
32
Financial Stability Board (2017) Financial Stability Implications from FinTech.
33
10
way of doing things.34 Fintech mainly refers to non- or not fully regulated ventures whose
goal is to develop novel, technology-enabled financial services that transform current
financial practices.35 The impact Fintech has on the financial sector could be recognized
in the fact that between 2018 and February 2021 the number of fintech companies
worldwide has more than doubled.36 According to a study of the US Fintech industry,
about 57.8% of such companies are technology companies outside of the financial
services industries.37
Fintech companies are competing with existing financial institutions by offering the same
products, but using their competitive edge in reacting to customer needs and delivering
new solutions faster.38 The user experience is a key area in which fintechs are superior
to traditional, bricks-and-mortar banks.39 They are offering new forms of value creation
through restructuring and coordinating the flow of financial information 40 and developing
personalized solutions, providing mass customization.41 This goes to prove a statement
(incorrectly attributed to Bill Gates) that Dick Kovacevich noted in his interview with
Fortune Magazine more than two decades ago: “Banking is necessary, banks are not”. 42
No financial services provider will remain unscathed,43 as huge changes occur in the
needs and desires of financial service users.44
The key advantage of fintech startups is that they are willing to make risky choices, they
propose disruptive innovations for the provision of specific services 45 and they do not
rely on core legacy systems.46 Digital innovation is often hindered by legacy technology,
particularly the core banking system (CBS), and the costs of changes are high.47 Fintech
startups largely implement advanced new technologies, offering easy operations to their
34
Vasić V. (2019) Banks and fintech companies. Bankarstvo.
35
36
37
38
Kilu E; Milani F; Scott E; Pfahl D. (2019) Agile Software Process Improvement by Learning from Financial and
Fintech Companies: LHV Bank Case Study.
39
40
Gozman D; Liebenau J; Mangan J. (2017) The Innovation Mechanisms of Fintech Start-Ups: Insights from Swift's
Innotribe Competition. SSRN.
41
42
McLean B. (1998) Interview: Is This Guy The Best Banker In America? Fortune.
43
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2016). Blurred lines: How FinTech is shaping Financial Services. Global FinTech Report.
44
Krstić N; Tešić D. (2016) Digital Disruption of the Banking Industry - Threat or Opportunity? Bankarstvo.
45
Thomas P. (2016) The FinTech Opportunity. National Bureau of Economic Research.
46
47
Galvin J.A; Han F.V; Hynes S; Qu J; Rajgopal K; Shek A. (2018) Synergy and disruption: Ten trends shaping
fintech. Global Banking.
11
customers and improving the sharing of information, and generally cutting the costs of
banking transactions.48 New technologies give the opportunity to new players to enter
the financial services market, by offering new or improved products and services,49 they
bring different benefits such as flexibility, economies of scale, operational and cost
efficiencies.50 Also there is a notable difference in organizational cultures between the
existing finance industry and entrepreneurial startups.51 Fintech firms are relatively lightly
regulated.52 Their strengths are the agility and speed to the market, thanks to their
technology expertise and the focus on a limited product set 53 fintech startups stand out
with short development and time-to-market cycles.54
While the term Fintech is used mainly to exclude traditional banks, all major financial
institutions are highly technological.55 Since the 1960s large financial service providers,
in particular banks, have emerged as pioneers in using IT inhouse.56 For example,
approximately one third of Goldman Sachs’ 33,000 staff are engineers – more than
LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.57 While incumbents have disadvantages relative to
startups, they also have advantages, like being regulated which inturn creates consumer
confidence, or a long history which builds trusted brands.58 Unlike fintech startups, large
financial institutions often have deep pockets and can more easily initiate large-scale
projects 59 and the big banks have already poured money into the sector. Goldman Sachs,
Citi, and JP Morgan Chase all hold significant investments in fintech offerings.60 Today,
most financial institutions have transformed their retail user experience, offering full
48
Haddad C; Hornuf L. (2018) The emergence of the global fintech market: Economic and Technological
determinants. Small Bus Econ.
49
Karagiannaki A; Vergados G; Fouskas K. (2017) The Impact Of Digital Transformation In the Financial Services
Industry: Insights From An Open Innovation Initiative In Fintech In Greece. MCIS Proceedings.
50
51
52
Allen F; Gu X; Jagtiani J. (2021) A Survey of Fintech Research and Policy Discussion. Review of Corporate
Finance.
53
Karagiannaki A; Vergados G; Fouskas K. (2017) The Impact Of Digital Transformation In the Financial Services
Industry: Insights From An Open Innovation Initiative In Fintech In Greece. MCIS Proceedings.
54
Gimpel H; Rau D; Röglinger M. (2018) Understanding FinTech start-ups – a taxonomy of consumer-oriented
service offerings. Electronic Markets.
55
eJournal.
56
57
Marino J. (2015) Goldman Sachs is a tech company. Business Insader.
58
Kalmykova E; Ryabova A. (2016) FinTech Market Development Perspectives. Ekaterina EDP Sciences.
59
60
Mention A.L. (2019) The Future of Fintech. Research-Technology Management.
12
mobile functionality with best-in-class design principles and customers, as a result,
requiring more reasons to switch to new fintech offerings.61
For a time, we have been witnessing individual fintech startups just seizing individual
parts of the financial services value chain and optimizing them.62 However, due to the
rapidly changing landscape of fintech companies and the relative youth of the “Fintech
phenomenon”, the lines have blurred between traditional tech firms selling their products
to banks and the new phenomenon of fintechs.63 Fintech firms often collaborate with
incumbents to source different flows of financial information (e.g., mortgage payments,
insurance premiums, credit cards and checking account transactions). 64 Hence, for the
financial sector as a whole, the fintech innovation brings in positive value.
2.4 Classification of Fintech Projects
A fundamental challenge in studying fintech innovation is that there currently exists no

standard definition of what Fintech is and what specific technologies the term
encompasses.65 Moreover, whether Fintech should be considered a product, a business
model, or a mechanism to disrupt the industry and create competition, remains an
ongoing academic debate, because it is an umbrella term for innovative technology-
enabled financial services and the business models that accompany those services and
simply, Fintech can be used to describe any innovation that relates to how businesses
seek to improve the process, delivery, and use of financial services.66 There are
numerous classifications of fintech projects in literature and all can be classified
according to three criteria, considering: traditional services, innovative services and
implemented technology.
Regarding traditional services, Buckley, Arner and Barberis distinguish five major fintech
areas: finance and investment, operations and risk management, payments and
infrastructure, data security and monetization, and customer interface.67 Similarly, Van
61
Galvin J.A; Han F.V; Hynes S; Qu J; Rajgopal K; Shek A. (2018) Synergy and disruption: Ten trends
shaping fintech. Global Banking.
62
Schueffel P. (2016) Taming the Beast: A Scientific Definition of Fintech. Journal of Innovation
Management.
63
Eickhoff M; Muntermann J; Weinrich T. (2017) What do FinTechs actually do? A Taxonomy of FinTech
Business Models. ICIS.
64
Gozman D; Liebenau J; Mangan J. (2017) The Innovation Mechanisms of Fintech Start-Ups: Insights from
Swift's Innotribe Competition. SSRN.
65
66
67
Buckley R; Arner D; Barberis J. (2016) The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm?.
Georgetown Journal of International Law.
13
Loo splits fintech services into those offering credit, processing payments, giving advice,
managing assets, issuing currencies, and helping with legal compliance. 68 Haddad and
Hornuf categorize fintechs, more broady, into nine different types: those that engage in
financing, payment, asset management, insurance, loyalty programs, risk management,
exchanges, regulatory technology, and other business activities.69
As for innovative services and products, Fintech includes Cryptocurrencies and digital
money, Peer-to-Peer lending, equity crowdfunding and mobile payment systems,70 Algo-
Investing and Robo-Advising 71 and in addition, Smart Contracts, IT security and anti-
fraud systems, applications in the insurance field (Insurtech) or regulation (Regtech).72
Demertzis, Merler and Wolff, as the main segments of the fintech universe describe: (1)
Alternative financial intermediation including Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and alternative lending
and crowdfunding; (2) Payment systems and transfers; (3) Personal finance such as
Robo-Advising; and (4) Insurance.73 Imerman and Fabozzi divide fintech ecosystem into
eight industry segments: (1) Payments and money transfers; (2) Digital banking; (3)
Digital wealth managers, including Robo-Advisors; (4) Capital markets innovations,
including algorithmic trading, high-frequency traders, and market analytics; (5) Fintech
lending, including P2P and marketplace lenders; (6) Equity crowdfunding; (7) Insuretech,
which refers to innovations in the insurance industry; and (8) Proptech, which refers to
innovations in the property and real estate industry.74
Considering implemented technology, fintech projects usually rely on some of the

