Experienced Senior Product Development & Business Management Executive

EXPERIENCED SENIOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & BUSINESS MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE

Building, Positioning & Profitably Leading Technology Companies & New Ventures

A pro-active Senior Product & Business Leader with over 17 years’ experience successful in defining real-time business & product strategy and translating them into high-impact actions, operations and financial results within Financial, ICT and telecommunications industries. Expert in identifying and capturing new product and new market opportunities. Top-flight innovative, pragmatic, analytical, problem-solving and decision-making talent with a strong ability to produce quality solutions to business opportunities, tackle ambiguous situations, set and meet targets and tight deadlines while managing reporting, staffing and people allocation to product team.

PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS AND SKILLS

Senior Product Owner with Agile methodology experience and understanding of design sprints; full understanding of product development processes, pricing strategy, go-to-market strategy, product strategy planning, roadmap development and quality product management;

Excellent interpersonal skills, 3rd party partners management and relationship building focusing on delivering to stakeholders’ satisfaction.

Proven risk management and conflict resolution skills; strong ability to manage projects & competing priorities;

Have an in-depth understanding of the ICT and telecommunication industries, consumer multi-channel marketing principles including mass and direct marketing approaches

Strong ability to effectively communicate, sell ideas and influence others while gaining buy-in across the organization to follow it

Highly motivated, energetic & passionate about technology with strong ability to embrace and drive technology driven changes into business

Proficient in Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook; excellent presentation skills;

Broad cross-functional leadership experience (through managing projects / products from strategy to implementation) across all core business functions with emphasis on technology solution development and commercialization, sales and marketing, product development & management, pricing & packaging, finance, presentation & negotiation skills, human resources, multi-site operations and productivity/performance improvement. An authentic and credible business leader who makes opportunity a reality.

Developed and launched the Nokia Life service - delivering contents that helped to improve people's livelihood - in Nigeria (first in MEA); Achieved over 400K activations in Nigeria within 6 months of service launch with minimum Above The Line marketing; activation of about 2.7Million and active users of 1.2Million within 1 year of commercial launch and 2.9Million active users as at October 2013;

Restructured the Globacom Value Added Business: Reduced customer churn rate from about 30% to less than 5% within 3 months & increased VAS revenue from $27M to over $54.5M within one year;

99% success rate in growing customer base and increasing revenue; constantly delivered above business goals and / or targets; Successfully led and executed major initiatives

Started a web hosting business from an idea and built suits of products that led the business to becoming number 1 in Nigeria within 18 months as Director of Products.

MBA (25% scholarship); BSc, Electronic & Electrical Engineering (launched the first student-run internet café on campus and generated monthly average revenue of $1.2k.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Director of Products, Tivas 2015 till date

Key Duties:

•Define the overall product strategy and roadmap requirements to drive P&L goals for all product lines; Develop and present business case justification for new product initiatives and enhancements; Manages budget to ensure accurate forecasting & spends an also manages reporting, staffing and people allocation on product Team.

•Work closely with the engineering and design teams to help determine the best technical implementation methods as well as a reasonable implementation schedule to launch products on a regular basis.

•work with both internal, external partners, customers and 3rd party vendors to understand business process and flows to deliver solutions that meet business needs. .

•Manages Iterative product releases based on Roadmap/Backlog to deliver value to customers faster

•Leads the overall Quality and Performance of the products; Accountable for product delivery to ensure logical and prioritized release scheduling, in alignment with organizational priorities.

•Lead and own full engagement in the Go-To-Market process, working together with cross-functional teams to help drive campaigns execution

•Develop and adjust marketing plans based on competitive analysis, target market identification, product positioning and offers

•collect and analyze data on customer preferences and needs to identify potential markets and factors affecting product demand. Conducts market research that will assist in driving feature prioritization.

•Launched Value Added Services on two network operators within 3 months; achieved $3K daily revenue in the 2nd month after service launch;

Partnership Manager, Microsoft 2015 - 2015

– Led all Developer Experience (DX) related activities in West Africa which include 3rd party partners’ management and delivery strategic differentiation projects thereby enabling the development of industry leading applications and services across devices.

Key Duties:

•Identified, attracted and managed LO brand partners to build apps to drive Microsoft Device Sales;

•Managed relationship with top local brands and services providers to develop high quality applications for the Windows Store;

•Negotiated with top branded partners and locally relevant content providers to source apps for Lumia devices;

•Drove competitiveness of Windows platform through high quality engagement with key partners thus building key wins that can be used as reference to build momentum in the marketplace;

•Constantly built relationships with local ecosystem partners (Developers, Brands, Operators, ICT Industry bodies) to drive the Windows Ecosystem Development;

•Evangelized partner/developer requirements internally to Microsoft stakeholders;

•Represented DX function both internally at the Local Organisation (LO) and externally at developers / partners function / events, beyond area of expertise and support various teams to drive the business in the LO;

NOKIA 2009 to 2014

Partnership Manager, Nokia 2013 to 2014

Key Duties:

•Led all Developer Experience (DX) related activities in the West & Central Africa which include 3rd party partners management, developers’ relations, DX GTM, and strategic differentiation projects.

•given Kudos award in recognition of contribution to business in WCA in June 2014; received recognition award for achieving target 1 month before deadline in May 2014; achieved Great Performance in 2013 financial year appraisal; nominated for Zero Limit program (a leadership program for top talents within Nokia IMEA).

•Constantly identified, attracted and managed regional and local brand partners to build apps to drive Nokia Device Sales;

•Managed relationship with top local brands and services providers to develop high quality applications for Nokia & Windows Store;

•Negotiated with top branded partners and locally relevant content providers to source apps for Nokia devices;

•Drove competitiveness of Nokia app portfolio through high quality apps that are differentiated & have fantastic user experience;

•Drove partner commitment to jointly market their Nokia apps widely, using all relevant channels.

•Built Relationships with local ecosystem partners (Developers, Brands, Operators, MSFT, ICT Industry bodies, startups) to drive the Nokia Ecosystem Strategy;

•Evangelized partner/developer requirements internally to Nokia stakeholders;

•Delivered the Nokia Asha Ice app; App was used for the activation campaign to drive awareness and purchase decision for the Nokia Asha Ice devices;

•Achieved Nokia X top apps target (100%) in P5’2014, 1 month ahead of schedule for focused market and 3 Nokia X top apps target for the emerging markets;

•Achieved 198% of Nokia X new app count target and 234% of Windows new app quality count in P6’2014;

•Delivered 3 (150% of target) differentiation apps & $2.1M (100% of target) in reciprocal marketing in P6’2014;

•Delivered 1st mobile payment SDK for Windows phone (on any platform in Nigeria) in 1H’2014 alongside MSFT DPE team, Mobile Monday Nigeria & Interswitch; SDK allows Windows phone developers to monetize their apps;

•Delivered 3 key Banking apps (GTBank, UBA and FCMB) for the Windows platform; Projects outside target;

Senior Business & Product Manager, Nokia 2009 to 2013

– Took full business and product ownership including revenue generation, profitability & building a base of active users (Sept. 2009 to Oct. 2013)

– Achieved over 400K activations in Nigeria within 6 months of service launch with minimum Above The Line marketing; activation of about 2.7Million and active users of 1.2Million within 1 year of commercial launch and 2.9Million active users as at October 2013;

Key Duties:

Full Business and Product Ownership:

•Provided leadership for the Nigeria and Ghana Nokia Life Service launch team; handled negotiation with all partners;

•Lead market development opportunities and execute major initiatives that correspond with the Nokia Emerging Markets Services Africa strategy and are aligned with Nokia’s mission, values and capabilities; create and manage locally relevant services (Nokia Life – NL) for Bottom of the Pyramid consumers mapped to relevant devices;

•Accountable for overall business & product goals driving revenue and profitability objectives at Sales Unit level

•Managed relationship with content, service and billing partners in Nigeria and also ensure overall service management and service quality;

•Managed relationships with the Key Operator Account Managers (MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat) to build the NL services game plan in Nigeria. Facilitated the operator negotiations along with the LSU operator account managers; secured an average of 15% on top of the standard operator revenue shares to partners;

