Building Inclusive Products in FinTech

Redesigning Inclusion from the Inside Out

In this compelling episode of FinTech’s DEI Discussions, hosted by Nadia, we are introduced to the powerful narrative and professional insights of Monica Carlesso, Business Platform Lead at Lloyds Banking Group. With more than two decades of experience in product and transformation roles across global FinTechs and traditional financial institutions, Monica brings a wealth of personal resilience, clarity of purpose, and a strong commitment to inclusive leadership. Her voice adds to the growing chorus of FinTech professionals urging the industry to move from performative diversity efforts to meaningful, systemic inclusion.

At Harrington Starr, a FinTech recruitment business that understands the critical role of workplace inclusion in shaping long-term success, Monica’s episode is a must-listen. It offers practical insight into how organisations can evolve and design for fairness from the ground up, while empowering individuals to bring their full selves to work in an industry that continues to shape how the world interacts with money.

A Career Built on Transformation and Purpose

From the outset of the conversation, Monica shares how her journey has been shaped by transformation, both digital and personal. Originally from Italy and now based in the UK, she has navigated different business cultures, financial systems, and leadership expectations throughout her career. She reflects on her time leading mobile payments projects, identity and authentication solutions, and now AI-driven agent interactions, showing how deeply embedded she is in the FinTech space.

But Monica’s core strength lies not just in her technical or strategic acumen. What stands out is her deep understanding of how human behaviour intersects with financial product design. She believes that in FinTech, good product design must go beyond functionality. It must foster trust, enable access, and uphold fairness. These values are not just abstract concepts; they are central to delivering digital services that people rely on every day.

Inclusion Means Not Shrinking to Fit

When asked what inclusion means to her, Monica does not hesitate: “It’s about not having to shrink to fit.” This simple yet powerful idea resonates deeply in an industry where many still feel pressure to conform to outdated norms. For Monica, inclusion means building an environment where people can bring their full selves to work, accents, backgrounds, lived experiences, and have these differences viewed as assets rather than risks.

She acknowledges that true inclusion requires effort. It does not happen by default, nor is it ever entirely comfortable. In product and innovation teams, diversity often brings tension, but that tension, when met with intention and openness, can lead to better decisions and more creative outcomes. She reminds listeners that inclusion is not about avoiding conflict but about engaging with it in a constructive way that enables growth for individuals and teams alike.

In this sense, FinTech businesses must rethink inclusion as more than recruitment targets. Monica points out that inclusion is about who gets listened to, who gets promoted, and who is empowered to lead in their own way. It is about valuing potential as much as performance and recognising the structural barriers that often prevent underrepresented professionals from progressing.

Advice to Her Younger Self: Trust Your Instincts

One of the most poignant parts of the episode comes when Nadia asks Monica what advice she would give her younger self. Without hesitation, Monica responds: “Trust your instinct more. Don’t try so hard to fit and change who you are to succeed.” It is a message that cuts to the heart of many inclusion challenges in FinTech workplaces, where talented professionals often mask their authentic selves to survive or advance.

Monica shares how, early in her career, she expended significant energy trying to align with leadership styles that did not reflect her own values. Over time, she realised that her natural strengths, empathy, curiosity, and passion, were not liabilities. They were leadership assets. Today, she encourages others to bring those qualities into their work and to seek out environments where these traits are recognised and rewarded.

She also speaks to the power of building your tribe. For Monica, it was the people who believed in her even before she did that made a lasting impact. Now in a position of influence, she sees it as her duty to be that person for others, to lift people up, open doors, and make the invisible visible.

Designing for Fairness in Recognition and Pay

Monica’s commitment to inclusion is perhaps most evident in her views on fairness, particularly when it comes to recognition, progression, and pay in FinTech. She explains that fairness doesn’t simply emerge; it must be designed and maintained through intention and transparency. Her approach involves performance-based recognition that takes into account not only skills and results but also potential.