following technologies: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Biometric
Recognition,75 Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Cloud Computing
and Internet of Things (IoT).76 In particular, the Bank of England highlighted as important:
(1) Pattern analysis, which can be used to identify unusual patterns of activity (2) “Big
Data” techniques, which typically use a far larger number of inputs (3) Predictive coding,
68
eJournal.
69
Haddad C; Hornuf L. (2019) The emergence of the global fintech market: economic and technological
determinants. Small Business Economics.
70
71
72
Haddad C; Hornuf L. (2019) The emergence of the global fintech market: economic and technological
determinants. Small Business Economics.
73
Demertzis M; Merler S; Wolff G.B. (2017) Capital Markets Union and the Fintech Opportunity. Journal of Financial
Regulation.
74
Imerman M; Fabozzi F.J. (2020) Cashing in on innovation: a taxonomy of FinTech. Journal of Asset Management.
75
Mention A.L. (2019) The Future of Fintech. Research Technology Management.
76
Finance.
14
which looks to identify patterns of activity (4) Digitalization of voice communications. 77
Lastly, there is classification of fintech innovation by Chen, Wu and Yang who recognized
seven key technology categories: Cybersecurity, Mobile transactions, Data analytics,
Blockchain, Peer-to-Peer, Robo-Advising, and Internet of Things (IoT).78
2.5 Fintech as a Software Product
Information technology plays a key role across all components of the business models in
fintech firms.79 Fintech is all about the introduction of new technologies into the financial
sector 80 and software and software products are the critical elements of financial
technology.81, 82 The end user of financial services has become aware of the evolution of
technology and expects higher quality, cheaper and faster service.83 The increasing
influence of millennials or “digital natives'' amplifies the preference for Fintech and the
customer-driven design.84 Consumers want more personalized services that increase
convenience 85 and Fintech profoundly changes financial intermediation by providing
different products and offering different consumer experiences.86 Fintechs rely on a deep
understanding of the customer’s needs and wants.87 Many fintech firms combine
automated analysis of retail customers with more user-friendly interfaces 88 and this
insight is supported by big-data analysis that provides more granular insights into
consumers’ profiles.89 Consequently, financial organizations are becoming more and
77
Roxburgh C; Shafik M; Wheatley M. (2015) Fair and Effective Markets Review: Final Report. Bank of England.
78
79
Mamonov S. (2020) The Role of Information Technology in Fintech Innovation: Insights from the New York City
Ecosystem. Springer.
80
81
Lee I; Shin Y.J. (2018) Fintech: Ecosystem, business models, investment decisions, and challenges. Business
Horizons.
82
Mamonov S. (2021) The Role of Information Technology in Fintech Innovation: Insights from the European Fintech
Ecosystem. ResearchGate.
83
Tadić Živković D. (2019) Financial Technologies and Innovation as Key Determinants of Further Development in
Banking Sector in the Balkans. Ekonbiz.
84
McCarthy N. (2015) Americans trust tech firms more than banks for finance. Forbes.
85
Lee D.K.C; Ernie G.S.T. (2015) Emergence of FinTech and the LASIC Principles. Journal of Financial Perspectives.
86
Demertzis M; Merler S; Wolff G.B. (2017) Capital Markets Union and the Fintech Opportunity. Journal of Financial
Regulation.
87
Ernst & Young (2017) Banking in the age of disruption. EY London.
88
Frame S.W; Wall L.D; White L.J; (2018) Technological Change and Financial Innovation in Banking: Some
Implications for Fintech. FRB Atlanta Working Paper.
Barberis J; Arner D. (2016) FinTech in China: From Shadow Banking to P2P. Lending.Banking Beyond Banks and
89
Money.
15
more oriented towards the clients and organizing operations around customer segments
rather than product categories.90
But Fintech is not without its challenges. Financial services are created and delivered
through complex business systems, with processes, organizational and operational
structures, human capital and talent, and a variety of choice behaviors, subject to ethical,
regulatory and legal restrictions.91 Thus, Fintech is creating new issues of consumer
protection and new legal and operational issues.92 For example, Fintech raises issues of
“biometric data theft” and this threat materialized in 2015 when 5.6 million fingerprints
were stolen from the US defense department.93 Such risks are driving Regulatory
sandbox initiatives emerging in a number of jurisdictions. These tools help early-stage
fintech ventures build the long-term experimentation capabilities in a safe environment,
that are essential to innovation and allow for validated learning through iterations.94
Some claim that software is the most complex and sophisticated product of human
invention 95 and developing software product is a complex activity that is highly sensitive
to human interaction and teamwork.96 A large number of software businesses are created
everyday, however, the great majority of these companies disappear within two years
from their creation.97 Software development is unpredictable and according to statistics,
globally seven out of ten new products that are launched into the market fail.98 Although
most real-world development efforts are conducted in volatile environments,99 the
systematic innovation process can prevent unexpected results and the failure of product
development output, reducing time and the cost of the product process.100 The modern
business is determined by the speed of industrial changes and the need to survive in a
90
91
Gomber P; Kauffman R; Parker C; Weber B. (2018) On the Fintech Revolution: Interpreting the Forces of
Innovation, Disruption, and Transformation in Financial Services. Journal of Management Information Systems.
92
93
Arner D.W; Barberis J.N; Buckley R.P. (2015) The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm. Hong Kong.
94
95
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K. (2011) Software Product Management in the Russian Companies. Proceedings
of the 7th Central and Eastern European Software Engineering Conference.
96
Borden N. (1965) The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Journal of Advertising Research.
97
Crowne M. (2002) Why software product startups fail and what to do about it. Proceedings International
Engineering Management Conference (IEMC).
98
Tripathi S.S; Guin K.K; De S.K. (2012) Critical Success Factors for Marketing a new Product: An Empirical
Investigation. The Indian Journal of Management.
99
Menat R. (2015) Why we’re so excited about FinTech. Medium.
Curtis B; Krasner H; Iscoe N. (1988) A Field Study of the Software Design Process for Large Systems.
100
Communications of the ACM.
16
changing environment.101 Just as the world is changing, so too is the art of software
engineering as practitioners attempt to keep in step with the turbulent times, creating
processes that not only respond to change but embrace it.102 But the important questions
remain, how to develop better and cheaper software and deliver it faster to fulfill
continuously changing customer requirements.103
3. Software Product Management
3.1 Definition of Software Product Management
Software companies faced difficulties with introducing and managing software products
and in order to survive in the competitive market they had to identify and satisfy their
customer needs.104 The concept of product management is not new and was first
introduced in 1931 by Procter & Gamble.105 During the 1990s it found its application in
the software industry and was primarily associated with the technical side of managing
software products.106 Today many companies developing software products have
adopted product management as a function that coordinates research and development,
marketing, sales, and software development.107
According to O'Brien, the basic function of product management is to plan, monitor and
support the software products and product lines.108 Complementary to that is Steinhardt's
notion that “the launching of a product should be market driven, that is, the development
organization should listen to the customers and find out their wants and needs.” 109
Similarly, Gorchels considers software product management as the process of managing
requirements, defining releases, and defining products in a context where many internal
Berić I.M; Jovanović A.D; Popović M.M; Radulović A.V. (2016) Development of Multifunctional Software for
101
Business Operations in SMEs. Tehnika.

102
Cohen D; Lindvall M; Costa P. (2012) Agile Software Development. DACS Report.
Muhammad O.A; Markkula J; Oivo M. (2013) Kanban in Software Development: A Systematic Literature Review.
103
Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA).

104
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K. (2011) Software Product Management in the Russian Companies.
Proceedings of the 7th Central and Eastern European Software Engineering Conference.
105
Gorchels L. (2000) The Product Manager’s Handbook: The Complete Product Management Resource. McGraw-
Hill.
106
Kilpi T. (1998) Improving Software Product Management Process: Implementation of a Product Support System.
31th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
107
Helferich A; Schmid K; Herzwurm G. (2006) Product Management For Software Product Lines: An Unsolved
Problem? Communications of the ACM.
108
O’Brien J.A. (1993) Management Information Systems: A Managerial End User Perspective. IRWIN.
109
Steinhardt G. (2004) Who’s Driving your Company? Product marketing.
17
and external stakeholders are involved in the process.110 Maglyas and Fricker expand on
the functionality of software product management as unity of business and technical
perspectives in the development of software products, considering it “a model for
strategizing, conceiving, developing, introducing, managing, and marketing new
products to the market.”111
Software product management is also an example of a complex socio-technical

phenomenon, which includes interaction between people and departments within an
organization and the roles people have.112 Being that it is a discipline that unites technical
and business perspectives in the development of software products, the role of product
management is cross-functional.113 For the very reason that a huge number of factors
should be considered in software product development, responsibilities are divided
among developers, testers, project managers, product managers, and many other roles
supporting software development.114 Product management coordinates many different
functions within a company, often acting as a broker.115 Today software product
management is a key area within many software companies, positioned at the center of
the organization and keeping in contact with all stakeholders, ensuring that everything
works towards the same goal according to the strategies set out.116
Practitioners and researchers mean very different things when they talk about product
management and it leads to misunderstandings between professionals.117 Product
development deals with many aspects, it not only concerns bringing a new product
innovation but also conceptualizing the redesigning or reengineering of a product. 118
Empirical investigation of the companies in the industry showed that the focus on the
110
Gorchels L. (2000) The Product Manager's Handbook: The Complete Product Management Resource. McGraw
Hill.
Maglyas A; Fricker S. (2014) The Preliminary Results from the Software Product Management. International
111
Conference of Software Business.

Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K; Fricker S. (2017) Core Software Product Management Activities. Journal of
112
Advances in Management Research.

Maglyas A. (2013) Overcoming the Complexity of Software Product Management. Acta Universitatis
113
Lappeenrantaensis.
114
Condon D. (2002) Software Product Management: Managing Software Development from Idea to Product to
115
Marketing to Sales. Aspatore Books.

116
Bekkers W; Van de Weerd I; Spruit M; Brinkkemper S. (2010) A Framework for Process Improvement in Software
Product Management.Communications in Computer and Information Science.
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K. (2012) What Do Practitioners Mean when They Talk about Product
117
Management? Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

118
Alli H. (2018) Evaluation theories of product definition method for a successful new product. Alam Cipta.
18
activities varies depending on the company size.119 The results of the Comparison of
Software Product Management Practices showed that software product management
activities and goals are different for the companies and therefore, product management
cannot be implemented in the same way in every company.120
3.2 Product Manager Role
In software companies the role of product manager has emerged over the last years and
appears to be of strategic value, but complex to execute.121 According to a study done
by Maglyas, Nikula and Smolander, organizations want to establish product management
to increase processes predictability, but they lack the understanding of core processes
of product management.122 Product manager is the product leader of the product
internally in collaboration with other departments, and externally in collaboration with
customers and other external stakeholders.123 Ebert regards the product manager as the
“mini-CEO”, who plays the role of a facilitator between different departments and works
in close collaboration with the product development team, marketing team, project
managers, financial analysts and managers, engineering and sales teams, using these
departments as resources to produce successful products.124 Although the product
manager has a lot of responsibilities regarding the product functionality, he does not have
the management authority over the development team.125 As a unified group, product
managers can be seen as middle managers linking the top management with the lower-
level managers 126 or inbetween IT executives and project managers.127
The role of a product manager is especially important in the competitive market of

software products, where most features can be easily reproduced and improved by
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K; Fricker S. (2017) Core Software Product Management Activities. Journal of
119
Advances in Management Research.

