We have a mandate, but no product definition.
The board has approved a direction, stablecoins, tokenization, or a new payment flow, and the team now has to turn it into something it can build.
From regulatory constraint to a roadmap you can ship.
Most new financial products stall between the idea and the first line of code. Nobody has written down what the product is, what the regulator will allow, and what to build first. We do that work with you, and hand over a plan your engineering and risk teams can execute.
For
Banks, fintechs, and digital asset platforms preparing a new product or a new market.
You get
A product brief, a target architecture, a compliance scope, and a sequenced roadmap.
How we work together
A milestone-based mandate, or embedded in your team for the design phase.
You are probably asking one of these.
Product strategy is where most engagements start. These are the four situations we hear most often.
Compliance keeps saying no, and nobody can say exactly why.
The rules exist, but they have never been translated into product requirements your designers and engineers can follow.
Engineering wants a spec. Risk wants a control map.
Two teams are waiting on each other. You need one set of documents both can work from.
We need to choose before we commit budget.
Build or partner, which licence, which market first. The trade-offs should be written down before the money is spent.
What we do.
Five workstreams, run together or one at a time, depending on where your project stands.
-
Define the product brief, scope, and target architecture.
We write down what the product is, who it serves, what it will not do, and the systems it needs. One scope and one architecture, agreed by business, technology, and risk.
-
Map institutional and operational user journeys.
We trace every step a client, an operator, and a back-office team takes, from onboarding to redemption, so the gaps show up on paper and not in production.
-
Translate regulatory posture into product constraints.
We turn rules into requirements: what the licence allows, what must be recorded, who may hold what, and where data may sit.
-
Scope compliance: KYC, AML, CFT, Travel Rule, GDPR.
We define the checks the product must run, where they sit in each journey, and which team or vendor owns them.
-
Deliver an executable roadmap for engineering and risk.
We sequence the work into phases with owners, dependencies, and gating decisions, so every release is one your committees can approve.
What you get.
Every engagement ends in documents, not slides. These are the ones product strategy produces.
Product brief
Scope, users, value, and exclusions, on a few pages your board can approve.
Target architecture
Systems, data flows, and third parties, with the reasoning behind each choice.
User journey maps
Client, operator, and back-office flows, end to end, with the gaps marked.
Regulatory constraint map
Each applicable rule, translated into a product requirement with an owner.
Compliance scope
KYC, AML, CFT, Travel Rule, and GDPR controls, placed in the flow.
Delivery roadmap
Phases, owners, dependencies, and the decisions that gate each release.
How it runs.
Four phases. The scoping document you receive within a week of the first call fixes the deliverables and milestones before work starts.
-
Phase 01
Listen.
Interviews with business, technology, risk, and compliance. We read what already exists before writing anything new.
-
Phase 02
Frame.
Scope, constraints, and options, written down and challenged with your team in working sessions.
-
Phase 03
Design.
Target architecture, journeys, and compliance scope, reviewed until business, technology, and risk sign off.
-
Phase 04
Hand over.
Roadmap and decision memo, presented to the people who approve. We can stay on to oversee delivery.
Why tracee.
Builder's view
We have built what we design.
tracee began as a stablecoin payment infrastructure on Stellar, recognized by the Circle Impact Competition. We write product strategy knowing what breaks once a product is live.
Depth
29 patents across five jurisdictions.
The engagement lead, Bassel Assaad, PhD, is an engineer and inventor with a doctoral background in IT and systems. Read the founder bio.
Current mandate
Capital and product architect.
For a digital asset platform with a South African regulatory footprint, from product design to capital structure.
Further reading.
Briefing
Why tokenized deposits and stablecoins are not the same digital dollar
Briefing
Tether out, Circle in: ESMA's July 1 deadline locks the EU stablecoin market's first durable architecture
Briefing
The FCA tells UK stablecoin issuers which button to press: an e-money licence does not cover it
Glossary
50 essential terms in digital assets, stablecoins, regulation, and AI in finance
Frequently asked
Common questions about product strategy.
What is product strategy for a digital asset product?
It is the work that decides what to build before anyone builds it: the product's scope, its users, the rules it must respect, the architecture it needs, and the order of delivery. It ends with documents your engineering and risk teams can execute.
How long does it take?
It depends on scope. After the discovery call, we send a scoping document within one week that sets the deliverables, the milestones, and the timeline before any work starts.
Do you replace our product team?
No. We work alongside it. We bring regulatory and architectural depth; your team keeps ownership of the product and the decisions.
Can you stay through delivery?
Yes. Under a milestone-based mandate we oversee each milestone, including review of code, contracts, and counterparties, and keep the architecture current as the program evolves.
Our other services.
Most engagements combine services, because the decisions are connected. Each one runs under one of our four engagement formats.
Start with a conversation.
Thirty minutes, no slide deck, no obligation. Tell us what you are trying to build, and we will tell you whether we can help.