📢 Notice: This project was done during the early phase of my product management journey. Exploring different opportunities at this stage helped me work across a wide range of product verticals—from developer experience and billing automation to onboarding, customer support, and release management.

GartnerPay

GartnerPay can be payment solution for SaaS businesses. It can provide an end-to-end platform for handling payments and recurring billing, directly integrated into the merchant’s infrastructure.

Whether you’re creating a subscription service, an on-demand marketplace, an e-commerce store, or a crowdfunding platform, GartnerPay’s thoughtfully designed APIs and versatile functionality help you deliver the best experience for your users.

An application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. It defines how software components should interact and is commonly used when developing graphical user interface (GUI) components.

Why GartnerPay?

For small and medium businesses or startups, building a payment solution from scratch can shift focus away from core products and degrade the user experience. GartnerPay offers a secure billing platform that can be backed by trusted banking infrastructure.

Key features include:

  • Sophisticated subscription billing
  • Custom billing schedules
  • Invoicing capabilities
  • In-depth analytics and reporting for decision-making
  • Direct integration with accounting software
  • No need to open a merchant account with multiple banks

It also supports credit and EMI options for SaaS subscribers, and can include tailored offers or cashback mechanisms through associated banking or card networks.

Post-Launch Issues

Sales

  • Difficulty converting new leads
  • Poor lead qualification and filtering

Development

  • Frequent service disruptions (e.g., payment failures, app crashes)
  • New releases destabilize the platform
  • Inadequate customer communication on changes

Product & Onboarding

  • Integration issues faced by developers/billing teams
  • Promised features not aligned with delivery timelines
  • Feature bloat with low adoption
  • Onboarding lacks clarity, especially for non-technical users

Support / Customer Success

  • High churn rate among early adopters
  • Long-standing unresolved tickets and disputes

Cross-team Challenges

  • Random escalations creating operational friction

Improving the Sales Funnel

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

  • Low conversions due to:
    • Lack of product trust
    • Security concerns
    • Confusing user journeys
  • Solutions:
    • Live demos
    • Customer success stories
    • Webinars
    • Technical specifications

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

  • Product perceived as non-essential:
    • No clear USP
    • Reluctance to switch from alternatives
  • Solutions:
    • Educate users
    • Share offers/discounts

Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

  • Low awareness due to:
    • Lack of visibility
  • Solutions:
    • Blog content
    • Newsletters & social media
    • Landing pages

Onboarding Early Users

  • Provide “Done for You” onboarding (e.g., import from existing platforms)
  • Offer personalized analytics dashboards
  • Use dummy merchant accounts for testing
  • Deliver a guided product tour
  • Retarget churned users
  • Reduce turnaround times

Increase Retention Rate

  • Weekly summaries (e.g., “What happened in your SaaS” emails)
  • Bi-weekly check-ins with new users

Customer Support System

Common issues:

  • Payment disputes
  • Bugs or downtimes
  • KYC errors

Jira Service Desk is used for tracking requests. It enables teams to receive, manage, and resolve issues efficiently. When integrated with Confluence, it creates a knowledge base for self-service support.

SLA (Service-Level Agreement)

Define expectations clearly:

  • Response times
  • Escalation workflows
  • Critical issue prioritization

Metrics & Analytics

  • Churn Rate
  • Retention Rate
  • Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
  • Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
  • Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Tools for usage analytics: Mixpanel, Segment

Release Management

  • Define timelines (development, QE, security, UAT, etc.)
  • Plan major and hotfix release cycles
  • Track scope of changes
  • Update knowledge base with each release

What I’ve Learned

Working on GartnerPay at the start of my product management career was a hands-on crash course in building and managing a complex B2B payment product. Through this experience, I learned:

  • The importance of aligning product features with actual user needs—rather than building too many unused features.
  • How onboarding, support, and trust directly impact adoption and retention in fintech products.
  • The value of structured release management and communication in preventing friction with customers.
  • How cross-functional collaboration between sales, support, and development teams can make or break the product experience.
  • That early-stage product work often means navigating ambiguity, context switching, and wearing multiple hats—which ultimately strengthened my product thinking.

This project taught me to look beyond building features and focus on delivering value throughout the customer journey.