Exploring New Revenue Streams for Long-Term Growth
Company: Cashrewards
Project: Project Merlin - Future Vision
Role: Direction & Strategy
I led Project Merlin, a strategic initiative designed to future-proof the business by identifying and validating additional revenue streams. This work played a crucial role in shaping the company’s long-term financial stability and market expansion.
Opportunity Validation
Through a series of stakeholder workshops, in-depth research projects, and behavioral analysis, we uncovered key customer need states and developed archetypes to inform new opportunities. Our approach prioritized risk mitigation and speed to value, structuring a staged rollout that allowed us to test and refine monetization strategies in-market as early as possible.
Creating clear direction
amidst uncertainty
By leveraging the known/unknowns framework, we established a clear direction that allowed for a sustainable build with no wasted effort. Integrating cross-functional collaboration and customer insights into decision-making ensured new revenue initiatives aligned with both business goals and user needs, creating a scalable and efficient foundation for growth.
Pathways to Success
To support rapid experimentation and long-term adaptability, we adopted a platform-first approach underpinned by a robust token-based design system. This foundation allowed us to decouple future decisions from costly rebuilds, enabling flexibility as revenue opportunities evolved.
By investing in scalable architecture from the outset, we created a system that could adapt to any strategic direction the business chose to pursue. Design tokens allowed for multi-brand support, seamless theme updates, and efficient cross-platform consistency — all of which dramatically accelerated delivery.
This approach enabled us to launch our first release within just eight weeks, validating the model’s effectiveness and positioning the company for fast, iterative growth.
