Why there’s no single path into payments leadership

Andreea-Diana Jegermane is a Principal Product Manager at Printify, a technology platform that enables people to sell customized merchandise on an on-demand basis. She is a seasoned marketing and payments specialist committed to transforming payment systems, strengthening fraud prevention, and improving the shopping experience. Here, she traces her career over the last 15 years and shares what she has learned about optimizing payments and working with different stakeholders.

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1. Where did you begin your career, and how did you move into payments?

My first passion was marketing. At the start of my career, I worked as head of marketing and marketing manager before becoming a business analyst and contributing to developing digital products.

My payments career started when I was asked to tackle a chargeback problem. I knew nothing about payments then but was eager to take on the challenge.

I started by analyzing data to identify fraud patterns and creating rules to address these issues globally. After that, I became more heavily involved in payments, negotiating big deals and rates with payment processors. We had a large portfolio of payment partners and needed to consolidate, so we began building our own orchestration platform.

Following this initial experience, I joined Mastercard, working in its payment gateway services. I was there for two years, experimenting with open banking, learning about 3DS, and working with big banks and merchants.

When Printify approached me, I loved the idea of working in a start-up and having more flexibility. Printify was growing fast and needed a strategy to diversify its payment partnerships and respond to global customer needs.

Since then, I’ve been working on optimally routing transactions, enriching the payment portfolio, and strengthening our payment relationships.

2. Are you happy that you moved from marketing to payments? Was it the right career decision?

I have no regrets. There’s so much to explore in payments and so much innovation and opportunity. Although I had plenty of other career opportunities, including with Mastercard, I really liked the challenge of working in payments, so that’s where I’ve placed my energy and focus.

3. How has your background in marketing helped the way you approach payments?

My marketing experience has proved valuable in two ways. On the communication side, I can explain the technicalities of payments in simple terms to someone with zero background and knowledge. I can cut through the jargon and adjust the message to any audience, which has been very useful at Printify. For example, it helped to get buy-in from the leadership for the initiatives I was proposing. This skill is a great advantage because payments can be complex and challenging to understand.

The second benefit is this: I’m a product person, so I always care about the user and spend time understanding their challenges and needs. I watch how users behave, understand all the relevant data, and see where the bottlenecks are. In particular, I always think about localization and splitting users into smaller buckets so that we can understand the specific needs of different groups and how the product I’m working on should reflect their needs.

Working in payments involves balancing both technology and people. It’s essential to accommodate the needs of everyone, including end users and internal stakeholders.

4. What are some of the common misconceptions about payments?

There are always misunderstandings and competing viewpoints. That’s because people come from different disciplines, and their payment priorities vary.

For example, finance people care about money in the bank. That’s their primary focus. It’s my job to educate them on how they can have more money in the bank by optimizing the approval rate or by lowering costs using more effective payment methods. This knowledge can help a chief financial officer view payments more strategically.

In contrast, with a chief technology officer, the blind spot may be building a monolithic application with huge engineering costs. In other words, over-complicating things. So, depending on who you are talking to, you must adapt the message and look at the problem from different angles.

5. What changes do you foresee in the payments industry over the next decade, and what skills must payment leaders develop?

Being a payments leader is a combination of art and science—in fact, you have to be a bit of a wizard. There is so much complexity, so many moving parts, and very little transparency around efficiency and cost. So, you need to experiment and find the right formulas for payment success. There’s no single and simple winning strategy: you need to understand different business models, customer needs, and buying preferences.

The payment landscape is changing rapidly, and it will evolve even more in the future. Fintechs are transforming traditional relationships and competing with established brands, and to remain competitive, you need to understand your customers and innovate.

6. Do you see yourself staying in payments, and would you recommend it as a career?

Payments will always be one of my passions, but I may eventually apply my experience to another area. However, I can confidently say that payments are a great career choice for anyone. It’s a versatile and innovative field, offering endless opportunities for exploration and development.