Diana Dalkevych

Usually before making an expensive decision. Launching a new product, entering another market, changing positioning, or investing in a redesign all come with assumptions. Research helps separate the ones supported by evidence from the ones based on intuition.

I want to understand how the company describes itself, how customers describe it, and how competitors position similar products. Those three perspectives rarely match perfectly. The differences often explain why a product struggles to attract or retain customers.

People don't choose financial products the same way they choose most digital services. Trust, regulation, perceived risk, and clarity all influence the decision. A feature that looks valuable during planning can become much less important once you understand how people compare financial products.

Fintech products rarely stand still. New payment methods, compliance requirements, customer segments, and partnerships gradually change what the product does. Many companies keep building while their positioning stays the same.

Part of my work is reviewing those changes and making sure the market understands the product the company has today, excluding the one it launched two years ago from the agenda.

Every project starts with a different set of questions. Sometimes we discover that a product solves the wrong problem. Sometimes the product is strong, but the market doesn't understand it yet. Finding those answers before a team invests months in design or development is still the most rewarding part of the work.