resume
Phil Zaayman
Product Manager | Payments, AI-Assisted Discovery & Digital Product Experience
I'm a Product Manager with experience across payments, FinTech, iGaming, casino, digital subscriptions, wallets, onboarding, reporting, CMS, VAS vending, e-learning, and back-office platforms.
I focus on user-facing payment experiences, checkout certainty, orchestration, reconciliation, trust, signal-led product discovery, delivery-ready product work, and product ownership.
I use AI tools to support product discovery, research, synthesis, structured thinking, requirements drafting, product documentation, prototyping, and clearer product decisions.
I am strong at moving product work from unclear signals into scoped requirements, aligned backlogs, delivery-ready user stories, acceptance criteria, and clearer cross-functional decisions.
I have experience working with distributed product, engineering, UX, QA, compliance, commercial, marketing, support, finance, operations, and external payment-provider teams.
Target roles
Product Manager / Product OwnerPayments Product ManagerDigital Product ManagerAI-Assisted Product Discovery
Role fit
I am best suited to Product Manager, Product Owner, Payments Product Manager, Digital Product Manager, and AI-assisted discovery roles where the work involves clarifying messy signals, shaping delivery-ready requirements, aligning stakeholders, and improving payment or platform experiences.
My strongest fit is in teams working across payments, FinTech, digital product experience, customer and merchant experience, checkout certainty, orchestration, reconciliation, wallets, onboarding, reporting, iGaming, casino, sportsbook, or digital subscription ecosystems.
What I bring
I help teams turn signals into clearer product decisions.
That usually means understanding customer, merchant, support, operational, product, and data inputs; naming the problem clearly; shaping requirements; aligning stakeholders; and helping product, engineering, UX, QA, compliance, and commercial teams move with less ambiguity.
I am strongest where product work sits between business context, platform constraints, user needs, payment operations, delivery-ready requirements, backlog alignment, and delivery readiness.
Current focus
- User-facing payment experiences
- Checkout certainty, orchestration, reconciliation, and trust
- AI-assisted discovery, research, product documentation, and prototyping
- Signal reviews across customer, merchant, support, operational, product, and data inputs
- Product discovery, roadmaps, requirements, and delivery alignment
- Delivery-ready requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and backlog alignment
Core skills
Product discovery
Product strategy
Product ownership
Roadmap planning
Opportunity framing
Backlog shaping
Backlog refinement
Product requirements
User stories
Acceptance criteria
Product briefs
Product documentation
Product analytics
AI-assisted research
AI-assisted discovery support
Synthesis
Requirements drafting
Ideation
Prototyping
Structured analysis
Payment acceptance
User-facing payment experiences
Checkout certainty
Orchestration
Reconciliation
Wallets
Onboarding
Payment integrations
Transaction platforms
Delivery readiness
Cross-functional delivery
Stakeholder alignment
UX collaboration
QA collaboration
Compliance alignment
Agile delivery
Selected product highlights
- Product Manager focused on payment acceptance, user-facing payment experiences, checkout certainty, orchestration, reconciliation, trust, and delivery-ready product work.
- Delivery-focused Product Owner experience turning discovery signals, stakeholder needs, and operational constraints into delivery-ready requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and backlog decisions.
- Delivered product work across FinTech, iGaming, payments, wallets, onboarding, reporting, CMS, VAS vending, e-learning, casino, sportsbook, and digital subscription ecosystems.
- Used customer, merchant, support, operational, product, and data signals to clarify problems, shape requirements, and support product decisions.
- Worked with distributed teams across product, engineering, UX, QA, marketing, support, finance, compliance, commercial, operations, and external payment providers.
- Defined product requirements, user stories, process flows, prototypes, back-office functionality, payment integrations, product documentation, and delivery-ready specifications across multiple platforms.
- Used AI tools to support research, synthesis, discovery, requirements drafting, product documentation, ideation, prototyping, and structured analysis.
Professional experience
Ozow (Pty) Ltd
Product Manager: Payment Acceptance
Aug 2023 – Present · Remote
Product Manager in payment acceptance, focused on user-facing payment experiences, checkout certainty, orchestration, reconciliation, trust, and delivery-ready product work.
- Work includes roadmap priorities, customer and merchant needs, business goals, compliance requirements, technical constraints, operational context, product discovery, UX collaboration, stakeholder alignment, and delivery capacity.
- Translate customer feedback, merchant signals, product metrics, stakeholder input, and market context into problem statements, delivery-ready user stories, requirements, acceptance criteria, and backlog decisions.
- Use AI tools to support product discovery, research synthesis, structured thinking, product documentation, requirements drafting, and prototyping.
- Keep stakeholders aligned through clear communication of product priorities, progress, risks, trade-offs, and upcoming decisions.
Self-Employed
Product Management Consultant
Nov 2018 – Jul 2023 · Remote
Worked independently with startups and established digital businesses across product strategy, discovery, requirements definition, backlog shaping, roadmap planning, delivery support, payment flows, onboarding, reporting, and back-office systems.
- Industries: iGaming, casino, FinTech, informal retail, payments, e-learning, and VAS vending.
- Supported delivery-focused product ownership by turning business goals, stakeholder needs, and customer signals into clearer product direction, usable requirements, delivery documentation, aligned backlogs, and cross-functional delivery decisions.
– Casino777.nl
Contract / Freelance Product Manager
Remote
- Shaped and managed the product roadmap for user-facing casino functionality, with a focus on onboarding, payments, localisation, CMS optimisation, and customer journey improvements.
- Translated product goals into user stories, requirements, prototypes, process documentation, and delivery-ready specifications for remote technical, QA, design, payments, back-office, and marketing teams.
- Monitored onboarding and payment funnel performance to identify friction, support optimisation decisions, and improve customer experience across multiple languages.
- Supported ongoing CMS changes and localisation improvements to keep product content, promotions, and user journeys aligned across markets.
- Worked with payment partners on payment integrations, including PayPal, PaySafeCard, and InPay.
– Go121 / Flash Group
Contract Product Manager / Business Analyst
Hybrid / Remote
- Helped define and deliver customer-centric FinTech product capabilities across onboarding, payments, wallets, transaction flows, reporting, training, and back-office functionality.
- Converted customer, market, and competitor insight into product requirements, process flows, transaction diagrams, and delivery documentation.
- Mapped user lifecycle journeys across onboarding, payments, training, transactions, product catalogue management, and e-learning content.
- Worked across the full engagement stack, including front end, back end, database, CMS, third-party integrations, and operational reporting.
- Collaborated with remote design, development, marketing, support, usability, and stakeholder teams to move product ideas from concept through testing and delivery.
- Supported back-end and front-end testing to validate functionality, identify gaps, and improve release readiness.
– BetOnline.ag, SportsBetting.ag, TigerGaming.com, Wild Casino
Digital Product Manager
Remote
- Managed digital product work across sportsbook, poker, and casino platforms for both mobile and web experiences.
- Balanced end-user experience and back-office operational needs across product roadmap, backlog, stakeholder requirements, and delivery priorities.
- Gathered stakeholder input and user feedback to identify product improvements, clarify requirements, and support roadmap decisions.
- Worked with globally distributed design, development, and QA teams to deliver improvements across player-facing and internal product areas.
Showmax / MultiChoice
Senior Business & Product Analyst
Feb 2017 – Dec 2018 · Johannesburg, South Africa
Initial role: Operations Product Manager.
- Analysed digital products, internal systems, operational processes, and third-party integrations to identify product gaps, delivery opportunities, and areas of customer or business friction.
- Worked with Finance, HR, Partner, Product, and development teams to gather requirements, shape solutions, and prioritise improvements aligned to business goals.
- Managed Africa roadmap inputs and helped integrate regional priorities into central product and development streams.
- Developed business cases for features, enhancements, and operational improvements to support prioritisation and stakeholder decision-making.
