About Decoding Modern Payments (DMP)

I’m Abdur, and I've spent the past 5 years building payments platforms that move millions of dollars daily.

As a product manager working across fintech and healthcare, I've lived the guts of how money moves:
I’ve debugged failed ACH transfers across three systems at 2AM.
I’ve been pulled into painful PCI audits because someone logged a card field they shouldn't have.
I’ve seen million-dollar reimbursements which providers needed to keep the lights on be delayed due to misconfigured payments integrations.

Here's what's kinda crazy:

Everyone in business depends on payments working perfectly, but most people have no clue how they actually work.

Engineers integrate Stripe without knowing why card networks exist. Product managers choose between payment processors based on pricing sheets, not technical architecture. Founders sign long-term payment partners contracts without understanding how those decisions lock in product limitations later.

And meanwhile, your product and your business depends on this invisible layer working flawlessly.

Now layer on AI - which is already transforming fraud detection, checkout flows, and operations - and the complexity multiplies. But so do the opportunities for those who understand both worlds.

That's why I started Decoding Modern Payments (DMP). This is a publication for people who want to stop treating payments like a black box.

What you'll find here

DMP posts come in three flavors:

Foundation: Jargon-free explainers on how payments actually work.
War stories: Real lessons from scaling payments infrastructure from millions to billion - including what broke, what worked, and what I'd do differently.
Future: How AI is reshaping payments, and what is truly high leverage vs. hype.

No fluff & no surface-level overviews. Just clear, useful explanations, hard-earned lessons, and sharp insights into the future of payments.

This Is For You If...

You're making payment decisions and need to know the real tradeoffs, not just the sales PDFs

You want to level up your understanding of what’s under the hood of modern payments

You want to keep your finger on the pulse on what's cutting edge and what's around the corner for payments

I write for people who want to build a deeper mental model and stay relevant in the fast changing payments world so you can build better payments systems and make smarter decisions.

My Vision

Payments aren't simple, but complexity doesn’t have to mean confusion. Additionally, most payments content is either too technical or too surface-level. And almost none of it addresses how AI is about to change everything. I'm bridging this gap.

I used to find payments very confusing, even while building systems that moved millions daily. So now, every week, I’m breaking down the stuff I wish someone had explained to me.

Thanks for being here. Let's decode modern payments, together :)

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(Questions or stories? Ping me on LinkedIn, X, or at abdur@paymentswithabdur.com)