Frictionless Player Access
Make it easier for players to access their accounts securely and reliably, reducing unnecessary friction while maintaining appropriate identity and security controls.
Product strategy · Core Player
Four pillars.
One direction for the domain.
I defined a four-pillar strategy for Core Player, creating one shared direction across Product, Technology and Delivery. The real work wasn't producing the pillars. It was embedding them deeply enough that teams used them to prioritise, make trade-offs and explain why their work mattered.
01 · The challenge
The domain had plenty of work.
It needed one direction.
Core Player covered several connected but competing areas: access, authentication, onboarding, identity, platform resilience, safer gambling and regulatory compliance.
Each area contained important work, but a collection of initiatives is not the same as a strategy. Without a shared direction, priorities could become fragmented, technical and product decisions could drift apart, and teams could struggle to explain how individual initiatives contributed to the wider goal.
The challenge was to create a strategy that was broad enough to unite the domain, but focused enough to influence everyday decisions.
02 · My role
I defined the strategic choices that would hold the roadmap together.
I personally developed four strategic pillars for the Core Player domain. They provided a common structure for evaluating opportunities, connecting work across teams and making the reasoning behind priorities more visible.
My responsibility did not end with defining the framework. I worked across Product, Technology and Delivery to turn the pillars into a shared way of thinking about the domain—one that teams could apply when shaping roadmaps, discussing trade-offs and deciding what mattered most.
03 · The strategy
Four pillars created a shared language for the domain.
Optimise Player Onboarding
Create clearer, faster onboarding journeys that help eligible players begin successfully while meeting the requirements of different regulated markets.
Resilient Core
Strengthen the underlying services and platforms on which critical player journeys depend, improving resilience and creating a healthier foundation for future development.
Advance Safer Gambling & Compliance
Develop stronger and more adaptable capabilities for safer gambling, regulatory compliance and player protection as requirements continue to evolve.
04 · From direction to decisions
A strategy only matters if teams can use it.
The pillars were designed to do more than organise a presentation. They became a practical framework that connected strategic intent with the decisions teams made every day.
Roadmaps
We mapped initiatives to the pillars so that roadmaps expressed strategic intent, not simply a list of work.
Prioritisation
The pillars gave teams a consistent way to compare opportunities, challenge priorities and make trade-offs.
Shared context
Product, Technology and Delivery could discuss decisions using the same language and understand how their work contributed to the wider direction.
Autonomy
Clear strategic context helped teams make stronger decisions without waiting for every answer to come from a central leader.
05 · Making it stick
From my strategy
to our strategy.
I initially defined the four pillars, but the goal was never for them to remain mine.
I worked with Product Managers, Product Owners, Technology and Delivery to build the pillars into planning, prioritisation and everyday conversations. Over time, they became a shared reference point for explaining why work mattered and where the domain was heading.
That adoption was essential. The strategy became valuable when people across the domain could use it, challenge it and make decisions through it—even when I was not in the room.
06 · Evidence in practice
The pillars connected direction with delivery.
The strategy provided the shared direction. Individual programmes then translated that direction into tangible product work.
07 · Reflection
“Defining the pillars created direction. Embedding them created alignment. The strategy became useful when teams could apply it to decisions without needing me in the room.”Explore how I lead through people