Head of Platform Operations at Wasoko

This is Wasoko’s opportunity. Wasoko with its brand, scale and logistics network is best positioned to build the technology-leveraged rails to serve the 1+ billion African consumers through informal retailers. We are building a digital-first operating system for informal retailers, initially focusing on B2B distribution but quickly incorporating other tools and services to help communities across Africa get more for less.

Background

• Wasoko is moving to a 100% app-based, unassisted business model with field and non-field ops to support
• While the product roadmap is being developed, there is a need to help on feeding business specs into the same e.g. tracking/events, SDKs, features etc. and to follow up on the timely build and QA from the business end
• After the product features are built, one will need to create business governance around the funnel [GPS visits > installs > signups > segment movement from ELC to MLC to EOLC > churn etc.] and the sessions [app-open > find [browse / search] > add-to-cart > checkout > delivery > repeat] etc. - one will also need to conduct analyses to isolate the effect of various UX [on / off app] on performance.
• One needs to flag conversions/drop-offs, diagnose RCAs, close-loop with the product team on fixed and report back on the next steps/progress.
• One needs to spec out and build cases for resourcing areas like Web, SEO [dependent on Web], SEM [dependent on SEO], ASO, ORM, tools like CRM, MMPs, Fraud-filters etc.

Skills / Experience

The ideal candidate should have:

• Comfortable creating roadmaps prioritized by impact and effort and maintaining a balance between thought and action.
• Product/engineering + Business knowledge for prioritizing basic effort and impact
• Knowledge of the eCommerce business and stack, best practices, competitive benchmarking, UX research and basic design
• A working understanding of public stacks, libraries and tools available that can help us hack together solutions fast [vs. always building ground up]
• Excellent cross-functional working relationships and matrix navigation, often using influence to lead
• Knowledge of the Wasoko business and stack is helpful
• Comfortable with ambiguity, o to 1 build, capability to see the big picture and the transition from now to then

Key KPI’s

• Coordinate inputs for the drafting of the 2023 roadmap for a] merchant app b] backend tools c] BI & reporting; to be revised every quarter
• Execution of the agreed roadmap, flagging & escalating delays, implementation of workarounds to mitigate business impact
• Scoping and specing a] Fraud engine b] Loyalty c] Freelancer flows and new asks from time to time
• Build an experiment setup and governance for measurement and improvement of UX [search, browse, properties [e.g. deals, trending, recommended etc.] ranking, in-app merchandising, notifications, off-app notifications e.g. SMS, Whatsapp etc.
• Overall outcome metrics e.g. GMV / Customer, Session Conversion [GMV / Session, checkout / app-open], Funnel Conversion [10D FT2T, Churn from X% to Y%], user activity [CIB/EIB, MAU/EIB, DAU/MAU etc.] and flag edge-cases for RCA.
• Be the control tower on everything that changes and impacts customer traction or experience on the app.