Case study · NAB x Zodia Custody

SAF3, a secure crypto custodian

NAB’s first crypto MVP: a secure, regulated custodian for digital assets.

The customer: Crypto native fund managers and ultra high-net-worth individuals
Team: Product manager, crypto SME, risk and business analyst, executive, engineering team and me
Skills: Product design (end-to-end)
MVP creation
Research via self-recruitment
Developer handover

The problem

Institutional and ultra high-net-worth investors needed a secure, regulated way to store and manage digital assets. Existing custody products lacked the controls and trust they required.

How I solved it

01Interviewed 10 people interested in crypto, aligned with engineers on what was buildable, and designed the first pass.
02Recruited and interviewed 10 more, from institutions like JB Were to crypto-native fund managers, through targeted guerrilla recruitment.
03Set hypotheses so the wider team could keep researching discreetly during business development meetings.
04Turned insights into product requirements and decision frameworks, and supported development and QA.

Outcome

Delivered an MVP built around what customers needed: custody plus risk management. Leading with custody resonated with fund managers, risk management became a core feature, and customers wanted more coins than just BTC and ETH.

Inside the work

SAF3 transaction detail modal — Transaction detail, with compliance checks surfaced up front.

Photos from business development conversations — Business development conversations, getting our hands dirty for our startup.

Sticky notes of customer research questions — Customer research questions.

First pass at product requirements — A first pass at requirements, prioritised from research.

Client wants an update on their recent transfer, and asks their fund manager to check
Fund manager logs into SAF3 to manage funds on behalf of their client
Fund manager reviews the Risk Console, an overview of all actions for the wallets they manage
Fund manager can see the client’s transfer is going through compliance checks and is pending
Fund manager tells the client which compliance checks are left

Example journey flow.

What I learned

The research moved our focus from institutions to crypto-native fund managers, and the product was better for it.