£4m+ in New Feature Revenue

The Opportunity

Nextgen Clearing, a global leader in roaming and financial clearing for telecoms, was aiming to refine its product strategy by understanding exactly what its customers needed — and where the market was heading. As part of a broader programme to identify growth opportunities across the portfolio, I was tasked with uncovering market demand, validating it with customers, and turning that insight into a backlog of high-impact product ideas.

The Approach

I began with market research, analysing industry trends, emerging technologies, and known friction points within the telco ecosystem. I then conducted one-on-one and group interviews with key stakeholders from major global telcos to deeply understand their pain points, unmet needs, and priority challenges.

This process surfaced a rich list of opportunity areas. I mapped over 30 validated opportunities, detailing which customers had expressed interest, the severity of the problem being addressed, and the level of demand across the customer base.

Each opportunity was scored and categorised, creating a prioritised backlog that balanced quick wins with larger strategic bets. I estimated potential revenue impact and identified high-leverage features for inclusion in near-term roadmaps.

The Output

• Created a scored and prioritised backlog of 30+ product opportunities
• Aligned customer demand with product vision, surfacing validated pain points
• Flagged near-term commercial wins and longer-term strategic bets
• Delivered a transparent prioritisation system for the product team
• Coached product leads on customer engagement, insight gathering, and backlog management

The Outcome

The backlog was presented to the CPO and shared across product leadership. Many of the top opportunities were fast-tracked into active roadmaps, helping Nextgen maintain its market-leading position and drive near-term growth.

Beyond the features themselves, the engagement also improved how the product team worked: embedding customer listening, scoring models, and prioritisation discipline into the core product process.

It turned a scattered view of market needs into a structured pipeline of value-driving ideas — ready to execute.