<h2>About the Role</h2>We are looking for a Senior Growth Product Manager to own Zeraki's Customer Development portfolio and the system behind it. Reporting to the CEO, you will decide — with the CEO — which customer and market opportunities deserve learning investment, run the operating system through which they are tested, personally lead the most consequential initiatives, and build a team of Growth Product Managers to lead the rest. This is Zeraki's senior role for turning uncertain opportunities into evidence-grounded products and repeatable growth models. You will sit in the company's executive decision forums as the person accountable for the quality of evidence behind major Product and commercial commitments.<h2>Requirements</h2> What You Will Do 01 Frame opportunities and business-model hypotheses · 15% of role Good looks like: the team knows the decision being made, what must be true and the smallest responsible next commitment. <ul><li>Turn broad ideas, customer signals and growth ambitions into explicit Customer Development initiatives with clear boundaries.</li><li>Separate strategic, Product and commercial uncertainties, and find the critical, least-supported assumptions.</li><li>Build the full causal model: customer, problem, earlyvangelist, value, buyer and payer roles, alternatives, Market Type, offer, price, channel, delivery, collections and viability.</li></ul>Turn broad ideas, customer signals and growth ambitions into explicit Customer Development initiatives with clear boundaries.Separate strategic, Product and commercial uncertainties, and find the critical, least-supported assumptions.Build the full causal model: customer, problem, earlyvangelist, value, buyer and payer roles, alternatives, Market Type, offer, price, channel, delivery, collections and viability. 02 Lead Customer Discovery and find early markets · 20% of role Good looks like: the team can explain which customers feel the problem most, what they do now, what triggers action and who decides. <ul><li>Design a proportionate discovery plan with Design, Research, Product, Sales, Account Management and Data.</li><li>Study recent incidents and real behaviour, not abstract opinions; map the full buying system, budget and procurement.</li><li>Qualify earlyvangelists on behaviour and buying conditions, and give Sales and Data the locating variables to find more of them.</li></ul>Design a proportionate discovery plan with Design, Research, Product, Sales, Account Management and Data.Study recent incidents and real behaviour, not abstract opinions; map the full buying system, budget and procurement.Qualify earlyvangelists on behaviour and buying conditions, and give Sales and Data the locating variables to find more of them. 03 Lead Customer Validation and build the sales roadmap · 25% of role Good looks like: every important deal produces progress, learning or a clear reason to disqualify or revise. <ul><li>With the Validation Sales Lead, define learning questions, the earlyvangelist cohort, proof, offer, price and promise boundaries.</li><li>Join selected customer conversations, debrief material interactions and compare wins, losses and delays.</li><li>Turn transactions into a teachable sales roadmap — trigger to initial value — and test it across customers, sellers and sales cycles.</li></ul>With the Validation Sales Lead, define learning questions, the earlyvangelist cohort, proof, offer, price and promise boundaries.Join selected customer conversations, debrief material interactions and compare wins, losses and delays.Turn transactions into a teachable sales roadmap — trigger to initial value — and test it across customers, sellers and sales cycles. 04 Develop pricing, packaging and economics · 15% of role Good looks like: an attractive headline never hides discounting, non-payment, custom work, heavy sales effort or hidden manual operations. <ul><li>With Finance, Product and Sales, test packaging, basis of charge, price ranges, terms, payment structures and channel economics.</li><li>Track the difference between hypothesised, quoted, contracted, realised and collected price.</li><li>Make sure the official economic model reflects real customer and operating evidence.</li></ul>With Finance, Product and Sales, test packaging, basis of charge, price ranges, terms, payment structures and channel economics.Track the difference between hypothesised, quoted, contracted, realised and collected price.Make sure the official economic model reflects real customer and operating evidence. 05 Lead Customer Creation and hand over to execution · 15% of role Good looks like: marketing is judged from audience through to commercial commitment — not by reach or lead volume. <ul><li>With the Marketing Lead, confirm the Market Type, positioning, proof and definition of qualified demand, and design bounded demand tests.</li><li>Connect generated demand into the validated sales roadmap and read the full conversion chain.</li><li>When a model is understood well enough, hand it over with the approved customer, offer, price, roadmap, measures, open assumptions and re-entry triggers.</li></ul>With the Marketing Lead, confirm the Market Type, positioning, proof and definition of qualified demand, and design bounded demand tests.Connect generated demand into the validated sales roadmap and read the full conversion chain.When a model is understood well enough, hand it over with the approved customer, offer, price, roadmap, measures, open assumptions and re-entry triggers. 