Do your employees really love your product? Like, really? In this episode of The Unfair Advantage, Don Packett and Kelvin Jonck chat with Kaylin Phillips, the Digital Product Manager at Netstar. Kaylin reveals a core strategy for building a product that sticks: dogfooding.

Kaylin unpacks what it means to "eat your own dog food" and why getting your employees to use your product is the ultimate unfair advantage. He shares how to build an internal culture around product testing, why leadership buy-in is a must, and how this simple approach can give you invaluable customer insight and a major competitive edge. If your team isn't already your biggest fan, you're missing out on a huge opportunity for growth.

What You'll Learn:

• Kaylin’s journey from hard hats in the mining sector to product management in the digital world.

• What it means to "eat your own dog food" (and why it’s not a replacement for QA).

• How to drive an internal culture around product testing.

• Why leadership needs to make being your own customer an imperative.

• The power of identifying issues before your customers do.

Welcome to Episode 10 of The Unfair Advantage. In this episode, Don Packett and Kelvin Jonck dive into the paradoxical idea of speed in business and marketing. The conversation is sparked by a clip from our previous episode with Kate Syuma, which gets Don thinking about his old "Speed Kills" theory and why he completely changed his mind.

This is a deep dive into how customer insight, social listening, and tech advancements have changed the game, making speed a critical differentiator. It's no longer about who can go the fastest, but who can get the right data and make the right decisions in the moment. Don even mentions a great LinkedIn post from Yakuru at Bob Group that highlights this exact point.

Forget the old-school monthly reports and slow strategy; this is about understanding that in the world of marketing, if you're not gaining speed, you're losing.

Post from Bob Group: 🔗link🔗

It turns out your customers are already creating it for you. In this episode of The Unfair Advantage, hosts Don Packett and Kelvin Jonck dive into a spicy story about Tabasco and the untapped power of unsolicited social data.

Kelvin unpacks a real-world case study, revealing how they helped the hot sauce brand find surprising new customer insights and a brilliant, unplanned partnership. From discovering why people are putting Tabasco on popcorn to entering a new country with a collaboration, this episode shows how looking beyond traditional KPIs can reveal incredible marketing insights and opportunities for growth through User-Generated Content (UGC).

What You'll Learn:

• Why the "good, neutral, bad" KPI is an outdated metric for social listening.

• How to use big social data to find unsolicited customer insights.

• The surprising story of Tabasco, popcorn, and a game-changing partnership.

• Why looking at what people are saying can lead to your next marketing strategy.

In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on why so many data projects fail, and it’s not the tech.

We chat with Terishia Reddy, the Head of Data at Pick n Pay, about the big disconnect between data teams and business leaders, why "corporate theatre" needs to end, and the surprising KPIs that will give you an unfair advantage. If you're a data leader, analyst or insights team looking for real-world customer insight and actionable data strategy, this one's for you.

What You'll Learn:

• Why leaders should treat data as a business priority, not just an IT task.
• The three simple KPIs to measure your data team's success.
• How to build a realistic data strategy without just relying on "shiny new tech."
• The difference between wanting to "use AI" versus "do AI."

Ever wondered which South African banking apps actually make sense? Yeah, us too.

In this episode, Don and Kelvin are joined by product and payments pro, Shaheen Khatieb, who gives us the full story on his viral LinkedIn series. He's been brutally rating all the major South African banking apps, and his insights are honest and spot on.

What we get into:

• Which SA bank has an onboarding process that feels like a trip back to the 90s.

• The surprising reason why the Capitec app is still leagues ahead on UX.

• Why companies need to stop complicating things and just make it easier for their customers.

• The good, the bad, and the ugly of Product-Led Growth (PLG) in the fintech world.

This is where we get into the real talk about user experience, product-led growth, and why less is more.

Welcome to Episode 6 of The Unfair Advantage. In this episode, hosts Don Packett and Kelvin Jonck are chatting to Kate Syuma, the founder of Growthmates and former Head of Growth Product Design at Miro. Kate shares her amazing career journey, from a seed-stage startup in Russia to leading a massive team in Amsterdam, offering a unique look into Miro's hyper-growth story.
The conversation goes beyond her personal story to explore the future of product design and user experience. Kate gives a fresh perspective on why AI should be seen as a co-creator, not a competitor, and reveals the common mistakes companies make with onboarding and activation. Find out how to transform your approach to product development by focusing on meaningful experiences and core product ownership.
What You'll Learn:

• The mindset needed to thrive during hyper-growth.
• Why viewing AI as a partner can redefine product and user experience.
• The mistake of relying on "small fixes" to solve big onboarding problems.
• Why growth teams need ownership over the core product experience.

#UnfairAdvantagePodcast #Growthmates #Miro #ProductDesign #AI #UX #Onboarding #Activation #GrowthStrategy #SaaS

Kate's Post on AI as a partner:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ekaterina-syuma_5-principles-to-make-ai-feel-like-a-partner-ugcPost-7338199501653897217-9owD/

Welcome to Episode 5 of The Unfair Advantage. Hosts Kelvin Jonck and Don Packett expose the self-service analytics dilemma, a "silent killer of productivity" that leaves teams stuck between simple reports and complex requests. They reveal why an overburdened analytics team and a quiet backlog are major red flags.