120
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K. (2012) Comparison of Software Product Management Practices in SMEs and
Large Enterprises. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Software Business.
Van de Weerd I; Brinkkemper S; Nieuwenhuis R. (2006) A Reference Framework for Software Product
121
Management. Utrecht University Technical Report.

122
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K. (2012) What Do Practitioners Mean when They Talk about Product
123
Management? Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

124
Ebert C. (2009) Software Product Management. Crosstalk.
125

Floyd S.W; Wooldridge B. (1994) Dinosaurs or dynamos? recognizing middle management's strategic role.
126
Academy of Management Executive.

Maglyas A. (2013) Overcoming the Complexity of Software Product Management. Acta Universitatis
127
Lappeenrantaensis.
19
competitors.128 According to the 2010 Product Management and Marketing Survey, the
most frequent responsibilities of product managers were product roadmap (91%),
requirements (86%), market problems (77%), use scenarios (74%), and competitive
landscape (73%).129 The product manager is responsible for managing requirements,
defining releases, and defining products in a context where many internal and external
stakeholders are involved.130 Companies understand that product manager should be
responsible for a long-term product strategy as well as tactical steps.131 The most
important tasks of software product management include the positioning of the products,
the alignment of corporate strategy and strategy of each of the products, management
of the marketing instruments place, price, promotion and product, as well as
communication with customers, support, research, and development.132 Although
software product management covers areas from technical and business roadmaps to
strategic, tactical, and release planning, in practice, one product manager is seldom
responsible for all these activities.133
3.3 Product Manager vs. Project Manager
Management of the production of software is done, as a rule, on a project basis. 134, 135
Managing business by projects has become common practice in software development
and companies use a project-oriented organization paradigm to cope with new
challenges from a dynamic business environment.136 Rapid expansion fueled by
innovation created terminology problems concerning software development activities
and roles.137 However, mixing product management and project management is
128
Christensen C; Overdorf M. (2000) Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change. Harvard Business
Review.
129
Pragmatic Marketing (2010) The Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey.
130
Condon D. (2002) Software Product Management. Aspatore Books.
131
132
Kittlaus H.B; Rau C; Schulz J. (2004) Software Product Management. Springer.
133
Maglyas A; Nikula U; Smolander K. (2013) What Are the Roles of Software Product Managers? An
Empirical Investigation. Journal of Systems and Software.
134
Jovanović P; Živković D; Jovanović F. (2008) Menadžment i projektni menadžment. Visoka škola za
projektni menadžment.
135
Polianskii A; Chukalova D. (2020) Software product management: planning tool integration. MATEC
Web of Conferences.
136
Berić I.M; Jovanović A.D; Popović M.M; Radulović A.V. (2016) Development of Multifunctional Software
for Business Operations in SMEs. Tehnika.
137
Clarke P; Mesquida A; Ekert D; Ekstrom J; Gornostaja T; Jovanovic M; Johansen J; Mas A; Messnarz R;
Villar B; O’Connor A; O’Connor R; Reiner M; Sauberer G; Schmitz K.D; Yilmaz M. (2016) An Investigation
of Software Development Process Terminology. 16th International Conference, SPICE.
20
inadequate, because product management is a very business oriented discipline and it
does not pay too much attention to the technical background of the products. 138
Product management is focused on managerial skills, communications and leadership,

and involves significantly higher levels of decision-making (Strategic), whereas the
project managers are more into the everyday, and short-term decisions (Operational)
and are more technically oriented (having a more in depth knowledge of software
engineering and software programming).139 Product management has got a bigger scope
in comparison with individual project management, being cross functional, it brings in
people from different streams and business functions to get advantages of product
distinction, innovation, productivity and customer satisfaction.140 It is important to note
that project management strives to reach predefined goals, knowing the end result, and
product management from the other side, tends to discover the goals, not knowing the
result upfront, which makes it suitable approach for changing environments.
Project managers are in charge of separate business activities treated as projects,141

which makes two concepts complementary. However, “project management success”
and “product management success” should be clearly distinguished. Project success is
the ability to produce project deliverables within the constraints of the project, whereas
product success correlates to the impact each project has on the business strategy for
overall project success.142 The overall business success depends on the success of
integrating product management and project management activities, which are affected
by the way companies organize and coordinate software product management and
software project management together.143
3.4 Software Product Management Methodologies
Effective software product management is a key to achieving a successful outcome and

represents a set of techniques used to develop and deliver software products.144 In the
138
139
Manteli C; Van de Weerd I; Brinkkemper S. (2010) Bridging the gap between software product management and
software project management. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series.
Sudhakar G. (2013) The Key Functions and Best Practices of Software Product Management. Sprouts: Working
140
Papers on Information Systems.

Berić I.M; Jovanović A.D; Popović M.M; Radulović A.V. (2016) Development of Multifunctional Software for
141
Business Operations in SMEs. Tehnika.

Jinasena D.N; Spanaki K; Papadopoulos T. (2020) Success and Failure Retrospectives of FinTech Projects: A
142
Case Study Approach. Information Systems Frontiers.

143
Gorchels L. (2000) The Product Manager's Handbook: Complete Product Management Resource. McGraw Hill.
144
Šobajić V; Berić I; Kilibarda G; Jovanović P. (2016) Upravljanje softverskim projektima. Tehnika.
21
software industry, the work is usually structured according to the main phases of
development.145 One of the early methods that is used today is the Waterfall model, that
includes the phases like engineering, design & implementation, testing, release, and
maintenance.146 Another methodology that was widely adopted is the Software
Development Life Cycle, which traditionally has ten phases: initiation, system concept
development, planning, requirements analysis, design, development, integration and
testing, implementation, operations and maintenance, and disposition.147 Nowadays a
large shift towards the use of agile software development in different industrial sectors is
evident and financial organizations are not unfamiliar with this tendency.148 The agile
practices are popular because they offer a higher flexibility to adapt to the changing
environments and other benefits such as an ability to manage changing priorities, better
project visibility, good business/IT alignment, higher team morale, increased team
productivity etc.149
There are multiple views on the software product management process and they vary
greatly. The Software Product Management Competence Model by Bekkers groups
various activities of software product management in stages: requirements management,
release planning, product planning and portfolio management.150 Kittlaus and Clough
suggested the Software Product Management Framework that includes nine functions in
which a product manager participates: Market Analysis, Product Analysis, Product
Strategy, Product Planning, Development, Marketing, Sales and Distribution, Support
and Services. Product Strategy and Product Planning, as core functions of product
management which include business-oriented tasks.151 The framework proposed by
Ebert is similar to the framework of Kittlaus and Clough, but Ebert emphasizes the leading
role of the product manager in providing leadership to activities like portfolio
management, strategy definition, product marketing, and product development.152
Polianskii A; Chukalova D. (2020) Software product management: planning tool integration. MATEC Web of
145
Conferences.
146
Petersen K; Wohlin C; Baca D. (2009) The Waterfall Model in Large-Scale Development. PROFES.
147
Lemke G. (2018) The Software Development Life Cycle and Its Application. Senior Honors Theses.
148
149
Balaban S; Đurašković J. (2021) Agile Project Management as an Answer to Changing Environment. European
Project Management Journal.
150
Kittlaus H.B; Clough P. (2009) Software Product Management and Pricing. Key Success Factors for Software
151
Organizations. Springer.
152
22
The Rational Unified Process methodology offers four phases: Inception (initiation),
Elaboration (design), Construction (construction), Transition (transfer to the customer,
implementation).153 Another methodology that has seen wide adoption in recent years is
Design Thinking. Design Thinking process includes: (1) Define: defining the scope,
problem and challenges, understanding constraints; (2) Explore: explore the target area,
context and stakeholders Interpret: process the explored insights and define the problem
to be solved; (3) Ideate: collect, then evaluate multiple solutions; (4) Prototype: develop
initial prototypes to illustrate the solution Iterate: test the prototypes, even is multiple
cycles to enhance the idea and to select the most suitable solution; (5) Implement:
develop the product or service; (6) Enhance: keep up with the product, provide supper,
analyze data and plan further developments (restart the cycle).154
The success of a product depends on all the activities from strategy and marketing to
product launch and customer support as well as on the development activities 155 or as
Ebert puts it: “Companies win or fail depending on their product managers.”156 Many
models of product development are based on the premise that activities are best divided
into a number of sequential project "stages" separated by milestones called "gates". 157
But regardless of a number of stages and methodology taxonomy, they include similar
activities and are conditioned by similar properties. Product management is not a
sequential process like often presented, its stages intertwine, or change in order of
execution and completion. For the purpose of presenting determinants of the product
management process and common approaches, this paper regards Product
Management as a multidimensional process that leads to the realization of the
conceptualized product and its adoption. The process has three main dimensions:
conceptualization, implementation and commercialization, which consist of groups of
activities that can reach its full completion in parallel.
4. Research Methodology
The main goal of this research was to recognize the features of the fintech project
management process through a general form of software product management, which
would be common to all types of fintech products. The content of this paper and the data
153
Polianskii A; Chukalova D. (2020) Software product management: planning tool integration. MATEC.
Fehér P; Varga K. (2017) Using Design Thinking to Identify Banking Digitization Opportunities – Snapshot of the
154
Hungarian Banking System. University of Maribor Press.

