Payment Expert’s ID Check: Payments Professionals offers insight from industry leaders and experts on how they got their start in the financial industry, from their early years in education, to how they have been able to climb the corporate ladder.
This week, we kick start season three of ID Check with Breno Oliveira, Chief Product Officer at payabl.
He shares his journey from Brazil to Poland, emphasising how his ‘3 Z’s principles’ have not only brought him into his current position today, but also how it has enabled him to pay close attention to the details of payments and fintech.
Where did you go to university and what did you study? What impact did this have on your current journey?
I attended Krakow University of Economics in Poland and hold an MBA in IT Management and an MSc in Professional Communication. Both degrees have undoubtedly helped to shape where I am today.
The skills I learnt during this time, assessing problems and solving them with technical insight, have been integral to most of the work I do today. The communication skills I picked up while there also definitely help balance out these product-focused skills with the kind of stakeholder management you need to have when you’re coordinating with lots of different teams.
What first drew you to the payments industry and why have you stayed?
Solving complex problems that require both technical and business knowledge is a balance that I found quite nicely in payments. I enjoy focusing on the little technical details of things. Being precise but also having the ability to zone out and consider the bigger picture is essential to understanding the payments landscape.
That and being able to work with top-notch tech on a daily basis is definitely what initially drew me to the industry.
Since then, continuously learning about and understanding new products has kept me in the industry. Making new technical discoveries and considering how these can be implemented to benefit consumers and businesses alike is something that still excites me and, thinking specifically about my role at payabl., will underpin the next stage of our growth.
Are there any lessons from your first role in the industry which you still draw on?
In my first role, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by intelligent and curious people. It’s something I’ve sought since this time; it will allow you to go much further than you can ever imagine. Also, I learnt to pay close attention to the details, which matter much more in the fintech and payment industry than in other sectors!
When was your first big break in the industry? Why was this such a significant moment for you?
My first real break came when I joined payabl. to work on its core banking capabilities. That work later evolved into what is now our Multi-Currency Business Accounts product.
What made this significant for me was the opportunity to build something from the ground up and see it move from concept to a product used by real businesses. I joined as a Product Manager and, over time, moved across teams and responsibilities before stepping into the Chief Product Officer role. I’m proud of that journey because it reflects the company culture at payabl., which values ownership, collaboration, and giving people the space to develop.
It’s striking how much the company has built in the four years since I joined. 2026 already feels like the start of a new phase of growth. My focus is on making sure payabl. continues to build products that are robust at scale, practical for merchants, and designed around how money actually needs to move.
Was there a moment you faced in the industry which really challenged you? How did you overcome this?
Continuously having to balance speed of delivery versus stability and reliability can be tricky. We see a lot of chasing trends in the tech sector, and this is true when it comes to payments as well. Often, companies think they need to be the first to have ‘the next big thing’, with pressure from the industry also fuelling this.
While keeping up with the latest innovations is important, it’s even more important not to lose quality in this pursuit.
What are some of the skills you deem essential to starting in your industry, and how have yours developed over the years?
Over the years, I’ve come to recognise certain truths about project management. One of the most critical skills I value is the ability to zoom in and zoom out on different topics quickly and efficiently.
I have seen countless team members who are excellent at one thing but end up stuck in a single domain or product, losing sight of the bigger picture along the way. It’s the reason I often ask my team to practice shifting between tasks to practice this skill, and it’s a great feeling when I get to see them deliver on this.
This practice has culminated in what I like to call the ‘3 Zs Principles’: Zoom in, zoom out and zone in. Zoom in focuses on knowing the intricacies and details of an initiative. Zooming out means acknowledging the wider context and understanding its impact on the company’s strategy. Finally, there is a third element that is often forgotten: the ability to zone in and get things done.
The secret to a successful career in payments is being able to balance these key techniques and switch between them at the drop of a hat.
Who was your biggest role model – inside or outside of your industry – who continues to inspire you in your current career?
Ayrton Senna. What continues to inspire me is his relentless commitment to mastery, especially his obsession with detail and his ability to translate tiny performance insights into real results.
He didn’t just drive; he understood the machine, the conditions, and the limits better than almost anyone, and he kept pushing for optimisation even when he was already at the top. Even though he’s from a different era and industry, his story is a powerful reminder that sustained excellence comes from rigour, humility, and never stopping the search for marginal gains.
If you didn’t work in the industry, what other career option would you have pursued or would have loved to?
Like many kids growing up in Brazil, my first dream was to become a football player. Watching Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Cafu perform on the world stage made it feel not just exciting, but genuinely possible. I gave it serious thought, but ultimately had to choose between football and focusing on school. In hindsight, that choice served me well. My career found its way into technology and payments, which aligns far better with what motivates me day to day.
Sport, however, has always remained part of my life, not as a career path but as a way to train both mind and body. Last year, I signed up for and completed a half Ironman in Krakow. The discipline it demands mirrors many of the principles I live by: knowing when to push, when to pace yourself, and how to stay focused on the long game while managing the intensity of the moment.
And I’m not the only one at payabl. drawn to that challenge. Around 15 of us are currently training together for Ironman 70.3 Hawaii. As a company, we see strong parallels between business and sport, and the same principles that make you successful in an Ironman (consistency, balance, endurance, adaptability, and recovery) are just as critical in business, and values we actively live by.
Lastly, what is some advice you would give to an aspiring person looking to get a start in your respective industry?
Whether you call it “discovery”, R&D or just problem solving, these techniques are essential to product design and having a successful career in payments.
Those zone-in moments, figuring out product-market fit, shaping a product, or brainstorming with engineers to make a solution more cost-efficient is why I joined the industry in the first place.
My advice is to take up the 3 Zs technique – practice being able to zoom in, zoom out and zone in. This is what is going to help you demonstrate your ability and help your team build the highest-quality products possible.
