Lesaka hosts first Lesaka ProductCon on 16 May 2024

Key takeouts from the day included these quotes from speakers and panellists:

1. "All product frameworks are good, only some are useful" ~ Rahul Sharma

2. "A product specialist delve deep into the technical details of a product while a product manager takes a broader approach strategy, the market needs as well as, which is probably the most important, the customer value. Both of these roles are essential components for the product development process and working together, they'll deliver outcomes that are successful for the organization." Morongwa Mangope

3. "A developer should operate within those guidelines advised by business, but they should have professional freedom to build the solution as they see fit. Don't tell your professionals what to do." Christel Van Zyl

4. "Don't be scared to change processes and structure, it takes courage from a Product Owner to change structure in a team. If something isn't working, look at it together as a team, change the way you work, change the way you peer review or QC, update your user stories or the way that you work with each other. Try something new, if it doesn't work, change it again. Don't be scared to learn and adapt.” ~ Christel Van Zyl

5. “The Product Manager is the conduit between business as a whole, the development team and the end delivery. You are steering the business in the right direction from a strategy perspective by knowing what's in the market and driving the business forward to a greater level of delivery.” ~ Brenden Markgraaff

6. “Culture of nurturing talent is vitally important when it comes to building successful teams and empowering people. It can't be a top down approach when it comes to growing a business, because people want to feel and know they make a difference and that they’re empowered to make their own decisions and will be supported when it counts.” ~ Drisha Kirkman

7. “Never ask your team to do something you've never done or won't do yourself. A manager should provide guidance and support and not be afraid of getting their hands dirty.” ~ Drisha Kirkman

8. “You can’t “game change” and you can’t do disruptive things if you're not solving problems and creating experiences that are simple, easy and long term.” ~ Miranda Perumal

9. “We should be focusing on how quick and easy it is for us as an organization or a product team or a business team to iterate thought and ideas, to evolve rapidly, based on what a customer or your consumer is telling you.” ~ Miranda Perumal

10. “Test and Measure.” ~ Sasha Knott

11. “We all forget this part - we try and do our thinking time at our desk with 10,000 emails running and whatsapps coming in and MS Teams and meetings. If you shut everything down, walked outside with a piece of paper and pen and no phone, you’d probably figure out the answer to the business problem.” ~ Sasha Knott

12. “The ultimate guide to marketing a product successfully, is actually teamwork.” ~ Jennifer Coetzee

13. “Putting the customer at the centre means that the most important thing is really being as iterative as possible in how we listen to the market and the art of being able to take and use feedback from our customers.” ~ Jennifer Coetzee

14. “The focus should always be on making the product so good that your customer will tell another customer and you can literally stand back and allow them to do the selling.” ~ Jennifer Coetzee

15. “You improve your customer retention when CX matters to you.” ~ Keith Marshall

16. “Word of mouth links experiences to repeat themselves.” ~ Keith Marshall.

Lesaka ProductCon 2024 speakers and panellists included:

Nalika Mahadeo, Nuraan Esmael, Steven Heilbron, Martin Wright, George Roussos, Basie K., Rahul Sharma, Morongwa Mangope, Christel van Zyl, Brenden Markgraaff, Drisha Kirkman, Miranda Perumal, Sasha Knott, Jennifer Coetzee, Keith Marshall

#Fintech #LesakaProductCon2024 #WeAreLesaka #Agile #FinancialInclusion