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Adyen

Launching payment devices

Adyen’s first Android payment device: turning a card machine into a platform for business owners. I led the design from cross-team journey mapping to launch.

Company
Adyen provides payment solutions to more than 5,000 customers, including Nike, Adidas, Chanel, Hermès, Netflix, Microsoft, Booking.com and Spotify.
Industry
Point of sale
Year
2022–2023
Rows of Adyen AMS1 payment devices, some showing payment screens for $84.00, $28.00 and an approved payment
An Adyen Android payment device on a beauty counter next to Estée Lauder products and a payment card
A shopper taps a card from their wallet on an Adyen device held by store staff, showing €100.00
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Context

One device, endless possibilities

SaaS providers, who resold a repackaged version of Adyen’s devices to small businesses, needed a device that could handle more than just payments: hosting a range of operational apps and opening up new customer journeys businesses had never offered before, with less hardware.

Staff could carry a device in their pocket and use it to serve shoppers anywhere in store. At the time, Square and Stripe were developing similar solutions that could risk our position in the market.

  1. PSP
  2. SaaS platform
  3. Business owner
  4. Shopper

Problem and user needs

A balancing act

It was essential to build a platform flexible enough for these partners to make it their own, without losing the reliability businesses expected from every Adyen payment.

User needs

  • Shoppers

    A fast, familiar checkout that feels like the brand they’re buying from.

  • Store staff

    One device to sell, look up stock and take payment, that tells them clearly what to do when something goes wrong.

Business needs

  • Business owners

    Control over the in-store experience and visibility into every device in the field.

  • SaaS partners

    A device they could brand and extend with their own apps.

Approach

I led a 3-day workshop to map how every team and touchpoint connected.

Goal
Identify must-haves from moonshots, exposed gaps and silos to close first.
Outcome
Our guide from MVP to launch. Used to document how the product evolved over time.
Stakeholders
Product, Tech, Support, Operations, Design
Journey mapping session board: the device lifecycle from setup to replacement, the processes per team, and the MVP map with Product, Tech, Supply Chain, Operations and Support
Cross-functional journey map.
The full in-person payments journey map in Figma, covering account setup, use and maintenance for merchants, operators and shoppers, with findings from past research
Full journey map. Involving external teams.

Research

I conducted a research project to turn our assumptions into facts and understand where we had fallen short with early adopters.

Goal
Find where the MVP fell short and uncover new opportunities to focus our efforts on.
Participants
+25 decision makers (SaaS & Enterprise)
Outcome
Roadmap priorities for next quarter
Tools
Dovetail
Dovetail board of recorded interviews with pilot businesses such as Immfly, Lightspeed, Dyson, MSC Cruises and Curzon Cinema

Findings

  • Brand experience

    67%

    wanted shopper-facing screens to match their physical store

  • Troubleshooting

    72%

    couldn’t help staff when a device stopped working

  • Device messages

    70%

    wanted device messages to be clearer and actionable

  • Shared motivations

    All

    businesses wanted to move away from traditional POS systems and deliver personalised in-store experience

Solution

What we shipped

  1. Easy setup.
    One system, many form factors.
    A grid of Adyen Android payment terminals showing setup screens: welcome, select and confirm store, device info, software update and the home screen
An Adyen Android payment device showing the Estée Lauder app on a beauty counter, next to an Adyen test card
Home screen. Supporting payments and store operations.
A shopper taps a card on an Adyen AMS1 held by store staff, showing €100.00
Checkout. Paying anywhere in store.

Outcomes

Within the first year, the pilot became a platform

  • ~300

    pilot customers live in the first month

  • 300K+

    payment-enabled Android devices in the field

  • ~1M

    new transactions in the first year

  • 3×

    team growth, with new designers and developers

  • 6+

    new Android payment devices

Learnings

  • Make users’ pain everyone’s priority.

    User experience isn’t only a designer’s responsibility.

  • Design that works is design that matters.

    Balancing form and function let us innovate while staying usable and backward compatible.

  • One size fits no one, but…

    Too much customisation becomes an operational hazard. Define your product’s limits early and let them guide how it evolves.