06 Run decisions and the operating rhythm · 10% of role Good looks like: Zeraki can reconstruct what it believed, what evidence arrived, what changed and why it acted. <ul><li>Keep Product, Sales and Marketing working from one customer and value hypothesis while respecting Product authority.</li><li>Run synthesis sessions, deal learning reviews and phase reviews; keep decision records current.</li><li>Write recommendations that state the conclusion, supporting and contrary evidence, accepted uncertainty, alternatives and the next bounded commitment.</li></ul>Keep Product, Sales and Marketing working from one customer and value hypothesis while respecting Product authority.Run synthesis sessions, deal learning reviews and phase reviews; keep decision records current.Write recommendations that state the conclusion, supporting and contrary evidence, accepted uncertainty, alternatives and the next bounded commitment. What Success Looks Like First 90 days <ul><li>Time with schools, sellers, Account Managers and frontline teams; a working grasp of Zeraki's customers, products and GTM models</li><li>The most important growth and business-model uncertainties mapped, and a prioritised portfolio agreed with the CEO</li><li>One or two initial initiatives selected, with Core Teams, cadence, hypotheses and learning plans in place</li><li>First assumption and evidence registers live</li><li>Seen by Product, Sales, Marketing and Finance as an integrator who improves their decisions — not an auditor</li></ul>Time with schools, sellers, Account Managers and frontline teams; a working grasp of Zeraki's customers, products and GTM modelsThe most important growth and business-model uncertainties mapped, and a prioritised portfolio agreed with the CEOOne or two initial initiatives selected, with Core Teams, cadence, hypotheses and learning plans in placeFirst assumption and evidence registers liveSeen by Product, Sales, Marketing and Finance as an integrator who improves their decisions — not an auditor First six months <ul><li>At least one material opportunity through a disciplined Customer Discovery cycle</li><li>Weak opportunities narrowed, revised, deferred or stopped earlier</li><li>Earlyvangelists identified by behaviour; buyers, economic buyers and payers clearer</li><li>Weekly deal learning reviews running separately from pipeline reviews</li><li>Price, commercial exceptions and collected-value evidence visible; an emerging sales roadmap that explains buying behaviour</li></ul>At least one material opportunity through a disciplined Customer Discovery cycleWeak opportunities narrowed, revised, deferred or stopped earlierEarlyvangelists identified by behaviour; buyers, economic buyers and payers clearerWeekly deal learning reviews running separately from pipeline reviewsPrice, commercial exceptions and collected-value evidence visible; an emerging sales roadmap that explains buying behaviour First 12 months <ul><li>One or more opportunities at a defensible proceed, bounded-execution, reframe or stop decision</li><li>At least one sales roadmap field-tested beyond a single customer or exceptional seller</li><li>Customer Creation tests connected to qualified demand and sales progression</li><li>Clearer, usable GTM handoffs into routine teams</li><li>Major decisions traceable to the original evidence and reasoning</li></ul>One or more opportunities at a defensible proceed, bounded-execution, reframe or stop decisionAt least one sales roadmap field-tested beyond a single customer or exceptional sellerCustomer Creation tests connected to qualified demand and sales progressionClearer, usable GTM handoffs into routine teamsMajor decisions traceable to the original evidence and reasoning What You Bring Experience <ul><li>Typically 8+ years in Product Management, Growth, venture building, B2B SaaS, strategy, startups, commercial innovation or a related field.</li><li>Ownership of at least one significant initiative from early uncertainty through Product, commercial or market execution.</li><li>Strong understanding of Product Discovery and outcome-oriented Product Management.</li><li>Hands-on customer inquiry, turned into decisions.</li><li>Experience working with Sales or taking part directly in customer acquisition and commercial conversations.</li><li>Comfort with pricing, business models, commercial metrics, basic financial analysis, and qualitative and quantitative evidence.</li><li>Proven ability to lead cross-functional work without formal authority, and willingness to travel and spend real time with customers.</li><li>A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in engineering, computer science, business, economics, design, social science, finance or another analytically demanding field. An MBA is useful but not required.</li></ul>Typically 8+ years in Product Management, Growth, venture building, B2B SaaS, strategy, startups, commercial innovation or a related field.Ownership of at least one significant initiative from early uncertainty through Product, commercial or market execution.Strong understanding of Product Discovery and outcome-oriented Product Management.Hands-on customer inquiry, turned into decisions.Experience working with Sales or taking part directly in customer acquisition and commercial conversations.Comfort with pricing, business models, commercial metrics, basic financial analysis, and qualitative and quantitative evidence.Proven ability to lead cross-functional work without formal authority, and willingness to travel and spend real time with customers.A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in engineering, computer science, business, economics, design, social science, finance or another analytically demanding field. An MBA is useful but not required. Skills and attributes <ul><li> A customer investigator — you study what customers actually do: circumstances, recent decisions, workarounds and trade-offs, not requests or votes on solutions.