This episode isn't just about the problem; it's about the solution. Learn how to break free from a cycle of endless tickets and build a data culture that creates a "virtuous loop" of growth. Discover how to empower your entire team with the right tools to become more data-literate, collaborative, and effective.

What We Yap About:

• Why you should buy technology to grow, not just save money.

• The three layers of analytics and why the middle layer is a major bottleneck.

• How an overburdened team can lead to people stopping their search for answers.

• The power of a "virtuous loop" that boosts data literacy across your company.

  
  

#UnfairAdvantagePodcast #Analytics #DataCulture #Growth #SelfServiceAnalytics #BusinessInsights #Martech #SaaS #ProductLedGrowth #SouthAfricaBusiness

Welcome to Episode 4 of The Unfair Advantage. In this one, we’ve got our very first guest, Annalize van Deijl, Head of CRM at Mr D, joining Kelvin Jonck (CEO at YOUKNOW Technologies) and Don Packett (COO) for a lekker chat about shiny tools, tech readiness, and why fancy dashboards won’t fix bad processes.

If you’ve ever been tempted by the next big thing in Martech, Annalize’s story and practical insights are for you. From flying around the world as cabin crew to building customer journeys for one of SA’s biggest delivery brands, she knows what it takes to make tech actually work, and why you need the driver before you buy the Ferrari.

🧠 If you’re in Martech, CRM or just tired of buying tools your team isn’t ready for, this episode is your reality check.

👇 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Meet Annalize: marketer, traveller, accidental paramedic
• Shiny toys vs. real value. The tech paradox
• How to check if your team’s really ready for new tools
• Why Martech ownership is now a team sport
• Making customer experience platforms (CEPs) actually deliver
• The power of nudges, not shoves
• Getting your ‘driver’ before you buy the Ferrari
• Eating the Martech elephant one bite at a time
• Planning for backup drivers (because people leave)
• Automate yourself and protect your investment

🎧 Give it a listen, then share it with the team still shopping for shiny tools without a plan.

#UnfairAdvantagePodcast #MartechAfrica #CRM #CustomerExperience #Retention #YouKnowHow #TechReadiness #SouthAfricaBusiness

Welcome to Episode 3 of The Unfair Advantage. A quick, practical listen for South African marketers, product folks and retention teams who know loyalty is more than just a sale. Hosted by Kelvin Jonck (CEO at YOUKNOW Technologies) and Don Packett (COO), this one unpacks why Value Moments should be your new obsession.

So, what are Value Moments? They’re those small, repeatable moments where your customer actually feels the value you promised, like finding the perfect deal on Takealot, completing a meditation session on Calm, or opening that special bottle of wine you ordered from your local wine club.

In this episode, KJ and Don break down how defining your real value, mapping where it shows up, and tracking it properly can drive sticky loyalty, better retention, and bigger lifetime value, with examples from local and global brands doing it right (and sometimes wrong).

🧠 If you care about churn, sticky experiences, and what happens after checkout, this one’s for you.

Welcome to Episode 2 of The Unfair Advantage, your 15-minute power-up on all things PLG, made for marketers, product teams, and growth leads building brands in South Africa (and beyond).

Hosted by Kelvin Jonck (CEO at YOUKNOW Technologies) and Don Packett, this episode dives straight into the world of product-led growth. Not the theory, the practice. The tactics you can actually use. Right now. With the tools, teams, and budgets you’ve got.

In this one, we unpack how small shifts in your onboarding, loyalty nudges, and messaging flows can turn “meh” experiences into magic. Whether you’re running a slick fintech app, building a loyalty programme for your QSR, or trying to keep users coming back to your gaming platform, PLG gives you an unfair advantage if you know how to use it.

🧠 The good news? You don’t need a data warehouse or a team of 200. Just the right mindset and a willingness to test the small stuff.

👇 What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why product-led growth isn’t a trend,  it’s a toolkit.

• What makes a loyalty programme actually worth it (Clicks, we see you).

• Why onboarding is everything, and what Duolingo gets right.

• How PLG uses value moments, not vanity metrics, to drive growth.

• Where your data's already speaking to you, you just need to listen.

  
  

⏱️ Chapters & Timestamps:

00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to Product-Led Growth

01:00 - 03:00: Components of Product-Led Growth

03:00 - 09:12: Loyalty Programs in Product-Led Growth (Kauai and Clicks Examples)

09:12 - 15:58: Onboarding and Customer Journeys (Duolingo Example)

15:58 - 17:07: Data-Driven Strategy and Conclusion

🎧 New here? You’re in the right place. Each episode is short, sharp, and focused on helping you grow your product, your retention, and your unfair advantage.

Subscribe on YouTube or Spotify and hit the bell to stay in the loop.

📣 About the Hosts

Kelvin Jonck is the CEO of YOUKNOW Technologies, a Martech consultancy helping African brands unlock growth through smarter data, customer engagement strategies, and tech like Amplitude, Braze, and OneSignal.

Don Packett is a strategist, speaker, and creative thinker focused on simplifying the complex and getting people excited about growth.

💡 Already listened? Tell us what you think or drop us your questions for the next episode. And if you know someone building something great, send this their way.

#UnfairAdvantagePodcast #PLG #ProductLedGrowth #RetentionTactics #MartechZA #SouthAfricaTech #YouKnowHow #GrowthMindset #CustomerExperience #DigitalLoyalty