Experience
From Design to Product Leadership
The progression matters more than the list. I did not arrive at product leadership from a business or engineering track. I arrived from craft, which is why customer experience and commercial outcomes sit in the same conversation for me.
- 01Front-endBuilding interfaces, 2000 to 2006
- 02DesignBrand and interface craft, Thawte and VeriSign
- 03UXResearch and journey design, Kalahari
- 04ProductOwning outcomes, PriceCheck through Vodacom
- 05Product LeadershipBuilding teams and operating models
- 06Executive ProductCPO and Head of Product, reporting to CEO and Exco
Roles
Twenty years, one direction of travel
Earlier: HeathWallace, VeriSign, Thawte, Gill Cory Communications, ForwardSlash, Touch Tone Holdings and Liquid Fire Design, in design and front-end development roles between 2000 and 2010.
Also worth noting
Team building
Recruited and built Product and Design functions from scratch inside six months at Transaction Junction, Truevo, SnapScan and UBU International, each with the structures and processes to hold as delivery scaled.
Geography and scale
Product across South Africa, wider Africa and Europe. Zapper operated in 13 countries during my tenure, Truevo accepted payments in over 150 currencies as a PCI-DSS Level 1 provider, and the Vodacom platform reached a customer base of over 6 million.