Payments strategy & operating plan
Define outcomes, prioritize use cases, and create a roadmap with owners, timelines, and KPIs.
- Use-case scoring + sequencing
- Roadmap + staffing view
- Executive narrative for alignment
Independent advisory
Payments • Fintech • Commerce
Strategy → Execution
Make the next payments decision with confidence.
Crone Consulting helps leadership teams and investors cut through market noise, choose the winning bet, and execute it. You get clear options, honest tradeoffs, and deliverables built for real implementation.
✓ Decision-ready strategy
✓ Partner / vendor comparison
✓ Workshops that align teams
✓ Investor diligence support
Services
Fast, senior-led engagements that deliver decisions — and help you execute them.
Benchmarking & competitive teardown
Structured comparisons that cut through vendor marketing and clarify “what good looks like.”
- Journey reviews across channels
- Capability scoring & gaps
- Recommendations with rationale
Executive & board briefings
High-signal sessions that turn complexity into decisions and next steps.
- Pre-read + facilitated workshop
- Decision options + recommendation
- 90-day action plan
Commercial due diligence
Operator-grade diligence for payments and fintech: distribution, partners, moats, and risks.
- GTM pathways & dependencies
- Competitive and ecosystem dynamics
- IC-ready findings memo
Best for
Banks, fintechs, merchants, networks, processors, infrastructure providers, and investment teams navigating high-change payments bets.
Common topics
Wallets & tokenization • pay‑by‑bank • instant payments • acceptance & checkout • fraud/controls • pricing & economics • partnerships.
Work examples
Three modern example cards you can adapt into real case studies (swap the text and images).
Leadership workshop → aligned roadmap
Converted a broad wishlist into a phased plan with clear ownership, risk guardrails, and measurable outcomes.
Benchmarking → “what to build next”
Mapped customer journeys, identified capability gaps, and produced a build/buy plan with partner options.
Diligence support → faster conviction
Assessed distribution paths, partner dependencies, and competitive threats to inform investment decisions.
How we work
A simple engagement model designed to get to decisions quickly — and then keep momentum through rollout.
1
Discover
Goals, constraints, stakeholders, and the decisions you need to make.
2
Diagnose
Journeys, rails, partners, economics, and risk/compliance realities.
3
Design
Priorities, operating model, KPIs, and a phased roadmap that works.
4
Deliver
Decision-ready output + support through pilots, vendor selection, and rollout.
Leadership
Senior-led work. No handoff. Replace the bios with your preferred wording if needed.
Richard K. Crone
Payments strategist helping organizations translate market shifts into practical bets, partner choices, and execution roadmaps.
Heidi A. Liebenguth
Research and benchmarking leader delivering structured market intelligence and leadership-ready briefings.
What clients say they value
Direct answers, clear tradeoffs, and deliverables that don’t sit on a shelf.
What we optimize for
Speed to decision, speed to rollout — with risk and operational reality included.
Contact
Tell us what decision you’re making. We’ll respond quickly with suggested next steps.