</li><li> A strong Product thinker — you can separate customer opportunity, Product problem, solution, outcome and commercial model, and work credibly with PMs, designers and engineers.</li><li> Commercially fluent — buyers, budgets, pricing, packaging, channels, contract terms, collections and unit economics are part of the work, not an afterthought.</li><li> Hypothesis-driven and evidence-disciplined — you make beliefs explicit, set thresholds before tests, seek disconfirming evidence and never overstate what a result proves.</li><li> A systems integrator — you hold the whole model together while respecting other functions' authority; you lead without needing to own everyone involved.</li><li> A clear writer — you turn messy evidence into hypotheses, decision papers and direct recommendations.</li><li> Willing to sell — you ask for commitment, discuss price, hear objections and learn from rejection.</li><li> AI-fluent — you use AI for research preparation, synthesis, signal analysis and experiment design, and you know what still needs direct human contact with customers.</li><li> A high-integrity learner — you care more about what is true than about defending the original idea, even when the evidence challenges an executive opinion or an attractive forecast.</li></ul> A customer investigator — you study what customers actually do: circumstances, recent decisions, workarounds and trade-offs, not requests or votes on solutions. A strong Product thinker — you can separate customer opportunity, Product problem, solution, outcome and commercial model, and work credibly with PMs, designers and engineers. Commercially fluent — buyers, budgets, pricing, packaging, channels, contract terms, collections and unit economics are part of the work, not an afterthought. Hypothesis-driven and evidence-disciplined — you make beliefs explicit, set thresholds before tests, seek disconfirming evidence and never overstate what a result proves. A systems integrator — you hold the whole model together while respecting other functions' authority; you lead without needing to own everyone involved. A clear writer — you turn messy evidence into hypotheses, decision papers and direct recommendations. Willing to sell — you ask for commitment, discuss price, hear objections and learn from rejection. AI-fluent — you use AI for research preparation, synthesis, signal analysis and experiment design, and you know what still needs direct human contact with customers. A high-integrity learner — you care more about what is true than about defending the original idea, even when the evidence challenges an executive opinion or an attractive forecast. Where you might be coming from You may be a Growth Product Manager, Senior Product Manager, venture builder, new-business or innovation lead, Product strategist, startup operator, or a consultant who has since owned real execution. Your title matters less than whether you can move from uncertainty to evidence, decision and action. Exceptional candidates from less conventional routes are welcome. EXPERIENCE THAT WILL HELP B2B or enterprise SaaS with complex buying · EdTech, fintech, payments or embedded finance · Product-led, sales-led and partner-led growth · Pricing and packaging · New-market or new-category development · Jobs-to-be-Done and segmentation · Enterprise sales or account management · Growth experimentation and lifecycle analytics · Emerging or multi-country markets · Working directly with founders<h2>What We Offer</h2>● A chance to contribute to a mission-driven company that's making a real difference in education across Africa.● A collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic work environment where your input is valued.<h2>Our Culture</h2>At Zeraki, our culture defines how we work, how we make decisions, and how we succeed together. We are united by eight core values: Integrity, Love of Learning, Highest Standards, Deliver Results, Hire &amp; Develop the Best, Manage Through Trust, Empathy, and Have Backbone; Disagree &amp; Commit. We act with integrity, doing what is right and taking ownership of our actions. We have a love of learning, staying curious and continuously seeking to improve. We hold ourselves to the highest standards, continually raising the bar in the quality of our work, and we deliver results by taking ownership, acting with urgency, and following through on our commitments. We hire and develop the best, surrounding ourselves with exceptional people and creating opportunities for them to grow and excel. We manage through trust, giving people the context, freedom, responsibility, and accountability to do their best work. We lead with empathy, creating an environment where people are respected, supported, and able to thrive. And we have backbone, disagree and commit - we speak up when we disagree, challenge ideas respectfully, and once a decision is made, commit fully to making it successful. Together, these values create a culture of freedom and responsibility, high performance, continuous learning, and meaningful impact, empowering every Zerakian to Be Extraordinary.