•Constantly planned for the demand creation activities (with marketing and Retail team) like marketing promotions and local tie-ups; Identify new potential markets for the products and developed business & implementation strategies to penetrate those markets;

•Worked closely with the Nokia’s IMEA Sales Unit to ensure resources are managed effectively, teams are aligned, and Africa initiatives are well-coordinated;

•Provided superior technical oversight of local Nokia Emerging Market Services projects;

•Carried out market and competitive environment analysis, evaluated existing strategy and developed new product strategies; developed target countries presentation and route to market;

•Frequently appraised the existing Global NL product portfolio and identified the winning products for the Nigeria market; Localized core NL services & manage all aspects of services, ensuring locally relevance.

•Launched Business Women service in collaboration with Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and MTN Nigeria (the largest network operator) in August 2012; service was targeted at Women entrepreneurs;

Built the EMS Product portfolio and subsequent NL client releases

•Constantly identified relevant service opportunities primarily in agriculture, education and healthcare and entertainment segments; identified the target consumers in terms of needs/pain points, local partners to support the content creation and updates, and potential government collaboration in this endeavor; increased the service portfolio from 4 to 5 with the launch of Spirituality Service vertical in May 2012;

•Evaluated new opportunities for growth at the country level and region level through market research, interviews, networks, peers, competitive analysis, etc.;

•Tracked competitive offerings and work with global product team to develop the counter offerings;

•Built content portfolio roadmap at the Sales Unit level by working with various content partners and ensure that all enablers are in place by working with the global Integration and Deployment Manager to support the content creation, refresh and delivery;

•Mapped NL services for relevant entry level devices for both launches and refreshes; Launched NL service in Nigeria (first in Africa) in October 2010;

M&I MATERIALS UK January to March 2009

•Appraised the existing product portfolio and identified the winning products and markets;

•Carried out market and competitive environment analysis, evaluated existing strategy and developed new marketing strategies; developed target countries presentation and route to market;

•Conducted a research on the Importance of Distributors and OEMs in the supply chain;

•Identified new potential markets for the products and developed business & implementation strategies to penetrate those markets;

Product Manager (Strategy & Marketing), Globacom 2005 to 2007

Key Duties:

•Developed Voice & Value-Added Service (VAS) launch roadmap and strategy for Glo Mobile Benin Republic

•Undertook study and analysis of the telecommunication market environment, analyzed existing Value-Added Service (VAS) operation strategy (cost-benefit analysis), developed and delivered new VAS marketing and operation strategy thereby increasing efficiency by almost 50%. Evaluated national and international competitors’ offerings and launched products to fill gaps in the market; Owned customer acquisition and retention targets, identified and delivered strategic growth plans to increase usage and spend within the customer base;

•Took full ownership of product / service definition, pricing and product / service strategy and planning; Developed business cases, financial models and roadmaps for products / service delivery and secured budget approval; Managed stakeholders’ relationship and product through its life-cycle; Managed overall demand and delivery schedule for products / services and related knowledge and best practice; launched different products and relevant devices across all sales channels including development of relevant marketing plans;

•Tracked and analyzed market and competitors’ activity (pricing and propositions, market intelligence, comparative user experiences etc.); Coordinated the definition and analysis of market research and ensured research was fundamental to product development practices; Defined and produced detailed product competitive strategies in-line with business objectives.

•Identified product requirements based on market analysis and customer feedback; Developed solutions concepts into detailed product development document and ensured detailed understanding of customer needs is built into the requirements; Monitored product / service post-sales performance, identified key improvement area and defined appropriate initiatives to achieve financial returns;

•Worked with key stakeholders (legislators, content aggregators, content providers etc.) to launch Content portals and blackberry customer portal; increased penetration from 2% to over 20% within 6 months;

