Specialist: Customer Value Proposition - Development & Execution

Empowering Africa's financial future requires a deep understanding of customer needs and the ability to translate that insight into tangible value. Absa is seeking a specialist to drive the development and execution of customer value propositions (CVPs), a critical role for shaping the bank's strategic direction and commercial success. This is not an abstract strategy role; it's about bringing ideas to life, ensuring they are commercially viable, and ultimately delivering measurable positive outcomes for both customers and the organisation.

The successful candidate will essentially be the architect and conductor of a CVP's journey, from its nascent stages as an idea born from customer data and market analysis, through to its full implementation and ongoing optimisation. This involves a complex, cross-functional effort, requiring collaboration with a diverse array of departments including Product, Pricing, Marketing, Channels, Technology, Data, Operations, Finance, Risk, and Legal, as well as external partners. The ultimate goal is to transform strategic objectives into actionable roadmaps that resonate with customers and generate sustainable commercial advantage.

The Scope of the Role

Success in this position means moving beyond conceptual strategies to concrete, impactful propositions. You will be instrumental in synthesising customer advocacy, commercial analysis, and delivery integration. This involves taking raw insight and market potential and shaping it into unique propositions that stand out. You'll be responsible for crafting credible investment cases, defining clear requirements, and creating executable roadmaps that lead to tangible customer and commercial results.

The role encompasses the entire CVP lifecycle:

• **Opportunity Identification:** Pinpointing areas where new or improved value propositions can be developed.
• **Proposition Design:** Conceptualising what the value proposition will be, including its core components, benefits, and target audience.
• **Business Case Development:** Quantifying the potential commercial impact and justifying the investment required.
• **Prioritisation:** Determining which propositions to pursue based on strategic alignment and potential return.
• **Implementation Readiness:** Ensuring all necessary groundwork is laid for successful rollout.
• **Go-to-Market Activation:** Planning and executing the launch of the proposition.
• **Performance Optimisation:** Monitoring results and making adjustments to enhance effectiveness.

What You'll Do Day-to-Day

Your responsibilities will span strategic thinking, detailed analysis, and hands-on execution planning. You will be expected to develop robust CVP strategies for various customer segments, grounding them in a deep understanding of customer needs, "jobs-to-be-done," pain points, and key moments of interaction. This includes designing integrated propositions that seamlessly blend product features, pricing structures, reward mechanisms, customer journeys, service delivery, distribution channels, and communication strategies. Defining the core customer promise, identifying the target audience, articulating differentiation, and clearly outlining the value exchange and commercial rationale will be paramount, all while ensuring the integrity of the CVP is maintained throughout its lifecycle.

Furthermore, you'll be a key player in gathering and interpreting market intelligence and customer insights. This involves creating research briefs, synthesising qualitative and quantitative data, and analysing segmentation, personas, and competitor landscapes. This intelligence will then be translated into actionable proposition requirements, strategic recommendations, and prioritised opportunities.

A significant part of the role involves developing sophisticated commercial models. You will collaborate closely with Finance and Pricing teams to forecast potential outcomes, considering various investment scenarios. Defining expected benefits, securing funding, and overseeing cost allocation will also fall under your purview, alongside supporting the crucial process of benefits realisation.

Finally, you will be responsible for translating these strategies into actionable plans. This means creating prioritised roadmaps and workstreams that span proposition development, process improvements, marketing technology integration, data requirements, technology enhancements, and partner engagement. You will differentiate between quick wins and initiatives requiring substantial investment and lead cross-functional teams to ensure smooth delivery, managing risks, dependencies, and reporting to senior stakeholders.

What They're Looking For

To excel in this role, candidates should possess a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as Business, Commerce, Marketing, Economics, Finance, Strategy, Innovation, or Product Management. A postgraduate qualification would be an advantage. You should have approximately six to ten years of experience in areas like CVP development, segment or product management, customer experience design, commercial strategy, innovation, or consulting.

Crucially, you need proven experience in moving propositions from initial insight or concept through to approved roadmaps, implementation, launch, and optimisation. Experience in developing business cases, commercial models, customer journeys, and execution roadmaps, particularly within complex or regulated environments, is essential.

Key competencies include a strong grasp of CVP and proposition strategy, customer-centric design, and commercial acumen. You should demonstrate excellent execution discipline, prioritisation skills, programme governance understanding, and the ability to manage dependencies effectively. Strong analytical judgment, the capacity to interpret customer insights, and a data-driven decision-making approach are vital. Furthermore, the ability to influence senior stakeholders, lead cross-functional teams, and communicate effectively at an executive level is a must. Finally, a balanced approach to innovation that respects regulatory, operational, and customer protection requirements is necessary.

