Payments

The problem

A marketplace with users in many countries cannot assume everyone pays or gets paid the same way. A freelancer in one region may depend on a particular payout method, a client in another may only trust a familiar one, and when options are limited, people simply do not transact. Payment issues left unresolved also damage trust quickly.

How I approached it

I integrated Stripe, Payoneer and PayPal, choosing methods by user need and region instead of adding providers for the sake of it. Each integration brought its own flows, fees and failure modes, so the requirements focused on keeping the experience consistent for the user even when the provider behind it was different.

I planned the rollout with engineering to keep transactions reliable, and took ownership of resolving payment issues quickly when they came up, since in this area the support response is part of the product.

The outcome

Three payment integrations that let users around the world get paid easily and, together with the wallet, form the payments foundation of the marketplace.

What it taught me

Global payments are a trust problem more than a technical one. Users want the method they already know.