•Led cross-functional team that launched and managed lifecycle of various Content Portals, Voice products (prepaid & postpaid - for both consumer & corporate markets), mobile devices (blackberry, 3G phones etc.), over 230 Premium Content Products & Value Added Services – mobile payment, 3G, SMS, IVR, CRBT, MMS & WAP (including internet services, data services, mobile payment, 3G, Play TV, Voice Portals, VoiceSMS, Caller Tunes); Constantly provided product performance reports and recommendations for corrective action(s). Reduced customer churn rate from about 30% to less than 5% within 3 months & increased VAS revenue from $27M to over $54.5M within one year;

•Liaised with other product managers and colleagues across Sales, Customer Care, IT, Technical, Revenue Assurance, Fraud and Communications departments as required in understanding future propositions, completing projects and driving revenue growth; Coordinated review meetings to discuss unresolved issues and formally agree on final hardware solution and vendor(s);

•Owned and managed relationships with key third party vendors, partners, suppliers, and consultants for the establishment and coordination of new Product Development and Integration; Managed risks, issues and mitigating actions to ensure products are delivered as scheduled;

Co-founder & Director of Products, E-nnova Media 2002 to 2005

Key Duties:

•Developed product marketing strategy that positioned the company as leading provider of web solutions within one year;

•Identified and liaised with strategic partners to secure agreements that provided the company with an overall competitive advantage; increased revenue by almost 50% within a year

•Provided consultancy services on web and mobile solutions to clients in the FMCG, Telecoms and Manufacturing sectors; managed client’s online portal.

•Researched current market trends; developed and presented competitive strategy analyses to senior management; Identified basic industry needs & design business concepts to cater for those needs; Prepared proposal and tender materials for prospective clients; provided first line business support to customers and customers' feedback to relevant departments;

•Identified different growth paths (acquisition versus organic growth) and developed relevant business cases, valuations and financial models; Coordinated meeting with prospective partners and / or acquisition targets and benchmarked their capabilities with relevant criteria; ensured transactions were completed as scheduled and according to agreement

•Launched reliable and low-cost hosting service and became the number 1 hosting company in West Africa with the Nairahost.com brand by 2006; raised awareness through advertisements, keyword analysis and participation in online forums;

•Developed and launched the first unlimited domain hosting package in West Africa;

•Identified and liaised with strategic partners; developed new line of business and increased monthly revenue to 6 digits;

•Secured .NG TLD domain registrar accreditation with NIRA (Nigeria Internet Registration Agency) and partnership with top registrars in the world thereby making Nairahost.com the preferred domain name registrar in Nigeria;

•Launched cedishost.com to cater for clients from Ghana;

•Provided consultancy services on web and mobile solutions to clients in the FMCG, Telecoms and Manufacturing sectors; managed client’s online portal;

EDUCATION

MBA (25% Scholarship) - Manchester Business School, UK (2009)

BSc, Electronic & Electrical Engineering - Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria (2002)

CERTIFICATIONS

Business Strategy Essentials - Gordon Institute of Business Science, South Africa (2014)

Certificate in Basic Leadership Management – Daystar Leadership Academy, Nigeria (2005)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

- Volunteering Experience:

•Mentor, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women – September 2018 till date;

•Head, Elev8Impact – the career and entrepreneurship unit of The Elevation Church (www.elevationng.org);

•Contributor, BITS, www.bits.ng (a technology media company dedicated to providing daily coverage of everything happening within the Startups, technology and developers’ ecosystem.) - May 2011 to 2013;

•Advisor, Waserise (a tag-based recruitment solution with focus on both artisans and professionals) – www.waserise.com, December 2011;

•Steering Committee Member, Lagos Angel Networks with focus on providing seed fund to startups in Nigeria;

•Work with the Nokia’s Local Sales Unit to build the Nokia’s developer ecosystem in Nigeria

•Advisor, Nokia Growth Academy; 2009 to 2013

•Coordinated the EPROM (Entrepreneurial Programming and Research On Mobile Project) in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (2010 – 2011)

•Worked with Nokia Research Lab and Worldbank as part of the Sponsor group for the first Open Innovation Africa Summit (event took place in Kenya in November 2010);

•Former coordinator, Friends of PIN (FoPIN), Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (www.pinigeria.org);

- Interests: Enjoys reading business and technology blogs & articles, writing and listening to gospel music;

REFERENCES

Available on request

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