In South Africa, specialist roles in proposition development and commercial strategy are highly valued. While salaries vary significantly based on experience, company size, and specific responsibilities, roles of this nature can command competitive remuneration packages, often supplemented by performance-based bonuses. Major financial institutions like Absa, as well as other large corporates in sectors such as telecommunications and retail, are common employers for such expertise. The career path typically involves progression into senior management roles, leading larger teams or broader strategic portfolios.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor degree in Business, Commerce, Marketing, Economics, Finance, Strategy, Innovation, Product Management or related discipline; postgraduate qualification advantageous.
• Approximately 6-10 years relevant experience in CVP development, segment or product management, customer experience, commercial strategy, innovation or consulting.
• Experience moving propositions from insight or concept into approved roadmaps, implementation, launch or optimisation.
• Experience developing business cases, commercial models, customer journeys and execution roadmaps in a complex, preferably regulated, environment.

Core Competencies

• CVP and proposition strategy; customer-centred and lifecycle design; commercial acumen and business-case development.
• Execution discipline, prioritisation, programme governance and dependency management.
• Analytical judgement, customer insight interpretation and evidence-led decision-making.
• Senior stakeholder influence, cross-functional leadership and executive communication.
• Innovation balanced with regulatory, operational and customer-protection requirements.

Indicative Performance Measures

• Quality and timeliness of CVP strategies, proposition designs, business cases and decision artefacts.
• Progression of propositions from concept to approved roadmap, MVP, launch and optimisation.
• Improved onboarding, activation, engagement and customer experience, with reduced friction.
• Growth in acquisition, funded relationships, product attachment, revenue, deposits, retention and CLV; reduction in cost-to-serve.
• Effectiveness of collaboration, governance, dependency resolution and stakeholder confidence.

Key Deliverables

• CVP strategies, proposition canvases, customer value maps and segment opportunity assessments.
• Research briefs, insight synthesis, business cases, commercial models and investment scenarios.
• Customer journeys, service-model requirements, modular proposition architectures and prioritised roadmaps.
• Go-to-market plans, technology and marketing-technology briefs, partner assessments and executive pre-reads.
• Dashboards, performance reports, benefits-realisation and optimisation plans.

CVP Strategy & Proposition Development

• Develop segment and micro-segment CVP strategies grounded in customer needs, jobs-to-be-done, pain points and moments that matter.
• Design integrated propositions across product, pricing, rewards, benefits, customer journeys, servicing, distribution, communications and partnerships.
• Define the customer promise, target audience, differentiation, value exchange and commercial rationale, while maintaining CVP integrity across the lifecycle.

Customer Insight & Market Intelligence

• Develop research briefs and learning agendas; coordinate segmentation, personas, JTBD, willingness-to-pay, journey analysis and competitor benchmarking.
• Translate qualitative and quantitative evidence into proposition requirements, strategic recommendations and prioritised opportunities.
• Monitor emerging customer behaviours, market shifts, competitor activity and new value pools.

Commercial & Business-Case Development

• Build commercial models covering acquisition, activation, usage, pricing, product attachment, deposits, partner income, cost-to-serve, retention and customer lifetime value.
• Partner with Finance and Pricing to develop forecasts and MVP, accelerated and full-investment scenarios.
• Define expected benefits, funding requirements and cost-allocation approaches; support benefits realisation.

Execution Planning & Cross-Functional Delivery

• Translate strategy into a prioritised book of work and Now / Next / Later roadmap across proposition, process, marketing technology, data, technology and partners.
• Distinguish tactical opportunities and configuration or rule changes from initiatives requiring material technology investment.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery and maintain RAID, dependencies, decision logs, change control and executive reporting.
• Prepare decision papers and facilitate design workshops and governance gates.

Customer Journey, Service Model & Commercialisation

• Define end-to-end journeys across onboarding, activation, engagement, servicing, progression, complaints and retention.
• Shape service requirements across app, chat, contact centre, branch, external sales and partner channels, incorporating privacy, consent and customer protection.
• Partner with Marketing, Brand, CRM and Distribution on positioning, campaigns, activation journeys, sales enablement and customer education.
• Support pilots, launches and phased rollouts, aligning proposition readiness with operational capacity.

Lifecycle Engagement, Partnerships & Optimisation

• Define lifecycle triggers, moments that matter, next-best-actions and retention interventions.
• Use savings, education, rewards, protection and progression mechanics to build repeat usage and relationship depth.
• Identify and assess ecosystem partners across lifestyle, connectivity, education, insurance, investment and value-added services.

 

Performance Measurement

• Define CVP scorecards, common data definitions, dashboards and reporting routines with Data and Analytics.
• Track acquisition, onboarding conversion, funded and active customers, engagement, product attachment, revenue, cost-to-serve, retention, customer experience and CLV.
• Produce insight-led recommendations and coordinate remediation where performance is below expectation.

Education

Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised