product · payments · customer-led thinking

Phil Zaayman.

Most product work starts too late. By the time a team frames an opportunity, the original customer signal is often three steps removed — filtered through support, summarised in a ticket, and reframed as a feature request. Something real gets lost.

how i thinkget in touch →

about

I work in product at Ozow, focused on payments and merchant experience. My work is about getting closer to the problem before teams commit to the solution.

I'm drawn to the early part of product work: understanding what is really happening, separating evidence from assumption, and helping teams build enough shared context to make better decisions.

I care about product work that is honest, specific, and useful. I'd rather name a real problem clearly than frame a vague opportunity impressively.

what i'm working on now

  • ·Building merchant-facing payment experiences at Ozow
  • ·Exploring customer-led product frameworks that connect signals to outcomes
  • ·Thinking about payment certainty, checkout conversion, orchestration, and merchant trust
  • ·Building philz.co.za as my public source of truth
  • ·Using Claude Code and AI tools to write, prototype, and think faster

last updated: May 2026

how i think about product

signal→problem→insight→opportunity→validation→outcome

Most product problems are not hard because the solution is complicated. They are hard because the problem has not been named clearly enough.

I'm interested in the work before the roadmap: finding the pattern, understanding the tension, framing the opportunity, and making the assumptions visible.

Good product work creates shared understanding. When that happens, the right solution usually becomes easier to see.

journey in product

My product journey has moved through digital gaming, entertainment, fintech, payments, and merchant experience — usually in the space between customer experience, operational systems, business constraints, and buildable product decisions.

I started in back-office and third-party product management, working on platform tools, roadmaps, specifications, KPI feedback loops, and integrations. From there, I moved into player-facing and back-office product experiences, including UX improvements, localisation, supplier relationships, payments, and cross-functional delivery.

Later, I worked across digital entertainment, fintech, informal retail, e-learning, and VAS vending — helping teams shape product strategy, onboarding flows, wallet and reporting functionality, payment integrations, and delivery documentation.

Today, I work in payments, focused on money-in experiences, product strategy, roadmap planning, UX collaboration, stakeholder alignment, KPIs, and continuous improvement.

The consistent thread is practical product work: turning real-world signals into usable, measurable outcomes.

education & certifications

University of Johannesburg (RAU)

B.Com Marketing Management, 1990–1993

Foundations in marketing, consumer behaviour, business management, and strategic thinking.

University of Johannesburg (RAU)

B.Com Honours Marketing Management, 1994–1995

Advanced studies in marketing strategy, business analysis, and commercial decision-making.

AAA School of Advertising

Strategic Planning Certification, 1996

Developed skills in strategic planning, customer insight, market positioning, and brand strategy.

University of Johannesburg

M.Phil Information Technology, 2002–2003

Bridged business and technology through information systems, digital transformation, and technology management.

Wits Business School

Product Strategy & Brand Management, 2010

Strengthened expertise in product strategy, value propositions, market positioning, and product lifecycle management.

Scrum Alliance

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), 2013

Formalised Agile product ownership skills, backlog management, stakeholder alignment, and value-driven delivery.

Continuous Learning

Product, AI & FinTech Specialisation, 2018–2025

Continuous development in Business Analysis (IQBBA), Product Management, FinTech, Digital Payments, Product Strategy, AI, APIs, Analytics, and Generative AI.

things i'm thinking about

Canonical Balance

How can finance and reconciliation users understand the story behind a number — what changed, why it changed, and what needs attention?

Customer Signal → Product Opportunity

A lightweight way to move from raw input to a named problem, framed opportunity, and testable assumption.

Product Environment Scanning

A shared habit for tracking external shifts in payments, merchant behaviour, and technology so product teams make decisions with better context.

beyond product

Outside of product work, I have a soft spot for obscure 80s big hair rock and building things that feel genuinely useful. I do my thinking on trail runs, enjoy learning, and am drawn to problems that do not have obvious answers.

I also volunteer at the Friends of the South African Air Force Museum.

toolkit

product

  • Discovery
  • Opportunity framing
  • Customer signals
  • Product briefs
  • Roadmap thinking

payments

  • Merchant experience
  • Reconciliation
  • Payout flows
  • Cash flow visibility
  • Trust

ways of working

  • Customer-led frameworks
  • Discovery briefs
  • Stakeholder alignment
  • Support-ticket insight reviews
  • Product reviews

tools

  • Claude Code
  • AI-assisted prototyping
  • Analytics
  • Lightweight research
  • Structured thinking

connect

If you want to talk about product, payments, customer-led discovery, or building useful things on the internet — you can find me here.

linkedingithubPNZ