Anthony Theunissen
Product & Growth Leader
Product & Growth Leader with 20+ years' experience across FinTech, Payments, Digital Commerce and SaaS. I lead by building customer-centric product capabilities, combining Product Strategy, Growth, Customer Experience, Experience Design and commercial leadership to deliver products customers value and businesses can scale.
Throughout my career, I've been trusted to build and transform Product and Design capabilities, from establishing new capabilities and operating models to rebuilding teams and embedding customer-centric ways of working that improve customer outcomes and business performance.
More recently, I've been exploring how AI can help Product, Design and Customer Experience teams work more effectively. I believe great products start with understanding customers. AI can help us move faster from insight to action, but it doesn't replace the understanding that made the insight valuable in the first place.
How I lead
I build customer-centric organisations by developing empowered teams, creating clarity through effective team structures and ways of working, and fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning. I believe the best customer experiences are created by empowered teams with clarity, trust, and the freedom to solve meaningful customer problems.
Core expertise
Customer Experience Strategy • Product Strategy • Customer Journey Optimisation • Experience Design • Service Design • AI Adoption & Enablement • Product Growth • Commercial Strategy • Customer Research & Discovery • Product Portfolio Management • Product & Design Operations • Customer Insights • Product Analytics • Design Systems • Digital Payments • FinTech • Digital Commerce • Self-Service Platforms • Marketplace Platforms • Executive Leadership • Executive Stakeholder Management
Leadership in action
Throughout my career, I've helped organisations grow by building Product, Design and Customer Experience capability, aligning teams around customer and commercial outcomes, and creating the rhythm needed to turn strategy into execution.
- Transaction Junction — Transformed a technically focused Product & Design team into a customer-centric organisation by introducing Product and Design Operations, governance and customer discovery practices. Built a high-performing team recognised for its collaborative culture while enabling self-service reconciliation, improving merchant onboarding and delivering new commercial opportunities.
- Truevo — Established the Product function and operating model, creating the structure needed to accelerate delivery, expand payment capabilities, automate merchant onboarding and grow the eCommerce platform.
- SnapScan — Rebuilt the Product organisation by introducing governance, clearer prioritisation and stronger cross-functional collaboration, improving delivery confidence while supporting product growth.
- UBU International — Built the Product capability behind a modular commerce platform, enabling marketplace expansion, partner-led growth and scalable self-service experiences.
- Clickatell — Defined the global product strategy for conversational commerce, combining AI-driven customer engagement, intelligent workflow automation and self-service experiences while enabling MTN South Africa's first large-scale WhatsApp commerce deployment.
Customer outcomes
- Growth — Grew Vodacom's paying subscriber base from 400,000 to 1.2 million in six months while exceeding revenue targets by 20%.
- Platform & Growth — Expanded payment, marketplace and commerce platforms through digital wallets, eCommerce integrations, self-service capabilities and international payment products.
- Customer Experience — Expanded self-service capabilities through merchant onboarding, reconciliation, digital wallets, conversational commerce and marketplace platforms.
- Organisation Building — Built and scaled Product and Design organisations across Transaction Junction, Truevo, SnapScan and UBU, introducing governance, operating models and coaching that improved delivery and commercial alignment.
- Innovation — Led teams delivering digital wallets, alternative payment methods, QR payments, payment links, self-service merchant capabilities, and machine learning-enabled conversational commerce and workflow automation.
Professional experience
Throughout my executive career, I've typically been brought in to establish or transform Product and Design capabilities during periods of growth, change, or strategic evolution.
Head of Product
Transaction Junction
Led Product, Customer Experience and Design across Transaction Junction's omnichannel payments platform, transforming a technically focused Product & Design team into a customer-centric organisation by introducing Product Operations, Design Operations, customer discovery and AI-enabled ways of working.
- Built and scaled the Product & Design organisation within six months, establishing governance, operating rhythms and clear ownership across the product portfolio.
- Partnered with Executive Leadership to shape product strategy, commercial priorities and investment decisions across the payments ecosystem.
- Established Product Operations centred around customer insight, product analytics, governance and outcome-based planning.
- Led the adoption of practical AI workflows across Product and Design, improving research synthesis, discovery, documentation and rapid validation.
- Established Design Operations practices that strengthened design systems, collaboration and consistency across product delivery.
- Expanded the customer experience through digital wallets, reconciliation products, merchant services and self-service capabilities.
- Embedded customer discovery and evidence-based decision-making into roadmap planning and prioritisation.
Head of Product
Ozow
Led product strategy for one of South Africa's leading Pay-by-Bank platforms. Responsible for consumer and merchant payment experiences, balancing customer needs with commercial growth and platform scalability.
- Directed product strategy across digital payment acceptance, payment orchestration, merchant settlement, and payout capabilities.
- Led product initiatives that simplified checkout experiences, improved merchant adoption, and expanded digital payment capabilities.
- Improved collaboration and product execution across Engineering, Compliance and Commercial teams.
- Strengthened customer-centric product discovery and prioritisation.
Head of Product
Truevo Payments
Established the Product and Design capability while introducing governance, customer discovery practices and a scalable operating model that enabled the business to expand its acquiring and payment platform.
- Built the Product & Design capability and established a scalable operating model.