155
156
Ebert C. (2007) The Impacts of Software Product Management. Journal of Systems and Software.
157
Cooper R.G. (1990) Stage-gate systems: A new tool for managing new products. Horizons.
23
presented in it, is collected through a systematic search of the scientific literature. The
search engine "Google Scholar" and the electronic database "Serbian Citation Index"
("SCIndeks") were used for this research. Considering the field of research, the largest
part of the results belongs to the field of management, followed by informatics and
computer science. The result of this thesis is a synthesis of the conclusions from the
related fields of financial technologies, software development and product management,
which are relevant to the management of fintech projects and fintech products, which
are the subject of research.
Search inquiry was made without the time limits, and key search terms were formulated
using a term mapping. The terms for the search were: fintech, financial technologies,
software and information technologies. If necessary, the designations, project and
products were added to these terms. At the end of the formulation, terms for a more
specific search were applied: definition, classification, taxonomy, history, management,
managing, process, roles, methodology, discovery, definition, planning, roadmap, design,
development, prototype, testing, delivery, implementation, support, maintenance. The
search terms were applied in both Serbian and English, depending on the platform used.
In the review of scientific literature, more than 4000 units of scientific works, articles,
magazines, proceedings and other available material were reviewed. The material for this
scientific paper was selected based on the insight into the abstract, introduction and
conclusion of the reviewed papers. In this way, 201 papers in English and 10 papers in
Serbian were selected, which are relevant to the study of financial technologies and
fintech products. In addition, a total of 83 papers in English and 12 papers in Serbian
were selected, which deal with the areas of product management, software product
management and software project management methodology. A total of 296 papers were
examined through a detailed review of the academic literature. From the total number of
reviewed works, 221 works were taken for the purpose of this thesis. Finally, by reviewing
the results, applying the comparative method and synthesis of the material, in total 163
papers were selected as a basis for this particular thesis.
5. Conceptualization of Fintech Product
5.1 Product Discovery
High market dynamics, rapidly evolving technologies and shifting user expectations result
in a high risk environment for the development of new products, features or services. The
key question is what should be developed, however, it is difficult to predict which
products, features or services will answer the needs of the customers. The challenge for
24
companies is no longer how to identify and solve technical problems, but rather which
products, features or services solve problems that are relevant for customers and thereby
deliver value to the customer and the business.158 That is the point where Product
Discovery enters the picture.
Product discovery is a cross-functional process that requires the involvement of different

departments or roles, and is focused on the identification and exploration of problems of
potential customers as well as finding solutions that are useful, feasible and economically
viable.159 The main purpose of product discovery is to identify one or more business
concepts that would potentially find their application in the market and cater to the needs
of customers. Product discovery is important to determine the actual need for such a
product and the existence of a user base on the one hand, and the actual feasibility of
such a solution on the other hand.160 The goal of conducting product discovery is to
minimize uncertainty and separate viable concepts from non-viable ones in a short time
frame. In this stage it is important to clarify how a company reaches customers, what
value proposition it offers, what the underlying business model is and how the customer
journey is built from the first encounter through to all the touch points by which customers
interact with the service.161 In relation to Fintech, a market opportunity and the solution
to a personal problem, are two main reasons behind new products.162
First step in idea generation is identifying the areas of opportunity. Blaase recommends
focusing specifically on the following three areas: (1) a real problem people have and that
is considered worth solving, (2) a market demanding the offered solution and (3) scaling
the product into the mass market.163 As a verification method, some form of elementary
market analysis would be preferred in this stage or the effort could be obstructed by the
confirmation bias. Bias is a significant risk, because people often do seek validation for
their pre-existing ideas. It is important not to seek perfect concepts or complete answers
to problems, because the goal is to create a concept that is superior to existing solutions.
If the business model and services provided by the traditional financial industry, for
example, are essentially obsolete, there might be a larger demand for new and innovative
Münch J; Fagerholm F; Sanchez H.G.A. (2017) The RIGHT model for continuous experimentation. Journal of
158
Systems and Software.

159
Münch J; Trieflinger S; Heisler B. (2020) Product Discovery - Building the Right Things: Insights from a Grey
Literature Review. IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation.
160
Werder K; Zobel B; Maedche A. (2016) Towards a Method for Software Product Discovery. ICSOB.
161
Varga D. (2017) Fintech, the new era of financial services. Budapest Management Review.
162
Castro P; Rodrigues J; Teixeira J.G. (2020) Understanding FinTech Ecosystem Evolution Through Service
Innovation and Socio-technical System Perspective. ResearchGate.
163
Blaase N. (2020) How to build successful products in the digital world. Medium.
25
startups.164 Fintech innovation is oftenly responding to an unmet market need through
the prudent application of technology.165
New technologies open opportunities for companies to create services that would cater
to individual needs of customers. The idea of mass customization, based on customer
interests in products that are adapted to individual preferences, serves to build up a
lasting individual relationship with each customer and to increase customer loyalty. 166
Developing products that the customers actually like to use seems to be at the core of
FinTech innovation.167 When interviewees were asked about the advantages of fintechs
over banks, they readily mentioned accessibility, convenience, innovation in providing
solutions, creativity, speed, agility, flexibility, cost-effectiveness and technological
capabilities.168 The user requirements also influence the concept of a new product by
providing the product direction, which ensures the product's success. A deep
understanding of how users gain value including an accurate understanding of user’s
needs and wants, is required if the product developer wants to be commercially
successful.169 As Blank states: “Very few startups fail for lack of technology, rather they
almost always fail for lack of customers.”170
Customer-centric business concept, that fully expresses loyalty and the number of
profitable customers,171 is essential to fintech product success. Success can result from
network effects, which occur when a product is more valuable as more people use it.
Catering individual needs thus enables utilization of economies of scale. Fintechs need
to be scalable without drastically increasing costs or compromising the efficiency of the
technology, so it can reach its goal of obtaining a large number of users and attain
profitability through high volumes. In relation to that, Lee and Ernie outlined several key
success factors for fintechs to bear in mind, which they named LASIC principles: low
164
165
Guild J. (2017) Fintech and the Future of Finance. Asian Journal of Public Affairs.
Anišić Z. (2012) Customer Co-creation in Product Design and Product Configurators. International Scientific
166
Conference Management.
167
Chemmanur T.J; Imerman M.B; Rajaiya H; Yu Q. (2020) Recent Developments in the FinTech Industry. Journal of
Zalan T; Toufaily E. (2017) The Promise of Fintech in Emerging Markets: Not as Disruptive. Contemporary
168
Economics.
169
170
Blank S. (2005) The four steps to the epiphany. CafePress.
171
Krstić M; Skorup A; Vukadinović S. (2014) From product customization to customer relationship management.
International Review.
26
margin, asset light, scalable, innovative and compliance easy.172 Once the discovery
phase identifies a solution to a problem, it is necessary to document the process and
create a concept proposal which would illustrate results of this stage. This document will
serve as the basis for product definition.
5.2 Product Definition
The second stage of the innovation process is the definition of the fintech business.173 In
product definition stage concept proposal is further elaborated, in order to create a viable
business model. The product definition phase is important for identification and
development of the specification of a new product, in order to establish the
characteristics of a new product, and contribute to its success.174 Companies need to
make business decisions that would determine the success of the product, defining the
business model and reaching every aspect of the customer journey, from the point of the
first contact until after the service is performed.
Fintech’s success or failure will depend on the large-scale adoption by customers 175 and
customers occupy a central position in fintech business models. Customer journey
defines the customer interactions with the company. Interactions on the customer
journey between the customer and the stimuli produce the customer experience. 176
Customer experience is a set of relevant cognitive, affective and social responses,
resulting from the customer–company interaction.177 Even a relevant product can provide
great dissatisfaction for the customer if his or her experience with information flows is
uncomfortable.178 For a relevant customer experience in fintech, alongside the service
performance, the aspects related to the system and those related to the delivery process
also matter.179 According to a study of digital banking in the UK, customer experience has
a positive relationship with customer satisfaction and a positive impact on customer
Lee D.K.C; Ernie G.S.T. (2015) Emergence of FinTech and the LASIC Principles. Journal of Financial
172
Perspectives.
173
Castro P; Rodrigues J; Teixeira J.G. (2020) Understanding FinTech Ecosystem Evolution Through
Service Innovation and Socio-technical System Perspective. ResearchGate.
174
175
Demertzis M; Merler S; Wolff G.B. (2017) Capital Markets Union and the Fintech Opportunity. Journal
of Financial Regulation.
176
Lemon K.N; Verhoef P.C. (2016) Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer
Journey. Journal of Marketing.
177
Barbu C.M; Florea D.L; Dabija D.C; Barbu M.C.R. (2021) Customer Experience in Fintech. Journal of
Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research.
178
Svirina A; Appalonova N; Garanin D; Lukashevich N; Koshkin I. (2021) Fintech developmental trends:
the role and influence of sustainable digital logistics. E3S Web of Conferences.
179
Van Thiel D; Van Raaij F. (2017) Explaining Customer Experience of Digital Financial Advice. Economics
World.
27
loyalty.180 The results showed that perceived value, customer support, assurance, speed
and perceived firm innovativeness are positively related to customer experience in
fintech.
To produce enhanced customer experience fintechs usually implement their solutions

around customer needs and leverage on emerging technologies.181 In general, fintechs
develop a comprehensive view of their clients by using real time data and advanced
analytical platforms capable of processing big data, and generate insight about which
products or services are needed.182 The core features of the product, however, depend
on scoping and analyzing the domain of the product family. For this feature-oriented
domain analysis is used to identify and define common features and variation points. 183
Selected features are a basis for product requirements definition. Requirements are
gathered from all internal stakeholders 184 and should be unambiguous, clear, certain,
feasible and understandable.185 Typicall Software Requirement Specification document
or Functional Requirements document is created during this phase which includes
information about how to meet user requirements.186 When requirements are gathered,
analysis begins to determine the approach of the project, deliverables, and anticipated
outcomes.187 It’s an old wisdom from software development that most features in any
product don’t add value, but rather create unnecessary cost and complexity, thus
gradually deteriorating the product.188 A project complexity definition is necessary in
order to successfully cope with the project management challenges.189
Software development projects are complex, multidimensional ventures that, by their

very nature, are subject to failure.190 Any Fintech based approach must accept that
180
Mbama C.I; Ezepue P.O. (2018) Digital banking, customer experience and bank financial performance.
International Journal of Bank Marketing.
Riemer K; Hafermalz E; Roosen A; Boussand N; El Aoufi H; Mo D; Kosheliev A. (2017) The Fintech Advantage:
181
Harnessing Digital Technology to Keep the Customer in Focus.

