GT Product Consulting
Book a call

Curo · Strategy, Product Management, Design & UX, Sales & Marketing

How Curo went from founder vision to a sprint-ready payments MVP

I turned the founder's vision for a safer digital check into a strategy, a prioritized MVP roadmap, and the PRDs and tickets the build team ships from.

4
Research personas
5
Strategy pillars
62
MVP deliverables
CuroPay dashboard with sent, received, pending payout and unclaimed check totals
The dashboard puts the two things people come to do, send a check or print one, first.
Client
Curo
Services
Strategy, Product Management, Design & UX, Sales & Marketing
Year
2026
Tools
Trello

The company

Curo is a digital-check platform. It verifies who is paying, certifies the money is real, then delivers the check by email, text or a printed QR check, with the bank details hidden behind the QR code.

The challenge

Millions of people still pay by check, and checks get stolen, lost and expose the payer's account numbers. The apps that replaced them assume you're comfortable in a phone app, and none let a family sign off on a payment before the money moves. Curo needed its bet turned into something a small team could build, in the right order.

What I did

  1. Set the company and product strategy

    I wrote the mission, positioning and value proposition by audience, then split the product into five pillars, with explicit non-goals that kept crypto and long-tail bill pay out of the MVP.

  2. Picked the beachhead and personas

    I scored segments on severity, fit, willingness to pay and reach, chose older adults, families and the underbanked, and built four personas that every roadmap item is tagged to.

  3. Built the MVP roadmap

    I turned the pillars into 62 deliverables with user stories, acceptance criteria, MoSCoW priority and a Now, Next, Later cycle, each linked to a Trello card so status stays honest.

  4. Wrote PRDs and sprint tickets

    I broke each PRD into front-end and back-end tickets with user flows and Given/When/Then criteria. Key calls: controls appear only when someone invites a helper, three roles instead of a permissions matrix, recipients claim without an account, and identity checks grow with the amount.

  5. Drafted the go-to-market plan

    I wrote persona messaging, trust signals and partner channels such as caregiver organizations, community banks and landlord platforms.

CuroPay Limits and approvals page with a freeze switch, per-helper limits and approval rules
Limits and approvals only switch on once someone invites a helper, so the everyday path stays short.

Results

  • 4

    Research personas

    Older adults, family trustees, roommates and the underbanked

  • 5

    Strategy pillars

    Each with explicit non-goals to protect the MVP scope

  • 62

    MVP deliverables

    Roadmapped with user stories, acceptance criteria and priority

Want results like these? Let's talk.

A 30-minute call about where your product is and what to do next.

Book a 30-min call