- Defined the company product strategy and operating framework.
- Expanded digital wallet payment options, creating simpler checkout experiences and reducing friction at the point of payment.
- Delivered eCommerce integrations that extended the platform’s reach across major online store platforms.
- Simplified merchant onboarding through automation, improving the customer onboarding experience.
- Led the roadmap across acquiring, gateway, POS, in-app payments and payouts.
Chief Product Officer
SnapScan
Rebuilt the Product and Design organisation within six months, establishing the leadership, operating model and governance needed to align customer experience, product strategy and commercial priorities across the business.
- Rebuilt the Product & Design organisation within six months, creating a stronger customer-centric capability.
- Embedded Product governance, roadmap management and clearer cross-functional ways of working.
- Initiated the SnapStore merchant platform to support future merchant self-service and platform growth.
- Improved delivery predictability, product quality and collaboration across Product, Engineering and Commercial teams.
- Partnered with the Executive Team to shape company strategy, product investment and long-term growth initiatives.
Head of Product & UX
UBU International
Led Product, Customer Experience and Marketplace strategy for white-label payment, loyalty, and rewards platforms.
- Delivered a modular white-label commerce platform supporting scalable customer and partner experiences.
- Established merchant self-service onboarding.
- Built marketplace capabilities, including fulfilment, loyalty, rewards, and digital wallet functionality.
- Managed strategic technology partners and commercial relationships.
Head of Digital Vouchering & Loyalty
Vodacom · Switch On Benefits
Led product strategy for Vodacom's enterprise loyalty and digital voucher platform.
- Transitioned platform to SaaS licensing model.
- Grew subscriber base from 400k to 1.2 million.
- Expanded customer reach beyond 6 million users.
- Exceeded revenue targets by 20%.
Director Products
Clickatell
Led global product strategy for conversational commerce and enterprise messaging, helping organisations improve customer acquisition, engagement and self-service through AI-enabled customer experiences.
- Defined the global product and customer experience roadmap across conversational commerce, workflow automation and customer engagement platforms.
- Delivered enterprise workflow automation capabilities that enabled scalable customer service and business process automation.
- Enabled MTN South Africa’s first large-scale WhatsApp commerce deployment, establishing one of the region’s earliest enterprise conversational commerce solutions.
Head of Product & UX
Zapper
Owned global product and user experience design strategy across 13 international markets.
- Led roadmap across mobile payments, loyalty and merchant products.
- Passed 1 million transactions milestone.
- Established loyalty, vouchers, split payments, and fuel payments.
- Simplified merchant onboarding and back-office reporting to improve the merchant experience.
Head of Product & UX
PriceCheck
Led Product, UX and platform transformation.
- Delivered complete mobile-first platform redesign.
- Implemented omnichannel retail proof of concept with Pargo and SnapScan.
- Presented UX strategy across the Naspers Group.
- Won BlackBerry App of the Year.
Head of Design & UX
Kalahari.com
Established one of the company’s first Design System approaches, creating reusable patterns and standards that improved consistency across customer experiences.
- Doubled checkout conversion from 30% to 60%.
- Created enterprise UX standards and design system.
- Won Best Website Usability – eCommerce Awards 2013.
- Established UX practices adopted across the business.
Visual Design Lead
Kalahari.com
Managed the visual design capability across day-to-day product and marketing requirements, working closely with Product, UX, front-end development and engineering.
- Managed a team of designers supporting new and existing products, campaigns and customer retention.
- Worked closely with Product Managers, UI Designers, Front-end Developers, UX Researchers and Engineers to design and implement engaging user experiences.
- Led the development of the visual style guide and UI framework that standardised the overall front-end customer-facing experience.
Education
- Diploma, Graphic Design
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
1997 - 2000 - Diploma, Comprehensive Web
City Varsity Cape Town
2003 - 2004
Certifications
- The Science and Art of Effective Web and Application Design
Human Factors International
Issued May 2008 - User-Centric Innovation and Strategy
Human Factors International
Issued Nov 2012 - Master Class on Mobile UX Design
Naspers Academy · Luke Wroblewski
Issued Oct 2014 - The Art and Science of Effective Product Management
Deloitte Digital
Issued May 2015
Earlier work experience (2000 - 2010)
Developed interactive web prototypes and UX deliverables, including wireframes, UI concepts, and front-end implementations using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Led web design and usability improvements across customer-facing and internal platforms, focusing on user experience, design consistency, and digital brand optimisation.
Led web design and digital marketing initiatives, delivering user-friendly interfaces, online campaigns, style guides, and branded digital experiences.
Designed and developed digital experiences, websites, and online marketing campaigns for clients including KWV, Aida, Cluttons, Col'Cacchio, and Roberts Rock.
Founded and managed a freelance digital design studio, leading client engagements from strategy and creative direction through to design, development, and delivery.
A specialist in HTML mailers, banners, promotions and other web-related work, working closely with web developers, producers and the art director to ensure quality deliverables.
Designed interactive products, educational games, and marketing collateral, including projects for PGA Golf and the first season of Big Brother South Africa.
Designed websites, digital campaigns, and online marketing assets while collaborating with development teams on customer-facing web solutions.
Thank you for your time and consideration.