Shipped Snug Tonight on the App Store
Took an idea through discovery, design, build, App Store launch, and into production iteration. v1.0.1 is live with crash reporting, retry-resilient cloud writes, and 100% accessibility coverage.
Business & Digital Transformation Leader · Product & Martech Enablement · Operational Excellence
Hi, I'm Katlego Phokela
Senior Manager: Martech Enablement at Absa, currently leading Martech enablement. I built Snug Tonight on the side — it's live on the App Store. And I'm doing my PhD in Information Systems on top of it all. Ten years in financial services, mostly figuring out how tech can fix processes that don't quite work.
- 10+ years Financial services
- PhD in progress Information Systems
- SAFe PO/PM Salesforce certified
Open to senior PM roles · remote, hybrid, or relocation
Impact
Outcomes I'm proud of
A snapshot of what I've shipped, who I've worked with, and the discipline I bring to Martech enablement and process re-engineering.
- 10+ Years in financial services Absa · Nedbank · FNB · PwC
- 7 PM lifecycle stages shipped Discovery → Measure & iterate
- 1 App live on the App Store Snug Tonight, built solo
- 6 Industry certifications SAFe PO/PM, Salesforce, Lean Six Sigma BB
Rebuilt campaign operations on Salesforce
Mapped a broken cross-team process spread across Salesforce, Outlook, and Excel — then designed and built a Phase 1 PoC: 3 custom objects, 3 Flows, complexity scoring, auto-assignment, and SLA tracking. Agentforce planned for Phase 2.
Bridged process engineering and product
Brought Lean Six Sigma rigour into product discovery — turning manual, undocumented work into to-be processes that engineering can actually build against.
"I bridge business and technology — combining product thinking, technical fluency, and stakeholder leadership."
10+
Years building digital products in financial services
What I do
How I help teams ship
Three things you can hand to me on day one — strategy, delivery, and the cross-functional glue that turns roadmap ideas into adopted product.
Product Strategy & Roadmapping
Defining what to build and why. I own product roadmaps, prioritise backlogs, and coordinate releases with engineering — from discovery through delivery. SAFe PO/PM certified.
- Discovery
- Backlog
- Releases
- OKRs
Platform & Digital Product Delivery
Building and launching digital products on UiPath, Camunda, Salesforce, and mobile. I turn user problems into shipped solutions that deliver measurable outcomes.
- UiPath
- Camunda
- Salesforce
- Mobile
Cross-Functional Leadership
Working across engineering, design, data, and business stakeholders to align teams around shared goals. I drive adoption, run UAT, and make sure what we build actually gets used.
- Stakeholders
- UAT
- Adoption
- Enablement
Featured work 
Selected projects
Two projects that show how I work — one consumer mobile product I shipped solo, one platform enablement build inside a bank.
Live on the App Store
Snug Tonight
A smart sleep clothing guide for parents
Shipped end-to-end — research, design, build, App Store launch, and ongoing iteration. v1.0.1 is live with crash reporting, retry-resilient cloud writes, and 100% accessibility coverage.
- Solo PM + build
- 7 PM stages
- iOS App Store live
PM Portfolio Project
Campaign Ops Optimisation
Salesforce + Agentforce campaign operations
Mapped a broken cross-team process and built a Salesforce PoC: 3 custom objects, 3 Flows, complexity scoring, auto-assignment, and SLA tracking. Phase 2 brings Agentforce.
- 3 objects
- 3 Flows
- SLA + auto-assign
Experience
My work history
Ten years across process engineering, platform delivery, and Martech enablement in financial services. Full detail is in the CV.
-
Senior Manager: Martech Enablement
Current roleAbsa — Private and Personal Banking, Customer
Jun 2025 – Present
-
Senior Business Process Optimisation Manager
Absa — Business Banking, Operations
Jan 2025 – May 2025
-
Lead Process Engineer
Absa — Personal and Private Banking, Life Insurance
Apr 2022 – Dec 2024
-
Senior Process Engineer
Nedbank — Corporate Investment Banking, Business Process Improvements
Oct 2021 – Apr 2022
-
Business Process Engineer
First National Bank — Intelligent Data and Analytics, Customer Experience
Feb 2020 – Sep 2021
-
Early career — Associate, COBOL Developer Trainee, Process Engineer
PwC · First National Bank · Absa
Jan 2015 – Feb 2020
CV
Education, certifications & capabilities
Ten years of formal study running alongside ten years in industry — from a BCom in Information Systems through a PhD in progress.
Education
PhD, Information Systems
University of South Africa
MCom, IT Management
University of Johannesburg
BCom Honours, Information Systems
University of the Witwatersrand
BCom, Information Systems
North-West University
Certifications
Core competencies
Awards & recognition
- Absa Life Business Enablement Top Performer 2024
- Wits Postgraduate Merit Award Academic
- UJ Golden Key Member Academic
- Ignite Her Women in Leadership Cohort 2024
Languages
English · Tsonga · Setswana
Download full CV (PDF)
No tracking, no email gate — straight to PDF.
Get in touch Email
Let's talk product
I'm open to senior PM roles — remote, hybrid, or relocation. The fastest way to reach me is email or LinkedIn.
mabunda.katlego@gmail.com
Location
Johannesburg, South Africa
Open to remote, hybrid, and relocation