In a week dominated by product demos and AI-powered announcements, Mike Pell stepped on the main stage with something different: a pause.
He didn’t unveil a new feature or forecast the end of manual reconciliation. Instead, he offered a reframing—one that began with a deceptively simple question: What if we’re looking at the wrong things?
Pell leads Microsoft Garage, the company’s innovation lab in New York. A designer by background and systems thinker by instinct, he’s known for helping reshape how people interact with technology—from font menus to PDF workflows. But this session wasn’t about the past. It was about a present problem most businesses haven’t solved.
Static data in a dynamic system
The issue, Pell argued, is not access to data. It’s clarity.
The payments industry processes billions of transactions a day. But the tools used to visualise that volume—dashboards, spreadsheets, standardised charts—haven’t evolved at the same pace as the systems they monitor.
These formats, he said, are no longer fit for purpose. They obscure more than they reveal.
Pell proposed a different approach: business visualisations that reflect flow, behaviour and movement—tools that help teams understand not just what is happening, but why it matters, and what to do next.
This, he suggested, is the gap between being informed and being effective.
Beyond data-driven
While much of the event focused on being “data-driven,” Pell warned against over-reliance on numbers as truth.
Insight, he said, isn’t found in the data alone. It’s shaped by human judgment, context, and the ability to connect signals quickly. Leaders should use data to inform decisions—but never to replace them.
He made the point quietly but firmly: dashboards aren’t decisions. They’re inputs. And the real value lies in what people choose to do with them.
Reimagining how we see systems
To support his argument, Pell showcased prototypes of real-time, immersive visualisations. These weren’t designed to impress. They were designed to help. They reflected actual system flows—transaction paths, behavioural signals, relationship maps—not static snapshots.
He spoke about the power of visual rhythm, trust-building through transparency, and designing for motion, not stillness.
This wasn’t visualisation for its own sake. It was a proposal for operational clarity.
The insight layer
For all the technical fluency in the room, Pell’s session landed with a rare clarity. It didn’t promise a future of frictionless AI or end-to-end automation. It promised something more grounded: the ability to see what matters, when it matters, without distraction.
That shift—from more data to better understanding—isn’t just a design upgrade. It’s a leadership decision.
And if the future of payments depends on faster decisions at scale, then this may have been the most important message of the week.
🌟 Spotlight on Liberis
With their Create Journey API, Liberis enables platforms to offer personalized, pre-approved funding options to their SMB customers—at scale, and with a single integration. They’re already powering embedded lending experiences for partners across e-commerce, accounting, and payments.
“We’re embedding lending where businesses already operate—and using GenAI to do it more intelligently.” – Nima Montazeri, Chief Product Officer, Liberis
— The Unofficially ETA Transact Team
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