Since I’ve worked in Africa I’ve had the opportunity to lead strategic partnerships teams. I led the first integration of a bank into JUMO’s savings and loans platform, effectively kicking off our pivot into a marketplace. After that, I led…
I hear this a lot from product manager blogs and people who read them. I think it’s a bit contrived, honestly. Delight means great pleasure, or something incredibly pleasing, and I’m cynical enough that I think we should seek delight…
Lots of people recommend Robert Cialdini’s book Influence, The Art of Persuasion. I read it a few years ago and I liked it. I’m revisiting it now with a different perspective, and the first couple chapters are great. I think…
This story is actually one of mine. Before I moved to JUMO I was Head of Product for a company I cofounded in Tanzania. We ended up building a great prototype which we dog fooded around the streets of Dar…
Telco operators (MNOs) across Africa are experiencing declining revenues in their core businesses. Generally, in the past seven years, OTT players have taken up to 40% of the market in messaging, 25% in fixed voice, and 7% in mobile voice.…
This week’s mental model is pulled directly from the great Shane Parish. His weekend post on “knowledge compounding” is similar to how I’m structuring my year. This year over each quarter I am doing a ‘crash course’ in some topic…
Last week I wrote about the struggling Nigerian eCommerce companies. QZ had recently put out on article stating that there were several eCommerce companies either shutting down or downsizing. It’s compelling. There doesn’t seem to be product market fit yet,…
I’ve started reading about behavioral economics. The first book I picked out is Misbehaving by Richard Thaler. He says that the foundational principle for behavioral economics is the endowment effect. I’m thinking a lot about that these days. Here’s a…
Yesterday’s post on the eCommerce success story of Indonesia sparked a lot of thought on how Africa can achieve the same success. There have been a few major eCommerce success stories in Africa, but those are mostly isolated to South…
The McKinsey report on eCommerce in Indonesia is a great read for anyone interested in how a logistical nightmare of a country is leapfrogging traditional commerce to move into the digital age. Have a read here. This year I’m doing…