A highly accomplished Technology Professional with over a decade of experience, Michael E. Okpala drives significant customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth. He excels in strategic product management, technical leadership, and cross-functional program execution, adeptly navigating the intersection of Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to deliver innovative solutions and achieve ambitious business objectives. Michael is a proven leader with a strong focus on quantifiable impact and results, positioning him as a valuable asset for organizations seeking to optimize product adoption and enhance customer loyalty.
Remote
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Summary
Currently leads a team of 5 Customer Success professionals at Flutterwave, managing a portfolio of enterprise merchants generating over $7 million in annual recurring revenue.
Highlights
Drove strategic initiatives to enhance product adoption, customer satisfaction, and retention for top 1% enterprise clients.
Spearheaded a merchant education initiative, significantly improving product utilization and customer satisfaction for enterprise merchants.
Developed and implemented a customer success dashboard in collaboration with cross-functional teams, enhancing merchant metric visibility and data-driven decision-making.
Collaborated with the Transaction Processing team to optimize GHS payment rails, reducing transaction completion time by 30%.
Remote
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Summary
Maximized value for enterprise merchants by acting as a crucial liaison between customer needs and product development, ensuring alignment with company objectives.
Highlights
Championed customer advocacy, translating complex requirements into actionable product features that enhanced user experience.
Cultivated strong relationships with enterprise merchants, optimizing product and service utilization to drive mutual value.
Collaborated with Product, Engineering, and cross-functional teams to resolve complex technical issues, reducing average resolution time by 60%.
Partnered with Sales and Engineering to identify and capitalize on growth opportunities, contributing to business expansion.
Developed Business Requirements Document (BRD) for optimizing split settlement flow, enhancing offline transactions for key partners.
Remote
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Summary
Maximized value for enterprise merchants by acting as a crucial liaison between customer needs and product development, ensuring alignment with company objectives.
Highlights
Championed customer advocacy, translating complex requirements into actionable product features that enhanced user experience.
Cultivated strong relationships with enterprise merchants, optimizing product and service utilization to drive mutual value.
Collaborated with Product, Engineering, and cross-functional teams to resolve complex technical issues, reducing average resolution time by 60%.
Partnered with Sales and Engineering to identify and capitalize on growth opportunities, contributing to business expansion.
Remote, Nigeria
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Summary
Provided strategic consulting services to startups, focusing on business model formulation, product strategy, and customer development, including serving as Acting CEO for FusPay.
Highlights
Provided strategic consulting services to startups, focusing on business model formulation, product strategy, and customer development.
Delivered strategic guidance and market research for startups, specializing in business model formulation, product strategy, and customer development.
Served as Acting CEO for FusPay (Oct 2020 - Nov 2020), a cardless payment technology company, driving strategic direction.
Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
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Summary
Directed comprehensive product strategy, customer success initiatives, and market expansion efforts across Nigeria, significantly boosting regional growth and brand reputation for a Web-based API provider.
Highlights
Directed comprehensive product strategy and customer success initiatives across Nigeria, significantly boosting regional growth and brand reputation.
Led the product roadmap for messaging solutions, ensuring profitability and successful market launches through strategic collaborations with Mobile Network Operators and regulatory bodies.
Cultivated robust client relationships, resolving technical issues promptly to enhance customer satisfaction and retention.
Designed and implemented enhanced onboarding processes, delivering tailored product demonstrations and knowledge transfer sessions that upskilled customer success teams.
Collaborated with sales and technical teams to effectively address client needs, accelerating product adoption and reducing time-to-value for new customers.
Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
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Summary
Pioneered the establishment and growth of Africa's Talking's Nigeria office, strategically expanding team capabilities and solidifying market presence through developer engagement and key partnerships.
Highlights
Championed developer relations, delivering impactful product demonstrations and leading workshops to enhance brand visibility and market penetration.
Advised leadership on go-to-market strategy, contributing to scaling operations and expanding the team to 15 professionals.
Managed critical partnerships with Nigerian regulators (NCC) and major network operators, successfully launching key products including SMS, USSD, Voice, Payments, and Airtime.
Nigeria
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Summary
Founded and led a web development agency, overseeing end-to-end product lifecycles and delivering bespoke digital solutions for diverse clients while managing technical execution and client relations.
Highlights
Directed comprehensive product lifecycle for web applications, from requirements gathering to deployment, leveraging HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, WordPress, and Drupal.
Managed hosting infrastructure and post-launch maintenance, ensuring optimal performance and seamless user experiences for all deployed solutions.
Iragbiji, Osun, Nigeria
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Summary
Provided operational and technical leadership across a network solutions company and a science institution, driving efficiency, enhancing user engagement, and improving educational outcomes.
Highlights
Designed and launched dynamic websites for clients, boosting user engagement and achieving a 20% increase in customer satisfaction.
Streamlined company operations, including administration, training, and inventory control, resulting in seamless service delivery and reduced downtime.
Implemented customer support best practices, improving response times by 30% and significantly enhancing customer experiences.
Developed and delivered comprehensive technical training programs, leading to a 15% improvement in student exam performance.
Product Development, Program Management, Scrum, Roadmapping, Stakeholder Management, Data-driven Decision Making & Analytics, Product Strategy & Growth, Pricing, User Research, Strategic Initiative Delivery, People Management.
Customer Empathy & Success, Problem Solving, Relationship Management, Executive and Technical Presentation, Written/Verbal Communication.
Generative AI, Cloud Infrastructure and SaaS, REST APIs, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, Wordpress, Drupal.
MS Excel, Jira, Trello, PowerBI, Postman, Metabase, Datadog, Elastic Search, Figma, Canva, ChatGPT, Gemini, Intercom, Salesforce, Happyfox.
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Summary
Delivered the closing keynote address at Lagos WordCamp on strategies for fostering community growth beyond traditional events, discussing methods for building sustainable and engaged communities, and sharing experiences and lessons learned from community leadership.
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Summary
Presented at the CMS Africa Summit on strategies for utilizing mobile communication to enhance customer engagement, sharing insights on effective mobile communication channels and providing actionable strategies for improving customer interaction and loyalty.