Context
Yoco is an African fintech company, founded in 2015 in South Africa, that provides an all-in-one digital commerce platform for small businesses to get paid, manage operations, and grow. Its services include mobile card machines, online payment tools, business management software, and flexible funding via Yoco Capital. The company’s mission: empower entrepreneurs to sell anywhere and thrive in the economy.

When I met Yoco’s founders in 2017, the team was largely made up of developers, brand, and sales. They recognised the need to bring product design and UX in-house to enable scale. Yet in my first weeks at Yoco — fuelled by many intro coffees — it became clear that as the company grew, so too did the distance to the customer. Before fixing flows and pixels, the team needed a shared, evidence-based understanding of customer reality.

Challenge
By 2018, Yoco was scaling rapidly, but decisions were often feature-led and fragmented. The company lacked a cohesive way to understand customer needs, journeys, and pain points. This is a common stage for fast-growing startups, but it made it difficult to prioritise confidently, improve retention, and design experiences that genuinely helped small business owners thrive.

Approach
I built Yoco’s Customer Insights & Experience function from the ground up:
» Established a research and insights capability, embedding customer interviews, journey mapping, and data triangulation into daily decisions.
» Developed segmentation frameworks around how money flows through small businesses — moving beyond demographics to behavioural drivers.
» Socialised insights through narratives, roadshows, and playbooks, making them accessible across product, risk, brand, and operations teams.
» Involved cross-functional teams directly in customer research, which deepened empathy, strengthened purpose, and sharpened decision-making.
» And finally, I established a UX-driven Product Design team.

Impact
» Reduced time-to-value and improved early customer retention.
» Created a shared language of customer understanding across the company, boosting confidence, cutting waste, and increasing speed.
» By bringing everyone closer to the customer, the team felt greater purpose and ownership, which translated into stronger performance and better merchant experiences.
» Small businesses received smoother, more supportive journeys, while Yoco strengthened retention.
» Unlocked sustainable growth — scaling from 40,000 to 300,000+ merchants and achieving a 7× uplift in transaction volume.