182
Sugumaran V; Park S; Kang K. (2006) Software Product Line Engineering: Introduction. Communications of the
183
ACM.
184
Bekkers W; Brinkkemper S; Bemd L; Mijnhardt F; Wagner C; Van de Weerd I. (2012) Evaluating the Software
Product Management Maturity Matrix. 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference.
185

186
Kramer M. (2018) Best Practices in Systems Development Lifecycle: An Analysis Based on the Waterfall Model.
187
Review of Business & Finance Studies.

188
Ebert C; Abrahamsson P; Oza N. (2012) Lean Software Development. IEEE Software.
189
Balaban S; Đurašković J. (2021) Agile Project Management as an Answer to Changing Environment. European
Project Management Journal.
190
28
technology is not perfect and that it may operate beyond its developers’ intentions.191
While the advanced technology has delivered vast benefits, the technology has also
allowed for more sophisticated cyberattacks.192 For that reason proper risk management
is crucial for fintech longevity. Financial history witnessed numerous cases of fraud and
risks are inherent to fintech projects. Success will not come if such risks are not
addressed effectively. Some of the challenges besides hacking and abuse, is navigating
potential regulatory challenges. Fintech companies should closely monitor upcoming
changes in the regulatory environment, because the core of their business models might
be threatened.193
Product manager has to adjust the value propositions before continuing with design and
development. The team needs to be assured of the desirability of the product before
progressing to development.194 Product strategy gives a final decision on the product to
be launched, and answers the question such as: who are main customers to the product,
when to enter into the market, what kind of pricing strategy to follow, who are the main
competitors, what kind of life cycle the product should have, etc. For fintech companies
to succeed, they need to set a product vision, which is a defined goal, usually about five
years into the future.195 Once software product strategy is in place, it is time to create
product roadmap.
5.3 Product Planning
Once the product features and requirements have been defined the product planning is
conducted. The product planning business function refers to the collecting of relevant
information for the creation of a roadmap for products, product lines or core assets.196 In
literature regarding software products, product planning is used interchangeably with
roadmapping. In the software industry roadmaps are used for planning purposes and the
Arner D.W; Buckley R.P; Zetzsche D.A; Veidt R. (2020) Sustainability, FinTech and Financial Inclusion. European
191
Business and Organization Law Review.

192
Finance.
193
Hao A.N. (2019) Banking Outside-in: How Design Thinking is Changing The Banking Industry? International
194
Association of Societies of Design Research Conference.

Devraj A. (2021) Agile and Anticipatory: Exploring How Strategic Foresight May Strengthen Product Strategy
195
Through the Lens of the Fintech Start-Up Ecosystem in Africa. OCAD.

196
29
term roadmapping is used in two perspectives: forecasting and planning.197 Handling
different releases of each product is often done by roadmaps.198 So it could be said that
product roadmaps describe the link between a business strategy and the development
of a product over time.199
A product manager conducts product planning to construct a roadmap, which is an action

plan for a specific time period.200 Product planning is focused on the gathering of
information and creation of a roadmap for a product, or product line and its core assets.201
Core functions in this process are requirements prioritizing, release planning, creating
and validating a release requirements document, and scope management.202 All relevant
internal stakeholders indicate the requirements that should be incorporated in future
releases by assigning priorities from their point of view, and the release definition is
created containing an overview of the requirements that will be implemented, a time path,
and the needed capacity.203 Requirements for the product have to be planned and
documented, in order to create a roadmap as a timeline of planned releases. The
requirements are refined so that they can be used as input to the design and
implementation phase.204 The goal of roadmapping is to determine which version of the
product will come with specific features at which time. Product roadmap includes multiple
releases, and each version of the product is treated as a separate project with a separate
sub-set of requirements.205
The final outcome of product planning will be the roadmap with specific planned release
dates which represents a guideline for production teams to follow. Following up on
incremental improvements of products and services is an important factor for software
success. The most successful fintechs have evolved into execution machines that rapidly
Vähäniitty J; Lassenius C; Rautiainen K. (2002) An Approach to Product Roadmapping in Small Software Product
197
Businesses, Quality Connection - 7th European Conference on Software Quality.

198

199
Komssi M; Kauppinen M; Töhönen H; Lethola L; Davis A. (2011) Integrating analysis of customers' processes into
roadmapping: The value-creation perspective. 19th International Requirements Engineering Conference IEEE.
Lucassen G; Der Werf V; Martijn J; Brinkkemper S. (2014) Alignment of Software Product Management and
200
Software Architecture With Discussion Models. 8th International Workshop on Software Product Management.
201
202

203
Bekkers W; Brinkkemper S; Bemd L; Mijnhardt F; Wagner C; Van de Weerd I. (2012) Evaluating the Software
Product Management Maturity Matrix. 20th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference.
204
205
30
deliver innovative products.206 It is necessary to intensely follow the market conditions,
as well as the applications of the new digital tools and activities of fintech innovators, in
order to recognize the changes that can disrupt the current business.207 In that sense, a
good and effective product roadmap is a strategic tool,208 that has its impact on business
vitality and responsiveness to changing conditions.
5.4 Product Feasibility
Every Innovation involves trial-and-error, and failures can be costly.209 In the case of
software product development uncertainty is evident. There is even a “fail-fast”
philosophy in the software industry, which essentially relates to “it doesn’t hurt to try”.
Failing a software product is possibly less costly than in case of other industries, but it is
a situation no company wants to find itself in. That is why feasibility assessment is an
important part of software business, one that could probably be considered an unsolved
mystery. An improper assessment is a common reason why software businesses fail.
Overarching your means and miscalculating is certainly something that needs to be
avoided in any phase of the software development process.
The basis for proper feasibility assessment is proper business and product planning.
Ideas and hypotheses must be transformed into numbers and need to be backed by
reasonable and verifiable assumptions about future events and milestones. A business
plan is a formal accounting statement which numerically describes a set of business
goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the strategic plan and
managerial steps for reaching those goals.210 Implementation of fintech, in addition is
followed by multiple questions that business plan needs to address: viable technology
solutions, financial design issues, monetary instruments, legal considerations, financial
risk.211
In addition to business plan there is a variety of business methods and tools to enhance
feasibility assessment. There are even many methods specific to the software industry.
In software engineering, various labor-intensive labor calculators are known, which
206
Galvin J.A; Han F.V; Hynes S; Qu J; Rajgopal K; Shek A. (2018) Synergy and disruption: Ten trends
shaping fintech. Global Banking.
207
208
Münch J; Trieflinger S; Heisler B. (2020) Product Discovery - Building the Right Things: Insights from a
Grey Literature Review. IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation.
209
Lerner J; Tufano P. (2011) The Consequences of Financial Innovation: A Counterfactual Research
Agenda. NBER Working Paper.
210
211
Mills D.C; Wang K; Malone B; Ravi A; Marquardt J; Badev A.I; Brezinski T; Fahy L; Liao K; Kargenian V;
Ellithorpe M; Baird M. (2016) Distributed Ledger Technology in Payments, Clearing, and Settlement. FEDS.
31
mainly implement various versions of the COCOMO methodology, determining the
volume of the solution in thousands of lines of code or at functional points.212 Additionally
there are tools such as Life Cycle Cost analysis that has been used for many years for
prediction of the total cost of a system throughout the product’s service life. 213 Similarly.
System Concept Development is used to define the scope of the system and may include
a high-level schedule, cost summary, and other plans that may be required for the
specific type of system, usually determined by all members of the project team.
Product management has a goal to reduce uncertainty of software development and in

that, feasibility assessment has a task to evaluate achievableness of the product roadmap
in relation to available resources. In the software industry there is a tendency of creating
experimentation systems such as minimum viable products (abbreviated as MVP). A
minimum viable product can be developed and deployed, collecting the required data in
order to validate or invalidate the hypothesis.214 Experimenting with a Minimum Viable
Product (MVP), a product version as minimal as reasonable, enables a startup to find
validation for their product idea as well as finding the right way to implement the idea.215
Minimum viable products enable measuring the key performance indicators in real life
situations, or in case of fintech this may be regulatory sandboxes, which means validating
with real potential customers. A MVP gives early feedback about the product directly
from the customer and is a valuable input to developing the product further.216 If the MVP
satisfies the customer, it can be developed further, otherwise, the product can be
changed quickly.217
Polianskii A; Chukalova D. (2020) Software product management: planning tool integration. MATEC Web of
212
Conferences.
213
Markeset T. (2004) Dimensioning of product support: Issues, challenges, and opportunities.
214
Münch J; Trieflinger S; Heisler B. (2020) Product Discovery - Building the Right Things: Insights from a Grey
Literature Review. IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation.
215
Ries E. (2011) The lean startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically
successful businesses. Random House LLC.
216
Ries E. (2011) The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically
217
Successful Businesses. New York: Crown Business.
32
6. Implementation of Fintech Product
6.1 Architecture Design
Software Architecture is “the set of structures needed to reason about the system, which
comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both”.218 It was
pointed out by companies that software architecture is the main success factor where
the system is composed of smaller modules, where microservices are used as the main
software development technique.219 Therefore, it can be said that software architecture
has a large, direct impact on product success factors, creating a winning product and
delivering value to customers.220
Architectural design is the process of translating product requirements into detailed

