In an era where digital banking and financial technology are evolving rapidly, customer satisfaction remains the ultimate benchmark of success. While many product managers build solutions based on internal assumptions, few take the extra step of going directly to the streets to engage with real users. Joshua Ali, a product manager in Nigeria’s financial sector, has taken a different approach. In a recent interview, he shared how his method of conducting on-the-ground research, engaging directly with customers, and designing scalable infrastructure has led to a groundbreaking solution that is now widely adopted across multiple financial institutions.
For years, financial institutions have struggled with a gap between the solutions they develop and the actual needs of the people they serve. Many banking products are built with a top-down approach, where decisions are made based on internal strategy rather than real-world usage patterns. Joshua Ali emphasized in his interview that this approach often leads to solutions that are either too complex, impractical, or misaligned with customer expectations. Determined to change this, he and his team took a different path—meeting customers where they are. Instead of relying solely on industry reports and high-level boardroom discussions, they conducted extensive interviews with small business owners, market traders, and everyday consumers to identify the most critical financial pain points.
Through this process, a common issue emerged: delayed access to funds after transactions. Whether it was merchants waiting for settlements, gig workers struggling with cash flow, or businesses dealing with failed payment reconciliations, the inefficiency in fund availability was affecting millions of Nigerians. With a clear understanding of the problem, Joshua Ali focused on developing a customer-facing financial tool that ensured real-time transaction settlement and seamless fund accessibility. His goal was not just to create a solution for one bank or fintech company but to build an infrastructure that could be adopted by multiple financial institutions.
The result was a unified payment and settlement framework that enabled faster transactions, transparent reconciliation, and better control for end users. Unlike conventional banking systems that required customers to wait for processing windows or manual interventions, this product automated the entire process, ensuring that payments reflected instantly across multiple platforms. The impact was immediate. Merchants reported increased trust from customers who no longer feared transaction failures. Freelancers and gig workers saw improvements in cash flow, allowing them to reinvest earnings more efficiently. Small business owners who previously relied on cash transactions began adopting digital payments, confident that funds would settle without delays.
A key differentiator of Joshua Ali’s solution was its adaptability. Unlike proprietary banking products that lock customers into a single ecosystem, this solution was built as a financial infrastructure layer that could be integrated across multiple financial institutions. By adopting an API-first approach, banks and fintechs could seamlessly plug into the system, reducing the friction that had long existed in interbank settlements. This not only improved customer experiences but also enhanced financial inclusion by enabling smaller financial institutions to offer real-time services without having to build costly settlement engines from scratch.
Regulators and banking executives quickly recognised the value of the infrastructure. Within months of its rollout, several Tier 1 banks and digital payment platforms integrated the solution, making it one of the most significant financial product innovations in Nigeria at the time.
Beyond the success of the product itself, Joshua Ali’s approach underscored an important lesson for the financial industry: building for customers requires stepping outside the office and into the real world.
During the interview, he stressed that too many financial products fail because they are built based on corporate assumptions rather than real user needs. “You can’t sit in an office and guess what customers want,” he said. “You have to talk to them, watch how they interact with existing solutions, and build something that actually makes their lives easier.”
His emphasis on human-centered product development is a model that other financial institutions have since started to adopt. By putting customer research at the core of financial product design, the industry is gradually shifting from building what it thinks customers need to delivering solutions that solve real problems.
This approach to product innovation has set a precedent in Nigeria’s financial sector, demonstrating that the best financial products are not those with the most features, but those that directly address pain points in a scalable way. By developing a customer-first solution with industry-wide applicability, Joshua Ali has contributed not just to his company’s success, but to the broader financial ecosystem. His work is a testament to how understanding real-world challenges can lead to innovations that transform entire industries. As financial institutions continue to embrace digital transformation, this methodology serves as a blueprint for building solutions that work not just in theory, but in the hands of real users. The impact of this approach is still unfolding, but one thing is clear—listening to customers and designing with their needs in mind is the future of financial product management.