- Supported payment and billing improvements across credit and debit cards, vouchers, discount codes, and in-app payment integrations.
- Worked with CRM teams on retention tooling, including Mandrill and Braze, to support customer engagement and lifecycle communication.
- Managed relationships with third-party software providers, payment providers, banks, and service partners, including CyberSource, FiServ, First Data, PayU, and iPay.
- Analysed, sourced, and supported implementation of an HR onboarding app to improve internal onboarding processes and user experience.
Verpakt Management Services
Product Manager Casino
May 2015 – Jan 2017 · Johannesburg, South Africa
- Led product management for player-facing and back-office casino experiences across Vegas Partner Lounge, supporting eight brands across multiple platforms.
- Represented Product at Exco level as Head of Product, bringing product priorities, customer experience, platform needs, and delivery considerations into senior decision-making.
- Focused on player experience improvements across acquisition, retention, UX, localisation, and platform optimisation.
- Worked closely with UX, design, development, and QA teams to shape, refine, and deliver new product features.
- Used competitive research and industry analysis to identify product opportunities and inform roadmap decisions.
- Managed localisation requirements across different markets, including regulatory, language, and product experience considerations.
- Coordinated daily scrums and stand-ups across design, development, and QA teams to maintain delivery focus and remove blockers.
- Managed relationships with software suppliers and third-party product and payment providers.
- Led junior product managers, business analysts, and QA team members across product delivery and operational support.
Derivco
Back-Office and Third Party Product Manager
Oct 2008 – Apr 2015 · Durban, South Africa
- Managed back-office and third-party product capabilities supporting acquisition, marketing, integrations, and operational platform needs.
- Owned product roadmaps, functional specifications, wireframes, specification reviews, and product documentation across the product lifecycle.
- Worked with clients and internal teams to understand product performance, track KPIs, manage issues, and recommend practical alternatives or improvements.
- Supported integration of land-based products into cloud-based back-office platforms, helping bridge legacy operational needs with newer digital product environments.
- Collaborated across product, client, technical, and third-party teams to clarify requirements, resolve product gaps, and support delivery of back-office platform improvements.
Earlier Career
Marketing, Digital Strategy & Customer Experience
Jan 1990 – Sep 2008
- ThoughtCorp — Interactive Marketing Consultant
- TBWA — Digital Strategic Planner
- IBM SA — Systems Marketing Planner
- Microsoft SA — Customer Service Manager
- M-Net / MultiChoice Direct Response — Direct Marketing Representative
Domains
PaymentsFinTechDigital Product ExperienceUser-Facing Payment ExperiencesCustomer ExperienceMerchant ExperiencePayment AcceptanceCheckout CertaintyOrchestrationReconciliationiGamingCasinoSportsbookDigital SubscriptionsWalletsOnboardingReportingCMSVAS VendingE-learningBack-office PlatformsAPIsAnalytics
Tools
JiraAzure DevOpsConfluenceJira Product DiscoveryAsanaTrelloMonday.comGoogle AnalyticsAmplitudeFullStoryCrazy EggMixpanelTableauPower BIKibanaDatabricksDataDogFigmaFigJamMiroBalsamiqDraw.ioLucidchartAdobe Creative CloudChatGPTClaudeSQLHTMLCSSREST APIsCMS platformsSlackMicrosoft TeamsGoogle Workspace
Education
- 2002 – 2003 — M.Phil. Information Technology — University of Johannesburg
- 1994 – 1995 — B.Com Honours Marketing Management — UJ / RAU
- 1990 – 1993 — B.Com Marketing Management — UJ / RAU
Certifications & continuous learning
- Certified Scrum Product Owner — Scrum Alliance
- IQBBA Certified Foundation Level Business Analyst
- Product Strategy & Brand Management — Wits Business School
- Strategic Planning Certificate — AAA School of Advertising
- Artificial Intelligence Micro-Certification — Product School
- Product Strategy Micro-Certification — Product School
- FinTech Product Management / Digital Payments — Udemy
- AI, Data Models, APIs & Product Management — Continuous Learning