specifications that engineers will use during the Development phase. Architects, in this
phase, should identify subsystems for the whole system, establish a framework for
subsystem control and define subsystem interfaces.221 Software architects make
architectural design decisions based on available requirements and to satisfy
stakeholders’ functionality and quality attribute requirements.222 Software architects use
the requirements gathered from the first stage to produce several designs of the product,
as the blueprint for the design with the necessary specifications for the hardware,
software, people and data resources, and additional information for the coding and
debugging.223
Architecture design describes the key components and the interface of those
components and it focuses on how to deliver the required functionality to the system.
These specifications should address how functional, physical, interface, and data
requirements are to be met in the system, and this is usually done iteratively through the
entire life cycle process.224 The software architecture represents a plan on use of
218
Clements P; Garlan D; Bass L; Stafford J; Nord R; Ivers J; Little R. (2002) Documenting Software Architectures:
Views and Beyond. Pearson Education.
219
Lucassen G; Der Werf V; Martijn J; Brinkkemper S. (2014) Alignment of Software Product Management and
220
Software Architecture With Discussion Models. 8th International Workshop on Software Product Management.
221
Sommerville I. (1996) Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley.
222
Jansen A; Bosch J. (2005) Software architecture as a set of architectural design decisions in Software
Architecture. 5th Working IEEE/IFIP Conference.
223

224
33
programming languages, compilers, integrated development environments, frameworks,
libraries, third party components, technology acquisition, version control systems,
application programming interfaces, deployment and test strategies. Good and optimized
architecture design creates opportunities to avoid maintenance to some extent. Once the
design of architecture of the system is created and documented, the actual development
of the system can take place.225
6.2 User Interface Design and Prototyping
The user interface (UI) is a way of communication between users and computer systems,
with which system provides its functionality to the users. User interface plays an integral
part in establishing a trustworthy relationship with the consumers.226 Good user interface
helps the user to interact with the system naturally and intuitively, which means that the
design satisfies the users’ needs, capabilities, and limitations.227 Leveraging user-friendly
interfaces and harnessing insights from big data analytics, fintech companies have been
able to excel at providing a much more engaging experience for their customers.228
Product design is a key element in software development as conceptualization of a

solution prior to programming activities.229 The main task of interface design is to solve
the user experience (UX) related problems that have been previously defined.230 To solve
these problems the user-centered design method is used.231 User-centered design is a
general term that describes the design process where users are involved in the design.
This approach improves user experience by designing interactions and interfaces
according to user needs.232 Design thinking created a competitive advantage for fintechs
by generating the rapid, user centered prototyping of new services that are viable,
225
Hallberg E. (2021) Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Implementing a UI Library in FinTech Applications. Digitala
226
Vetenskapliga Arkivet.
Ruiz J; Serral E; Snoeck M. (2021) Unifying functional user interface design principles. International Journal of
227
Human-Computer Studies.
228
Chemmanur T.J; Imerman M.B; Rajaiya H; Yu Q. (2020) Recent Developments in the FinTech Industry. Journal of
229
Freeman P; Hart D. (2004) A science of design for software-intensive systems. Communications of the ACM.
Santoso H.B; Schrepp M; Isal R.Y.K; Utomo A.Y; Priyogi B. (2016) Measuring user experience of the student-
230
centered E-learning environment. The Journal of Educators Online.

Bangor A; Kortum P; Miller J. (2009) Determining What Individual SUS Scores Mean: Adding an Adjective Rating
231
Scale. Journal of Usability Studies.

Forte J; Darin T. (2017) User Experience Evaluation for User Interface Redesign: A Case Study on a Bike Sharing
232
Application. ResearchGate.
34
desirable and feasible at the same time, by understanding ‘customer journeys’ and
mapping out routes for a frictionless user experience.233
A customers’ journey represents the path on which a customer comes into contact with
a service or a business. The customer experience reflects all of the customer's
interactions with a product or service.234 Journeys embrace the full suite of interactions
for a given activity and work to make the entire end-to-end chain streamlined, efficient,
consistent and personalized.235 UX development consists of activities related to gaining
understanding of the user and the context of use, designing and developing for good
user experience, and evaluating the resulting outcome.236 Prototyping is a fundamental
activity in the development process of product and user experience design. In particular,
prototyping is pointed out by practitioners as one of the most important and effective
tools in their early concept work.237 The prototype is a solution at an early stage in order
to prepare for later development, it is not a final product.238 Its purpose is interacting with
users to perform simulation testing and validate the business concept.
Early stage prototyping is of paramount importance to companies engaged in the

development of innovative products, because it enables cost effective evaluation of the
user interface and user experience. Without a prototype there is a higher risk of error, if
the application has been developed and moved on to the testing stage and a requirement
has been changed, it becomes difficult to go back and change it.239 Once the product
concept is prooved with the testing of a software prototype, it is time to develop the
individual product.
6.3 Product Development
Product development, describes the creation or implementation of software artifacts, e.g.

by programming.240 Development process includes a set of software engineering
233
234
Harris R; Harris K; Baron S. (2003) Theatrical service experiences dramatic script development with employees.
International Journal of Service Industry Management.
Regelman R. (2016) How Digitized Customer Journeys Can Help Banks Win Hearts, Minds and Profits. BCG
235
Perspectives.
Lee I; Shin Y.J. (2018) Fintech: Ecosystem, business models, investment decisions, and challenges. Business
236
Horizons.
237
Hartmann B. (2009) Gaining design insight through interaction prototyping tools. Stanford University.
Bor-Yuan T; Stobart S; Parrington N; Thompson J. (1997) Iterative Design and Testing within the Software
238
Development Life Cycle. Software Quality Journal.

239

240
Boehm B.W. (1988) A spiral model of software development and enhancement. Computer.
35
activities needed to transform user’s requirements into software. The main task of the
development is the execution of the release plan defined by roadmapping. In the
development phase product design and prototype are converted into a functional system.
This phase includes the writing of software, as well as the infrastructure needed to be set
in place, and deliverables that are expected.241
There are many modern methods of developing the software such as test-driven
development, integration tests, continuous integration, clean code, learning by doing,
mandatory solution review and simple communication.242 In general, the product
development involves execution of multiple projects spanned trough the life cycle of the
product. It is important to separate concerns throughout the development lifecycle, and
coordinate separated concerns, allowing all features to be designed and developed
separately from the rest of the system.243 The final constructs are components, which
refers to the most granular type of underlying technological innovation. 244 Components
act as building blocks and are usually designed and developed to consider reusability
and scalability.245 During the development, all tasks are precisely monitored and reported
and regular meetings are the way to improve the process.246 The iterative approach
allows the project team to iterate and test before deciding on a firm outcome for
implementation.247 Once the development team produces the software build, the build is
validated by internal stakeholders to verify that it meets the expected outcome and then
released.
Anyone involved in software development knows that it is a complex and risky business
and software projects still have the highest percentage of failure in implementation. 248
Implementing new technology into a complex software developing environment comes
with challenges in terms of code, user interface design, and developer experience.249
241
Sundelin A; Gonzalez-Huerta J; Wnuk K. (2018) Test-Driving FinTech Product Development: An Experience
242
Report. International Conference on Product-Focused Software Development and Process Improvement.

Clarke S; Harrison W.H; Ossher H; Tarr P.L. (1999) Separating Concerns Throughout the Development Lifecycle.
243
ECOOP Workshops.
244
Gozman D; Liebenau J; Mangan J. (2017) The Innovation Mechanisms of Fintech Start-Ups: Insights from Swift's
Innotribe Competition. SSRN.
245
246
Hao A.N. (2019) Banking Outside-in: How Design Thinking is Changing The Banking Industry? International
247
Association of Societies of Design Research Conference.

248
249
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Uncertain and dynamic environments present fundamental challenges and even for a
single development project, firms must respond to new information, or risk developing a
product that is obsolete the day it is launched.250 Most software projects experience
numerous changes during their life cycle. These changes are driven by several factors
including constant changes in software and system requirements, business goals, market
demand, work environment and government regulation.251 For example, a field study
conducted by Curtis indicates that requirements volatility is one of the major problems
faced by most organizations in the software industry.252
Requirements volatility is the tendency of requirements to change 253 and managing it is

still a challenge in the software industry. Requirements volatility is the number one reason
for failure, especially in the case of fintech products which are highly susceptible to
customer influence, as was proven by a study.254 Lack of communication can be another
significant challenge for development teams. Namely, writing the program itself is a
matter of technique for solving the observed problem, however, the problem solution can
be implemented in many ways, even if we use the same programming language. 255
Another problem that can affect development is employees’ lack of commitment, which
can reflect on the lack of detail in requirements and features specification, which can end
up in delayed releases.256
6.4 Product Testing
Product quality is one the most important factors for encouraging use of software
products. If a fintech system is slow, dicult to use, unreliable, and unstable, fintech users
are more likely to worry about the malfunctions in the systems, and non-performance
caused by system failure.257 In order to ensure product quality, testing is performed in
MacCormack A; Verganti R; Iansiti M. (2001) Developing Products on "Internet Time": The Anatomy of a Flexible
250
Development Process. Management Science.

