Stripe Advisory: Payments Performance & Risk
A repeatable diagnostic framework for payments performance and risk, delivering prioritized interventions that improved authorization rates, tightened fraud controls, and built foundational risk infrastructure for Tier 1 platforms.
The Problem
Stripe merchants scaling their payments programs consistently ran into the same two problems. On the performance side, authorization rates were often well below their potential: soft declines went uninvestigated, routing was unoptimized, and available network levers were untapped. On the risk side, platforms beginning to monetize payments frequently had no structured risk function at all. Threats as fundamental as card testing were going undetected, fraud thresholds were either too permissive or too blunt, and there was no framework in place for managing credit risk as volumes grew. Most merchants didn't know what they were missing until transactions and revenue were already being lost.
The Approach
A repeatable diagnostic framework built to be applied across merchants regardless of vertical or volume. The performance workshop assessed authorization rate components (soft decline categorization, routing logic, and network optimization levers) and produced a prioritized set of interventions. The risk advisory established a baseline risk function covering card testing detection, fraud rate thresholds, chargeback management, and the operational structure needed to monitor and respond over time. Both engagements followed the same pattern: diagnose first, then prescribe.
Payment Performance
WorkshopMeridian Commerce
3 issues identified
Risk Profile
AdvisoryMeridian Commerce
3 issues identified
My Role
I developed both frameworks and led client engagements directly, from deep analysis of each merchant's Stripe data, to structured interviews with their payments and risk teams, to a prioritized set of recommendations tied to measurable outcomes. I worked across multiple clients simultaneously and collaborated with Stripe's account teams to identify which merchants were most likely to benefit from each type of engagement.
Impact
The advisory program created a repeatable model for turning Stripe's product expertise into measurable client outcomes, improving retention, deepening platform adoption, and surfacing the kind of risk exposure that, left unaddressed, leads to merchant churn.
+200 bps
Authorization rate improvement for key client
Learnings
Most merchants don't know what they don't know. The diagnostic framework's value was as much in surfacing the right questions as in providing answers.
Risk for platforms is categorically different from risk for direct merchants: the exposure is layered across the platform and its sub-merchants, and the frameworks need to reflect that complexity.
Repeatable frameworks only work if they're genuinely adaptable. The worst advisory outcome is applying a template that ignores the client's specific context.