Product Owner - Airtel App

Job Description

Company Overview

Airtel Africa PLC is a leading telecommunications company dedicated to providing innovative and reliable Communication & Mobile financial services to our customers.

Position Overview

We are seeking for a driven & innovative Product Owner (PO) with a deep understanding of digital channels and products within a regulated environment. They will be fully responsible for defining and executing the vision and strategy of our Airtel app.

The PO will have the responsibility of owning the Group product strategy and roadmap, with a key role of prioritization of features and capabilities that are initiated internally by the Group team and various Operating Companies (OpCo's). This will include defining of the self service and sales journey design, product performance, architectural alignment, and user growth targets to achieve the overall Group’s Digital ambition to be the largest Digital platform and most active digital users.

Key Responsibilities

The role holder’s duties will include but not limited to:

Digital product strategy, planning, prioritization and execution.

• Be fully responsible for defining and executing the product vision and strategy as a subset of the overall Group Digital and Company strategy.
• The PO will have the responsibility of owning the Group product strategy and roadmap, prioritization of feature and capabilities that are initiated internally with the Group team and various OpCos, self service and sales journey design, product performance, architectural alignment, and user growth targets to achieve the overall Group’s Digital ambition to be the largest Digital platform and most active digital users.

Own product capabilities to support multiple anchor and secondary tenants. Own and direct business architecture and direction for SuperApp.

• As a self-service channel to the GSM and Airtel Money organization for 14 markets, the app is the primary digital product for self-service and is expected to evolve to a multi-tenanted platform (SuperApp) housing multiple different verticals such as Content, Shopping, Marketplaces, etc, in addition to the GSM and Wallet functionality.
• This requires the building of subject matter expertise on the product onboarding, registration, usage, KYC rules, fraud prevention, etc. and directing the shift of the technical plumbing from a single product to a multi-dimensional platform. The PO needs to scope global SuperApp best practice and stay abreast of modern technology, journey ideas, and capabilities to drive automation, a superb friction-free customer experience, and a focus on monetizing engagement from the Telco and Wallet interactions.

Define product and digital customer experience.

• Developing world-class digital customer experience and owning the product design responsibility (supported by UX Designers) for multiple consumer segments (using customer journey mapping and introducing more generative techniques of research).
• Monitor and measure adoption funnel performance and optimize journey, communication, messaging and all levers in funnel to attract and retain customers on digital channels and products.
• Custodian of app customer experience and optimization. Ensuring the digital channels are serving customers’ telco and content needs.
• Ensures the product families roadmaps are aligned to the outcomes expected for the quarterly and yearly targets.
• Manage the UX Designers, Business Analysts, Digital Analytics team members etc. dedicated to the product/platform to direct their priorities for ongoing optimization of conversion, sales funnel and ultimately customer adoption, retention and engagement.

Innovation and Content.

• Ability to spot customer, digital and market trends and understand seasonal cycles to develop new capabilities and future-proof product.
• Stays abreast of social media trends and uses reputable research/reports to understand digital profile of customers with a view of integrating the insights into product plans and platform roadmaps.

Manage Product and Platform Roadmap, Customer Opportunities and ensure optimal spend vis-à-vis budget and monitor performance against plan.

• Lead and steer product demand (Order-creator and order-taker) that is internal to digital teams and external from other divisions) and external opportunities and ability to balance short, medium and long term goals together with operational requirements of the Opcos, commercial and customer needs.
• Provide regular feedback and reporting to all stakeholders for delivery cadence, feature roadmaps, quarterly plans and strategy alignment.
• Evaluate, forecast and measure performance against plans.
• Lead the production of regular dashboard reports and distribute to executive management with analysis of major deviation from expected performance /digitization trends or issues.

Creation of highly effective Team.

• To ensure the functions objectives are delivered through a highly motivated and engaged team. Giving regular feedback and reviews to each team member as this plays a critical role in ensuring employees are engaged and deliver results, leading to lower attrition of people hence protecting talent.
• Develop a bench strength of future leaders through coaching, mentoring and guidance.

Academic and Qualifications and Experience.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or Marketing or like discipline
• An MBA with focus on Marketing/Emerging Markets (preferred by not required)
• Certifications or additional qualifications in Digital Marketing, Advertising, Business Administration, communications and management will be an added advantage

Relevant Experience

The ideal candidate should:

• Have at least 15 years working experience with 7 years or more in a senior management role in Telecoms/Digital/Social Media/Big Tech/Media/Retail industries
• Deep experience in SAFE/Agile Ways of work and managing squad, prioritization, roadmaps, defining user stories etc.
• Possess diverse experience in product ownership of digital channels/products and should demonstrate pervious success in driving results through own, team and cross-functional teams’ actions.
• Demonstrate ownership mentality and ensure outcomes are achieved.