251
Barry E.J; Mukhopadhyay T; Slaughter S.A. (2002) Software Project Duration and Effort: An Empirical Study.
Information Technology and Management.
Curtis B; Krasner H; Iscoe N. (1988) A Field Study of the Software Design Process for Large Systems.
252

253
Nurmuliani N; Zowghi D; Powell S. (2004) Analysis of requirements volatility during software development life
cycle. ASWEC.
254
Castro P; Rodrigues J; Teixeira J.G. (2020) Understanding FinTech Ecosystem Evolution Through Service
Innovation and Socio-technical System Perspective. ResearchGate.
255
256
Marques R; Costa G; Silva M; Gonçalves P. (2017) A Survey of Failures in the Software Development Process.
Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS).
257
Ryu H.S. (2018) What makes users willing or hesitant to use Fintech?: The moderating effect of user type.
Industrial Management & Data Systems.
37
various stages of the product life cycle. Some system development life cycles describe
testing which is performed after the coding phase, but this may cause the software to be
delivered without sufficient testing.258 It is important to start testing as early as possible
and testing should be run very frequently, even before every source code integration and
definitely before every release.259
Testing implies the evaluation of functionality and underlying logic, according to

predetermined use-case scenarios. It is based on the presented criteria by evaluating the
code, UI design, and UX using a wide diversity of data collecting methods.260 Testing is
generally performed during the development stage and subsequently in later stages of
the product life cycle. Different types of testing help stakeholders to determine flaws in
the system, prior to deployment, those are: integration testing of subsystems, security
testing, user testing or acceptance testing, and unit testing.261 According to McGregor,
software product testing should be done at a static level that includes the reviews,
inspection, architectural and design evaluations, and a dynamic level that includes unit,
integration and system testing.262 It is important to note that the test plan is never fixed
and it is modified adequately to the changes in requirements and problems appearing in
development.263
Unit testing is conducted by the developers before handing the developed code over to
the test phase.264 Integration testing is the most significant one, performed in order to
determine if the specified requirements are met. In this phase the system integration is
tested regarding quality and functional aspects, in order to make a decision whether the
system can be deployed.265 Integration testing is needed to confirm that the developed
product works as expected and according to the specifications.266 We also differentiate
alpha and beta testing. Alpha testing is done at the development organization and Beta
Bor-Yuan T; Stobart S; Parrington N; Thompson J. (1997) Iterative Design and Testing within the Software
258
Development Life Cycle. Software Quality Journal.

259
260
261
McGregor J.D. (2001) Testing a Software Product Line. Technical Report of Software Engineering Institute,
262
Carnegie Mellon University.

Jureczko M. (2008) The level of agility in testing process in a large scale financial software project, software
263
engineering techniques in progress. Ocyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Wroclawskiej.

264
265
266
38
testing is generally done by customers, usually before the product launch. 267 Once the
product is beta tested, it is time to deploy the product.
In the case of Fintech, a particular issue can be regulation, when companies need to test,
configure their product. This kind of testing has typically not been looked on favorably by
regulators and sometimes it requires a full licensing regime, which can kill a new fintech
firm before it gets out of the starting box.268 For that specific use, regulatory sandboxes
are introduced. Regulatory sandbox is a dynamic and flexible regulatory framework,
aimed at providing temporary, safe and predetermined conditions; Allowing early-stage
startups to conduct real-world market reach on their products and services, fine-tune
their business models, and design the unique value proposition of their offerings without
the obligation to obtain a full license and clear regulatory hurdles, reducing the barriers
to entry and regulatory costs.269 This validation allows for faster deployment of early
products and services in the real world. In principle, the key objectives of such fintech
experimentation are: technical analysis, evaluation of customer adoption, magnitude of
service usability, potential, efficiency and effectiveness with users in the development
process, and testing of technical stability.270
A Survey of Failures in the Software Development Process proved a clear correlation

between startup failure and the neglect of testing, whose steps are sometimes skipped
due to lack of time.271 The main objective of product testing is to deliver a product to the
customer that is performing as intended. Each product has to be tested before marketing
or delivering to the customers on the requirements implemented.272 If the results of
testing are not encouraging, the implementation needs to be changed and fixed. In that
way, development becomes an "evolutionary" process of learning and adaptation. 273
Once a change has been implemented, the software system has to be retested to gain
confidence that it will perform according to the specification.274
267

268
269
Patel P.J; Dave S; Dalal P; Chaudhary S. (2017) A Testbed for Experimenting Internet of Things Applications.
270
Cornell University.
271
Marques R; Costa G; Silva M; Gonçalves P. (2017) A Survey of Failures in the Software Development Process.
Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS).
McGregor J.D. (2001) Testing a Software Product Line. Technical Report of Software Engineering Institute,
272
Carnegie Mellon University.

273
Tushman M.L; O'Reilly C.A. (1997) Winning Through Innovation. HBS Press.
Canfora G; Cimitile A. (2001) Software Maintenance. Handbook of Software Engineering and Knowledge
274
Engineering.
39
6.5 Product Documentation
Product documentation follows the evolution of the product, from its inception till end-of-
life, throughout its lifecycle. Documentation ensures that “the business has an
understanding of the product, which leads to the confidence of the system.”275
Documentation consists of a collection of views, which are “a representation of a set of
system elements and the relationships associated with them.”276 Documentation includes
information on important decisions made in the process of product management, every
step of that way. From idea generation, requirements specification, developer diary,
technical information, testing documentation, everything needs to be documented so
anyone working on the product would have a full understanding of the product, or in part
if need be. It is important to gain a complete understanding of the structure, behavior and
functionality of the system being modified, when the change needs to be made, the
accompanying documentation is used to comprehend its logic, purpose, and structure.277
It is a document which illustrates test cases and results, how the components work, and
approvals, the test files and data, and how the software and hardware components work
together.278 Documentation needs to be regularly maintained and updated during the
product life cycle, so it would stay a relevant source of information for productions or
maintenance teams.
7. Commercialization of Fintech Product
7.1 Product Delivery
Product delivery is the process of deploying an application to the market. Software

deployment is a post production activity and represents a process consisting of a number
of interrelated activities including the release of software at the end of the development
cycle.279 In order for the release to be successful, that process must be effectively
managed. Software release management is the process through which software is made
available to, and obtained by, its users.280 Core functions in this process are requirements
Jinasena D.N; Spanaki K; Papadopoulos T. (2020) Success and Failure Retrospectives of FinTech Projects: A
275
Case Study Approach. Information Systems Frontiers.

276
Clements P; Garlan D; Bass L; Stafford J; Nord R; Ivers J; Little R. (2002) Documenting Software Architectures:
Views and Beyond. Pearson Education.
277
Engineering.
278
279
Dearle A. (2007) Software Deployment, Past, Present and Future. ICSE.
280
Van der Hoek A. (1997) Software release management. Springer.
40
prioritizing; release planning; constructing and validating a release requirements
document; and scope management.281
Launch preparation prepares the internal and external stakeholders for the launch of the
new release, managing issues ranging from communication, to documentation, training,
and the preparations for the implementation of the release itself are addressed.282
Software product releases are planned based on the following variables, that form the
initial plan for a software enhancement project: (1) Customer requirements - how to
enhance the system; (2) Time pressure - time frame required to gain a competitive
advantage; (3) Competition - what is the competition up to; (4) Quality - what is the
required quality; (5) Vision - how to fulfill the system vision; (6) Resource - what staff and
funding are available.283
In the release phase the product is brought into a shippable state, that is, release
documentation is finalized.284 A post-implementation review is commonly completed to
make sure all requirements are met and the system is functioning in production as
expected.285 At the point of release the software is assembled into code packages
containing sufficient metadata to describe the resources on which it depends.286 The end
user needs to ensure that the product actually meets their needs and that the
conceptualization and development activities were successful. In this way the user
validates the product. This is called User Acceptance Testing (UAT).287
7.2 Product Support
Product support can be defined as any form of assistance that companies offer their
customers to gain maximum value from manufactured products, and is mainly dependent
on the product’s designed-in characteristics, operational environment, as well as on the
owner's operational, maintenance, and support strategies.288 Software companies have
reported that they use the customer feedback to develop the product further, find
281

282
283
Schwaber K. (1997). SCRUM Development Process. Business Object Design and Implementation.
284
285
286
287

288
41
arguments for sales and marketing purposes, learn project skills, and study the business
logic in their industry.289 The software product undergoes modification according to
customer feedback, to correct faults, to improve performance or other attributes, or to
adapt the product to a modified environment.290 Thus, the role of product support can be
perceived as the process that compensates for deficiencies in design.291
Brand image has a positive relationship with fintech adoption.292 Trust plays a significant
role in most economic transactions, it is even more relevant in online or, more generally,
digital settings.293 Service quality is the most important factor for controlling uncertainty
and encouraging continued use of fintech, reducing concerns and doubts about
providers’ abilities, replacing those fears with confidence.294 Customer satisfaction is
affected by product characteristics such as maintainability, supportability, and product
support, and by the processes involved in providing product support. 295 Through
customer support, the customer needs to feel reassured by the support of the fintechs in
the event of a potential problem. In the case of fintech adoption, customers are more
influenced by the perception of safety compared to the risk associated with fintech
adoption 296 and the main task of fintech support is to maintain that perception.
7.3 Product Maintenance
Maintenance is the process of keeping something in working order, but software

engineering products do not deteriorate with the passing of time. However the advance
of the technology can make a software product obsolete if maintenance is not performed.
A product reaches the maintenance phase as soon as deployed. Software maintenance
is a very broad activity often including all work made on a software after it becomes
operational, covering correction of errors, the enhancement, deletion and addition of
289
Ruokolainen J. (2005) Gear-up your software start-up company by the first reference customer - nomothetic
research study in the thai software industry. Technovation.
290
Bennett K; Rajlich V. (2000) Software Maintenance and Evolution: a Roadmap. ACM Press.
291
Markeset T; Kumar U. (2001) R&M and risk-analysis tools in product design, to reduce life-cycle cost and improve
attractiveness. Proceedings of the Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium.
Caviggioli F; Lamberti L; Landoni P; Meola P. (2020) Technology adoption news and corporate reputation:
292
Sentiment analysis about the introduction of Bitcoin. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
Bart Y; Shankar V; Sultan F; Urban G.L. (2005) Are the drivers and role of online trust the same for all web sites
293
and consumers? A large-scale exploratory empirical study. Journal of Marketing.

294
Ryu H.S; Kwang S.K. (2020) Sustainable Development of Fintech: Focused on Uncertainty and Perceived Quality
Issues. Sustainability.
295
296
Ryu H. (2018) Understanding Benefit and Risk Framework of Fintech Adoption: Comparison of Early Adopters and
Late Adopters. HICSS.
42
capabilities, the adaptation to changes in data requirements and operation environments,
the improvement of performance, usability, or any other quality attributes.297
Maintenance is defined as a combination of all technical, administrative and managerial

actions during the life cycle of a product intended to retain a state in which it can perform
the required function. 298 Lientz and Swanson categorized maintenance activities into four
classes: Adaptive, changes the software environment; Perfective, implements new
requirements; Corrective, fixes errors; Preventive, prevents problems in the future.299
Later, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers redefined the Lientz and
Swanson categorization, to corrective, adaptive, and perfective maintenance, and added
emergency maintenance as a fourth category, which is unscheduled corrective
maintenance.300
The main task of the maintenance is to fix the problems with software. Technical issues
and problems with a product are generally discovered by users, who report them to the
company and get support in solving them.301 Maintenance team is tasked with introducing
fixes with code changes. Once a change has been implemented, the testing must be
conducted to prove functionality. Updating is the process of changing a piece of installed
software.302 Whenever a change is implemented, it is important that the maintainer gains
a complete understanding of the structure, behavior and functionality of the system, and
update the accompanying documentation.303 The product release notes should consist
of all these details in addition to highlighting the new features, mentioning known defects,
deprecated features, time limits to support older versions and contacts in case customer
needs support.304
The Lehmans’ laws of evolution state that successful software systems are condemned
to change over time.305 In general, due to cost and technological considerations, it is
297
Engineering.
298
299
Lientz B.P; Swanson E.B. (1980) Software Maintenance Management. Addison Wesley.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1998) Standard for Software Maintenance. IEEE Computer
300
Society Press.
301
302
303
Engineering.
304

Lehman M.M. (1980) Lifecycles and the Laws of Software Evolution. Proceedings of the IEEE, Special Issue on
305
Software Engineering.
43
almost impossible to design a system that is maintenance-free.306 More than half the cost
of the development life cycle is due to the operations and maintenance 307 and the
product needs to be maintained and supported, till it gets withdrawn from the market.
Maintenance phase is only finished when a system has become obsolete, withdrawn or
replaced by another.
8. Conclusion
A very few authors were researching the fintech product development process so far.
And the reviewed works have only in part regarded the same problem as this thesis. In
that sense, it was a challenge to gather a general overview of the Product management
process, from the fintech point of view. Based on the majority of the available relevant
literature, it can be concluded that no claims exist or evidence in the literature, that the
fintech product management process, in terms of activities and key stages, is
meaningfully different in comparison to the software product management process.
Research has shown that there are no fundamental differences between software
product management and fintech product management. Both processes have identical
features, both follow identical phases and are reacting to similar factors. In this regard,
we can conclude that the management of fintech products essentially represents the
implementation of the software product management process in the financial industry,
with the only difference being, the extreme sensitivity of fintech projects to the security
and regulatory issues that arise from its financial nature.
Research into the theoretical background of fintech has shown that historically, the
financial sector has always followed the development of technology, and in that sense,
fintech is just a more dynamic continuation of that evolution. It is obvious that there is no
consensus on the definition of fintech, but the reason for this is that the authors try to
include all segments of the fintech application with a single definition. Instead, using
clearer and narrower definition would be more expedient to the progress of the field. In
that sense, where most authors do agree this thesis would concur, defining fintech simply
as the application of information technologies in the financial services industry. Similar
problems exist with the classification of fintech projects and this paper tries to contribute,
in the sense that multiple existing fintech projects can be divided according to traditional
services, innovative services and implemented technology. Lastly, the research
confirmed that the fintech product has all the general characteristics of a software
306
307
44
product, but doesn’t share all the characteristics of financial products. Therefore, it could
be concluded that fintech is primarily a software product, and secondarily a financial one.
As the result of the systematic literature review on the software product management
process, it is clear that there is a similar understanding of product management. To a
large extent, the authors attribute identical roles to product managers, and in almost
every case their responsibilities are characterized as a combination of strategic and
operational tasks. Although every product is a project in a fundamental sense, almost all
authors agree that mixing the role of a project manager and a product manager is
unsuitable, because they perform essentially separate tasks that complement each other.
Finally, the opinions of authors' differentiate primarily according to the number and types
of phases attributed to the product management process. This thesis therefore presents
the lowest common denominator for different methodologies, which can include in
general most of the stages proposed by different authors. For the purpose of this work,
the product management process was defined as a process in three dimensions:
conceptualization, implementation and commercialization of fintech products.
Product conceptualization is the least preconditioned stage of the product management

process. There are no precise criteria according to which this phase would be
successfully completed. In that sense, each organization should define the criteria,
expectations, and process for itself. However, in this phase the object of business and
product is determined, the business model is elaborated and detailed plans are
presented and the capacities of the organization and other factors for successful
implementation are analyzed. Conceptualization is the most strategic phase of all the
others, which implies a need to think about the long-term perspective of the product. If
the product is to succeed, full attention must be given to this phase. Particularly, fintech
companies must care to include potential users in the conceptualization phase and to
consider the received feedback, as indicated by all the research results.
The implementation of the product concept is essentially the most technical stage. It is
also the phase that has mostly an operational dimension, with the exception of design,
which has a strategic component. Implementation is a process in which the differences
in the activities between the management of a fintech product and the management of a
software product are the least. In case of fintech implementation, the importance of
prototyping and early testing must be highlighted. The sooner the functional fintech
product can reach users, the better. This is why the concepts of minimum viable product
and regulatory sandbox are important for the success of fintech products. It can be
concluded, that, besides using regulatory sandboxes in product testing, the process of
45
fintech implementation is not different in any other way compared to the typical software
implementation.
Commercialization of fintech products is the final stage of product management.

Although a product can be managed on all three dimensions simultaneously,
conceptualization and implementation will be completed in general long before
commercialization is finished. Commercialization is a measure of product management
success. The longer the duration of the commercialization period, the more successful
the product is. For a successful product, product support, i.e. customer support, is of
immense importance during commercialization. All research data points to a strong link
between fintech user satisfaction and quality of support. Therefore, fintech companies
must provide quality support to maintain confidence in their product.
Regardless of the number and sequence of stages, all methodologies include similar
activities and are determined by similar factors. It is important to point out that product
management is not a sequential process, as it is often presented in the literature. Its
phases and subphases intertwine or change in the order of execution. Product
management is a multidimensional process that guides the product concept from its
ideation to realization, from realization to adoption, and from adoption to termination. It is
very important to underline the importance of product management methodology for the
fintech industry. Customer-centric product management is a fundamental tool of fintech
product development. In the end, it can be concluded that no other methodology is
currently more purposeful for the realization of a fintech project than product
management.
46
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Product Management of Fintech Projects

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In recent years, we have seen an increase in the implementation of innovative financial

Fintech; Financial technologies; Product management; Fintech Product Management;

2.2. Definition of Fintech

There is a consensus in literature that Fintech represents a fusion of finance and

2.3. Fintech Industry Landscape

2.4 Classification of Fintech Projects

A fundamental challenge in studying fintech innovation is that there currently exists no

Considering implemented technology, fintech projects usually rely on some of the

2.5 Fintech as a Software Product

Communications of the ACM.

3. Software Product Management

3.1 Definition of Software Product Management

Business Operations in SMEs. Tehnika.

Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA).

Software product management is also an example of a complex socio-technical

Conference of Software Business.

Advances in Management Research.

Marketing to Sales. Aspatore Books.

Management? Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

3.2 Product Manager Role

The role of a product manager is especially important in the competitive market of

Advances in Management Research.

Management. Utrecht University Technical Report.

Management? Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

Management. Utrecht University Technical Report.

Academy of Management Executive.

3.3 Product Manager vs. Project Manager

Product management is focused on managerial skills, communications and leadership,

Project managers are in charge of separate business activities treated as projects,141

3.4 Software Product Management Methodologies

Effective software product management is a key to achieving a successful outcome and

Papers on Information Systems.

Business Operations in SMEs. Tehnika.

Case Study Approach. Information Systems Frontiers.

Hungarian Banking System. University of Maribor Press.

5. Conceptualization of Fintech Product

5.1 Product Discovery

Product discovery is a cross-functional process that requires the involvement of different

Systems and Software.

5.2 Product Definition

To produce enhanced customer experience fintechs usually implement their solutions

Software development projects are complex, multidimensional ventures that, by their

Harnessing Digital Technology to Keep the Customer in Focus.

Papers on Information Systems.

Review of Business & Finance Studies.

5.3 Product Planning

Business and Organization Law Review.

Association of Societies of Design Research Conference.

Through the Lens of the Fintech Start-Up Ecosystem in Africa. OCAD.

A product manager conducts product planning to construct a roadmap, which is an action

Businesses, Quality Connection - 7th European Conference on Software Quality.

Management. Utrecht University Technical Report.

Management. Utrecht University Technical Report.

Papers on Information Systems.

5.4 Product Feasibility

Product management has a goal to reduce uncertainty of software development and in

Successful Businesses. New York: Crown Business.

6.1 Architecture Design

Architectural design is the process of translating product requirements into detailed