In an industry often driven by metrics and performance outcomes, Monica calls for a more balanced view, one that also values what she describes as “invisible work.” This includes behind-the-scenes mentoring, emotional labour, glue work, and cultural contributions that often go unnoticed yet are essential to strong team dynamics and sustainable innovation.

She challenges leaders to ask themselves: Who am I sponsoring, and why? Who gets the stretch opportunities? If the answer always points to the same types of people, something needs to change. These are the uncomfortable yet essential questions that must become routine in FinTech leadership and hiring practices. At Harrington Starr, we believe these kinds of reflections are key to improving hiring strategies, fostering inclusive growth, and attracting the best FinTech talent.

From Representation to Systemic Change

As the conversation deepens, Monica turns her focus to the wider industry and the urgent need for a more systemic approach to inclusion. While representation remains a vital part of the conversation, it is not enough on its own. She urges FinTech companies to move beyond cosmetic metrics and to view inclusion as a core business driver, a fundamental component of long-term success and product excellence.

She calls for a re-evaluation of leadership norms and promotion criteria and encourages organisations to create financial products that reflect the complexity of people’s lives. For Monica, inclusion is intersectional. That means recognising and addressing how gender, race, disability, neurodiversity, personality, and socio-economic background interact to shape individuals’ experiences.

This level of reflection requires time, resources, and a genuine willingness to change. But the reward, she argues, is a more adaptive, resilient, and high-performing organisation, something every FinTech business aspires to be.

Creating Inclusive Financial Products Starts With People

One of the key takeaways from Monica’s conversation with Nadia is the idea that inclusive financial products begin with inclusive teams. You cannot build services that reflect society’s full diversity if your team lacks that same diversity. Monica believes that hiring managers and product leaders need to understand this fundamental truth, and act on it.

This is where recruitment strategy plays a vital role. At Harrington Starr, we are committed to working with our FinTech clients to not only source top-tier talent but also support the creation of inclusive environments where that talent can thrive. Whether it’s through designing gender-balanced shortlists or advising on how to spot and remove bias in interview processes, we know that hiring for diversity without planning for inclusion is a wasted opportunity.

Monica’s experience underscores this. She speaks not only as a senior leader but as someone who has seen firsthand what happens when workplaces embrace authenticity and invest in potential. Her message is clear: creating financial technology that works for everyone starts by building teams where everyone feels they belong.

Challenging the Norms: A Call to Action for FinTech Leaders

Throughout the episode, Monica offers both inspiration and challenge. She doesn’t sugar-coat the work of inclusion, nor does she treat it as a box to tick. Instead, she presents it as an ongoing journey, one that requires reflection, courage, and consistent effort. It is not enough to have good intentions. What matters is what we do with them.

For hiring managers, product owners, and FinTech leaders alike, Monica’s story offers an essential perspective. Inclusion must be built into the structures, processes, and decisions that define our workplaces. It must shape how we hire, how we recognise, how we promote, and how we lead.

At Harrington Starr, we are proud to play a role in this transformation. As a leading FinTech staffing agency, our work goes beyond placements. We help companies build teams that reflect the future of financial services, diverse, driven, and built to last. Whether you're hiring for software engineers, product managers, infrastructure support, or executive leadership, inclusion is no longer optional. It’s essential.

Conclusion: Inclusion is Everyone’s Responsibility

As Nadia brings the episode to a close, she reflects on the depth of insight Monica has offered. From the importance of trust and empathy to the challenge of making invisible labour visible, this conversation is a masterclass in what it truly means to “walk the talk” in FinTech.

Monica’s call to action is simple but profound: let’s move from tokenism to transformation. Let’s build systems that celebrate complexity and support difference. Let’s stop asking people to shrink to fit and instead reshape the workplace to let them expand and lead.

The episode is a reminder that inclusion isn’t a department, it’s a shared responsibility. It lives in the daily decisions we make, the people we mentor, and the systems we choose to challenge. And if we’re willing to do the work, the rewards, for individuals, for teams, and for the FinTech industry as a whole, are immeasurable.