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Barney Goodman
Barney Goodman
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Blog

Notes on UK consumer finance, product strategy and regulation, and where AI is starting to change the work.

  • 16 Mar 20265 min read

    The FCA hasn't told us what to do about AI customer communications. Here's what I think the rules should be.

    Firms are already using AI to draft and send customer communications in regulated financial services. The FCA has not issued specific guidance. Here is what I think it should say.

  • 12 Mar 20266 min read

    What Onboarding 600+ Retailers to a Loan Originations Platform Actually Taught Me

    Six hundred retailers, five lenders, one platform. The lessons from building an onboarding process at scale are not what you might expect. Most of them have nothing to do with technology.

  • 5 Mar 20266 min read

    Scaling a Broker Platform: What Actually Breaks When You Grow Fast

    Rapid growth exposes every assumption you made when building your platform. Here is what actually breaks when a broker platform scales, and what you need to have in place before it does.

  • 26 Feb 20267 min read

    The Case for Lender Aggregation Platforms in POS Consumer Credit

    When a single lender says no, the sale dies. Aggregation platforms change that by routing applications through a panel of lenders in real time. Here is why it matters for retailers, lenders, and consumers.

  • 25 Feb 20264 min read

    The Day Anthropic Put White-Collar Work on Notice

    Claude Cowork plugins are reshaping white-collar work. Here's what's actually happening and why it matters.

  • 20 Feb 20266 mins

    The FCA's Regulatory Gamble: Why Outcomes-Based Rules Matter (And Why Interpretation Will Be Everything)

    The FCA is stepping back from the rulebook and trusting firms to deliver good consumer outcomes. That is progress. But the real question is whether firms and regulators are willing to do the harder work this model demands.

  • 19 Feb 20268 min read

    What Could the UK Learn from the Swiss Consumer Credit Market?

    Switzerland caps all consumer credit at 10% APR and requires borrowers to repay within 36 months. What can the UK learn from a model built on restraint, and where does the UK still lead?

  • 12 Feb 20267 min read

    Why Most Digital Transformation Projects in Banking Fail (And What Works Instead)

    Banks spend billions on digital transformation and still fail at alarming rates. The problem is rarely the technology. Here is what actually goes wrong and what the successful projects do differently.

  • 28 Oct 20244 min read

    Advances in Retail Credit Strategy: A Quick Look at Currys' Flexpay

    Currys' Flexpay product is a useful case study in how traditional retailers are embedding credit into the customer journey. Here is what they are doing well and what it signals for the market.

  • 23 Oct 20245 min read

    The Growing Convergence of Retail and Credit: A Deep Dive

    The boundary between retail and financial services is dissolving. Retailers are becoming lenders, and lenders are becoming embedded in the purchase journey. Here is what is driving it.

  • 27 Sep 20246 min read

    Structuring a Credit Strategy: Using the 3 Ps and a D

    A framework for building a coherent credit strategy in retail finance: Product, Pricing, Process, and Decisioning. Four pillars that need to work together or the whole thing falls apart.

  • 20 Sep 20245 min read

    Credit in the Omnichannel World: Seamless Financing Across Digital and Physical Retail

    Customers no longer separate online from in-store. Their credit experience should not either. The challenge for retailers and lenders is building a financing journey that works seamlessly across both.

  • 15 Sep 20245 min read

    Maintaining Momentum: How to Keep Your Startup Growing Beyond the Initial Success

    Getting your first traction is hard. Sustaining it is harder. The habits and instincts that got you to product-market fit can actively work against you at the next stage.

  • 13 Sep 20245 min read

    Leveraging Data Analytics to Optimise Credit Strategy Across Product Verticals

    Data is only as useful as the decisions it informs. Here is how to use analytics to sharpen credit strategy across different product categories without drowning in dashboards.

  • 8 Sep 20245 min read

    Part 3: From Startup to Scaleup - Building a Sustainable Business in 2024

    The third in a series on building a startup. Getting to scaleup is a different challenge from finding your first customer. The systems, culture, and decisions that work at ten people break at fifty.

  • 6 Sep 20245 min read

    Unlocking Profitability: The Strategic Role of Point of Sale Credit in Retail Growth

    Point of sale credit is not just a payment method. Done properly, it is a growth lever. Here is how retailers are using POS finance to increase basket size, reduce abandonment, and build loyalty.

  • 1 Sep 20244 min read

    Part 2: Proving Your Market - The Importance of Customer Validation in Today's Startup World

    Finding your first customer is one thing. Proving your market is another. The second in a series on building a startup covers how to validate demand before you over-invest in the wrong direction.

  • 25 Aug 20244 min read

    Part 1: Finding Your First Customer - How to Validate Your Startup Idea in 2024

    The first in a series on building a startup from scratch. Before you build anything, you need a real customer. Here is a practical approach to finding one and what it tells you.

  • 18 Aug 20244 min read

    Why Startups Fail: The Case for a Customer-First Approach in 2024

    Most startups do not fail because of bad technology or bad luck. They fail because they build something nobody wants. The fix is simpler than most founders think.

Barney Goodman
barney@barneygoodman.co.uk

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