Yanju Lawal

EduCollect is an education finance marketplace connecting funders to borrowers to provide access to educational loans without collateral and at relatively low-interest rates. The goal is to bridge the gap between demand for and access to quality education. I championed the definition and execution of the product delivery roadmap and growth-hack strategy.

I actively collaborated with various internal and external stakeholders to coordinate the entire product development lifecycle, including strategic planning, requirements analysis, QA testing, and product launch. I then facilitated the go-to-market strategy while providing technical guidance on achieving customer satisfaction.

I also led sprint planning sessions, daily stand-ups, backlog grooming, and sprint retrospective sessions. I conducted usability testing, user interviews, and surveys to gather customer insight for rapid iterations due to my sophisticated understanding of customer motivation and a knack for proactively driving go-to-market strategies and achieving product-market fit.

In addition, I provided personalized training, coaching, and mentorship to a team of product officers and business analysts to ensure their professional and personal development.

Advancly is a loan services platform that offers lenders and non-lenders a 100% digital loan application, automated risk assessment, liquidity, servicing, and repayment tracking solution in a B2B2C approach. I managed the product from the ground up and successfully achieved product-market fit within the first few months of the MVP launch, which rapidly attained a growth stage with an increased market share within six months.

The ability to support customers to make the right decision at the right speed was an essential part of the platform, which required integrations with payment gateways, data validation service, credit decision engine, know-your-customer (KYC) integrations, and credit bureaus. Furthermore, I also managed the engagements with third-party providers, ensuring no blockers during and after integration.

I collaborated with the business leaders and CTO to ensure that the platform was adequately positioned to support the key players within the lending ecosystem: funder, aggregator, OEM/supplier, and borrowers. I also worked with the design lead to instill a rapid design, test-and-learn approach, which saved development time as most iterations were done at the design stage.

AXA Mansard is a member of the AXA Group that offers a range of financial products. The web platform called MyAXA Web is a self-service platform for the purchase and management of insurance, investment, and healthcare plans. The overall goal of the revamp was to redesign and upgrade the platform to newer technology and improve user experience and customer satisfaction.

I defined the product strategy, scope, requirement, and execution roadmap. I also oversaw the implementation by working closely with cross-functional teams and relevant stakeholders (internal/external) to deliver the product objectives. I then designed the onboarding, pre, during, and post-purchase process flows and collaborated with the design lead to successfully align with new global brand guidelines while improving the user experience, discoverability, and overall performance.

I also managed engagements with third-party service providers, business expansion partnerships, and the global team. I followed up by conducting surveys to gather customer insight for rapid iterations. Finally, I also handled the requirements analysis, user acceptance testing, usability testing, user interviews, and creating a detailed go-live plan.

AXA Mansard's Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform—sometimes referred to as quick codes or feature codes—is a communication protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with preferred service providers without using the internet. I was tasked with the scope definition, requirement gathering, process flow definition, content development, user testing, and application development management.

I led the end-to-end product strategy, execution, and launch of the financial inclusion application, which helped to deliver AXA Mansard's financial services, such as insurance, investment, etc., to low-income customers, especially those in remote areas with limited internet service.

The code served as a great tool to help customers solve location and access problems. Users can buy new products and policies, renew existing policies and make payments for value-added services by dialing *987# from their mobile phones, even without the internet.

The VigiLearn exam portal is an offline and online computer-based test (CBT) examination platform that helps institutions conduct assessments and examinations remotely, a significant need due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I led the requirements gathering from institutions, scope definition, implementation, and launch of the MVP in one sprint. I conducted product discovery interviews with key players and developed an execution roadmap for subsequent releases.

I applied the Agile methodology to manage a team of developers and product designers to ensure timely delivery. I also facilitated the sprint planning sessions, daily stand-ups, and sprint retrospective sessions.

Coach Idris is a digital platform that provides automated, algorithm-driven investment and insurance advisory services without human interaction. It collects information about their finance and future goals through an online survey and then uses the data to advise them automatically–directing them to the right products in minutes.

I was fully accountable for the requirements gathering, ideation workshops, scope definition, algorithm document, custom content development, technical specifications, and execution plan. I actively collaborated with various internal and external stakeholders to coordinate the product development lifecycle, testing, and iterations. Lastly, I also led the product launch plan.

MyAXA Plus app is a three-in-one self-service platform for purchasing and managing insurance, investment, and healthcare plans. The goal is to offer a convenient way to manage health plans, insurance policies, and investments while delivering a seamless pre, during, and post-purchase experience within one application.

I managed the entire product development lifecycle, including planning, requirements gathering, design thinking sessions, customer interviews, competitor analysis, wireframing, user testing, and validation.

I also facilitated the go-to-market strategy while providing technical guidance on achieving optimal user experience. In addition, I led sprint planning sessions, daily standups, backlog grooming, and sprint retrospective sessions.

I-invest is the first-ever app in Nigeria that enables customers to securely purchase and manage treasury bills, Eurobonds, and equities directly from their mobile devices without needing any banking officials, paper documents, or forms to fill.

I oversaw the product redesign and partnered with the design lead to achieve a user-centric interface design. I initiated market research initiatives, competitor analysis, product review, and analysis. I then conducted usability testing and customer validation. In addition, I introduced agile delivery, product discovery, and metrics-driven product management into the product development process.