Building Fintech Products That Users Trust: A Product-Led Approach at Miden

Written by Eniola Athanson

In the fintech industry, earning users’ trust is one of the most challenging yet essential goals to achieve. The difficulty doesn’t lie in building or operating the product itself, but in overcoming the skepticism many users carry. 

Arguably, roughly 5 out of 10 people have been scammed, misled, or disappointed by a fintech product in the past. This could be in the area of payment settlement, loan allocation, funding, and others, thereby making trust not just a feature but a fundamental expectation.

A product-led approach at Miden divulges the concept of consistently delivering value using an intuitive and secure solution, built with the user at the center of everything we do. 

Let’s walk through this in more detail.

What Does Trust Mean in Fintech?

Trust is everything in Fintech. It aids internal security, users’ privacy, product management, and many more. Without trust, a financial technology company doesn’t just fail to deliver efficiently, but it becomes a liability to others. 

Allow me to explain succinctly. 

When it comes to building trust, there are a few non-negotiable principles. These are:

1. Security and Data Privacy: 

For a customer to trust your product, there must be a solid backing on which they can rely. In essence, meeting the highest security standards, such as PCI-DSS compliance and privacy laws, e.g., NDPR, is very important. Since Fintech focuses on payment management, i.e., money, customers can only be willing to give their money to someone they can trust. Therefore, these security regulations are a great way to showcase your commitment, hence helping them instill their trust in you. 

2. Transparency: 

Transparency is also a non-negotiable factor to consider when promoting trust in a Fintech company. To build trust, it’s important that you give clear communication on how your product works, what users can expect, and how their data is handled. For example, at Miden, we understand that transparency isn’t just a policy; it’s a systematic task. To guarantee this, we ensure that all our customers understand our product offering – no surprises, no hidden fees, and no fine print.

3. Reliability: 

Users expect financial tools to work when they need them most. System downtime or errors in processing transactions can quickly erode trust. At Miden, we built our product to be as reliable and seamless as possible, ensuring our users never have to question whether they can depend on us.

A Product-Led Approach to Building Trust - Miden’s Case Study

A product-led approach means enabling the product itself to build trust and drive growth. 

In other words, through the product features, usability, or acceptance, a product can be the key driver for empowering users' trust and companies’ growth. 

For example, one of Miden’s most powerful product offerings is the ability to issue virtual card APIs to financial and nonfinancial institutions. Considering the number of current users, reputation, and transparency, Miden has been able to issue these virtual cards to multiple industries across countries. 

This contrasts with the typical traditional sales-driven channel, where users are burdened with the task of discovering the product and actively using it on their own. A place where the company’s growth is heavily dependent on aggressive sales tactics or large-scale marketing campaigns. 

“A product should not just solve a problem—it should instill confidence. When your users trust the product, they’ll trust the brand. Building anything requires more active listening than talking. In building a product, every piece of feedback is an opportunity to improve and show your users that you’re truly invested in their success.”

Eniola Athanson

Product Manager at Miden

At Miden, we put our product at the center of everything we do. This doesn’t mean we totally cancel out sales and marketing, however, we optimized our product so much that we deliver ultimate value. 

Benefits of Adopting a Product-Led Approach

There are several benefits that come with adopting a product-led approach in your company, especially one centered on Fintech. Some of these benefits include:

1. Faster User Adoption:

With product-led strategies such as freemium and free trials, users can experience and get a sense of your product's value before committing long-term. These self-serve growth tactics increase trust, build awareness, and create visibility, thereby leading to faster user adoption. 

2. Stronger Product-Market Fit:

A product-led strategy requires continuous feedback and iteration. As users engage with your product, data and behavior insights drive improvements, helping to fine-tune features and user experience to meet real market needs.

3. Higher Retention and Customer Satisfaction:

When users are allowed to experience the product firsthand, they’re more likely to stick around, especially when the product solves a real-life problem and meets their needs. This customer-centric approach increases trust, as well as their ultimate satisfaction and commitment.

4. Scalability:

A great product that delivers value on its own can scale rapidly without the proportional increase in sales or support overhead. With automated onboarding, built-in virality, and seamless upgrades, product-led companies can grow efficiently.

Beyond the Norm: How Miden Redefines Product-Led Growth

In a world where “product-led growth” has become a startup buzzword, many companies adopt the label without truly living up to its principles. But Miden isn’t just following the trend — we’re rewriting the playbook.

When it comes to product-led growth, it’s important that you don’t just build products that meet functional requirements, but also increase trust. And that’s our target at Miden. We focus on the user’s experience by staying true to our values: security, transparency, and reliability.

Additionally, many Fintech companies are built with a one-size-fits-all mindset, ignoring compliance nuances, user experience and satisfaction, perceived value, and many more. However, at Miden, we build our product specifically for founders, entrepreneurs, and enthusiast professionals in need of productive Fintech solutions.  

What truly sets Miden apart is that product-led isn’t just a tactic — it’s a culture. Every team, from engineering to customer success, is focused on making the product better, clearer, faster, and more useful. Feedback loops are tight. Changes ship quickly. Users feel heard.

Final Thoughts - Building Trust for the Long-Term

Trust is a long-term investment, and we’re committed to earning it every day. At Miden, we’re not just focused on delivering products that meet today’s needs; we’re positioning ourselves as a long-term partner for our users’ financial journey.

As the FinTech landscape evolves, so will our products. We will continue to innovate, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of financial technology, delivering products that not only meet user expectations but also build lasting trust.