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Innovation often begins with a simple question: What if? For Shubhi Maheswari, Prem Chand, Divyanshu Kumawat, Harshith Kanigalpula and Vibha Pundir who also go by their team name Runtime Code Breaker (RCB), it’s answering this question that led to a spectacular win at Cashfree Payments’ annual hackathon, SwitchOn. What started as a bold experiment was driven by answering “What if merchants could re-live their year in payments?”. This simple question ultimately evolved into Cashfree Reflect – a feature loved by countless businesses who partner with us.
Here’s the behind-the-scenes of one of the biggest year-end projects our teams put together.
The start of an idea
With the theme of SwitchOn 2024 being “Experiences that Matter”, many teams focused on AI-driven solutions. However, for Runtime Code Breaker this was an opportunity to create something that truly sparked merchant delight.
“We wanted to celebrate our merchants’ journey,” says Vibha, an Assistant Manager of Customer Success at Cashfree. “It was about offering a moment of pride and reflection to make their year-end memorable,” she adds.
The team came upon a simple yet powerful insight – merchants often track their daily transactions but they rarely get a moment to step back and see their biggest milestones. What was their busiest day? Their highest transaction? Their most active location? There was a gap in how merchants consumed important payment metrics and that’s where Cashfree Reflect came in—a personalised, shareable video highlighting key moments in a merchant’s year. “The idea was simple: turn numbers into a story,” says Harshith Kanigalpula, a Frontend Engineer 2 at Cashfree.
The team’s pitch stood out immediately. It wasn’t just functional, but it went a step ahead and was exciting. Judges saw its potential, and the team was crowned the winners of the hackathon.
Turning ideas to reality
Winning was just the beginning for team Runtime Code Breaker. The real challenge was building a version that merchants could use while timing it with the end of the year. “At the end of every year, just like we reflect back, we wanted to help merchants reflect back to their partnership with Cashfree Payments,” says Shubhi Maheswari, a Product Manager at Cashfree.
“We had to start from how to make data more meaningful for merchants,” elaborates Divyanshu Kumawat, SDE 2 at Cashfree. “And not just that, we had to ensure the insights were accurate but also broad enough to resonate with all types of merchants,” adds in Prem Chand, an SDE 2 at Cashfree as well.
With data exploration emerging as the first critical step, her teammates credit Shubhi for taking the lead in ensuring Cashfree Reflect’s highlights captured valuable insights for businesses of all sizes. At the same time, Harshith being one of the front-end engineers on the team focused on turning raw data into an intuitive, visually rich journey. “The design had to encourage merchants to proudly share their achievements, whether on social media or their website,” he says.
From there, the team focused on building a scalable pipeline to process transaction data efficiently. “Some of the key milestones included finalising the data model, optimising queries for performance, designing engaging visual summaries, and ensuring seamless delivery through our merchant dashboard,” says Divyanshu
“Finally, we worked on iterative testing and validation, refining the feature to make sure it aligned with the needs of different merchants,” adds Prem.
The entire process was a dream come true for the team. “Watching the idea grow from brainstorming to a live feature was an exciting journey, and every step—data, design, and testing—played a key role in making it happen,” says Vibha
On the design front, Samir Bellare, our Senior Director of Design, and his team played a key role in refining the look and feel. “The team that built the hackathon prototype was really talented. We then iterated the design to make it feel like Cashfree was celebrating alongside the merchant. It was the last week of the year, so we were focused on adding celebratory elements – not only visuals but also animations and music,” he says.
But time was tight and it took seamless collaboration across teams to make it happen. “Everybody contributed to the project,” recalls Samir. “From the engineers and the PMs to the marketing team, everybody added elements that would make this more celebratory. It was like a house party where everybody brings in their own fun element,” he adds.
The go-live journey
The moment Cashfree Reflect went live, it struck a chord with merchants. For the team behind the project, this was proof of their idea’s success.
“Hackathon projects usually stop at prototypes,” says Divyanshu. “Watching ours go live in just a few months was something special.”
For Shubhi, the journey reinforces the impact of thoughtful product management. “Turning a creative spark into a real-world feature that strengthens relationships with customers was truly rewarding to experience,” she says.
“It’s a reminder that creativity and innovation can lead to real-world value, not just for Cashfree, but for our merchants too,” Prem chimes in.
Vibha echoes the sentiment: “Knowing our idea is now part of thousands of merchants’ year-end experience—that’s incredible.”
For Harshith, this project tied back to what makes the culture at Cashfree unique, “Cashfree’s focus on empowering individuals and encouraging experimentation made it easier for us to create something meaningful for our merchants,” he says.
More than a feature
At its heart, Cashfree Reflect is about storytelling. It transforms raw data into moments of pride. Speaking on the project, Nitin Pulyani, our SVP and Head of Product (and one of our SwitchOn judges!), says, “Ultimately, Cashfree Reflect is more than just a data-driven project; it’s a personalised experience that transforms raw metrics into meaningful stories of success. This reflects our commitment to empowering merchants with a comprehensive view of their growth, all while celebrating their ongoing journey.”
It’s a testament to Cashfree’s culture of innovation—where bold ideas aren’t just encouraged, they’re brought to life.
Interested in joining teams that create an impact? Explore careers at Cashfree Payments here.
