Ramona Furter
See the case
Application · Visa CEMEA · Dubai

I turn messy questions into a clear call.

For nine years I've broken open hard business problems, sized the opportunity from the data, and made the case to the people who decide. This site is my application for Strategy Analyst on Visa's CEMEA Corporate Strategy team in Dubai.

See a strategy case I'd run Read the CV
FSIUBS, Baloise & Die Mobiliar work
+9% / +15%lift, hypothesis & data
2 roundsraised as founding team
9 yrsstrategy, product & growth
Portrait of Ramona Furter
Why I fit

What this role needs, and where I've done it

This is a role about structuring hard questions, finding the answer in the data, and moving senior people to act. That's been the core of my work for nine years. Here's how it lines up with what you're after.

01

Structured, hypothesis-driven problem solving

I break a vague problem into the questions that actually decide it, form a hypothesis, then test it rather than defend it. It's how I've built every go-to-market and product call I've made.

Proof: built full go-to-market on a hypothesis-and-data approach at Sparrow Ventures and WePractice, from validation to scale.

02

Quantitative and qualitative insight

I'm comfortable in the analytics and the interviews both, and I trust the evidence over the loudest opinion. I find the signal, then turn it into a recommendation someone can act on.

Proof: +9% conversion and +15% checkout lift at ifolor through research, A/B testing and analytics; ran customer interviews to define personas.

03

Financial services and payments context

A good part of my career has been close to banks and insurers, where I learned how these organisations make decisions, manage risk and move money. It's the world Visa lives in.

Proof: owned the UBS and Baloise partnerships at Brixel; ran new-product innovation inside Die Mobiliar, a top Swiss insurer.

04

Executive communication that lands

I can take a tangle of analysis and make it a clear, confident case a leadership team can decide on in one sitting, then translate it into something the team can run with.

Proof: drove the roadmap with C-level at ifolor; closed two funding rounds as founding team, pitching to investors.

05

Prioritisation and evaluating opportunities

As a venture builder and founder I've had to choose where the next dollar goes, weigh impact against effort, and kill the things that won't pay back. That triage is most of strategy.

Proof: built and ran growth for several internal startups at Sparrow Ventures; today lead AI business-model development at Swiss Post.

06

Ready for the region, building from zero

My best work has been standing up something new where there was no playbook. My partner and I are planning a move to Dubai, so a CEMEA strategy seat is exactly where I want to be.

Proof: founding team of two ventures from scratch; build and run my own products today through Pedal Peak and smedium.

Curriculum vitae

Ramona Furter

Strategy, product and growth leader in Zurich, open to relocating to Dubai. I turn business questions into decisions and results, with a track record close to financial services. German and Swiss German native, English fluent, French conversational.

Jan 2026 to present

AI Project Lead, Business Development

Swiss Post, Advertising · Zurich

  • Lead AI-driven business models for Swiss Post Advertising, from sizing the opportunity to building and running the roadmap.
  • Turn ideas into go-to-market plans and new revenue, tracked with clear KPIs.
  • Run cross-functional work from concept to launch across product, tech, data and commercial teams.

Oct 2024 to Jul 2025

Senior Product Manager, Lead E-Commerce

Ifolor Group · Zurich

  • Owned the e-commerce ecosystem and strategy for a CHF 100M+ business, reporting to C-level.
  • Lifted conversion 9% and the checkout step rate 15% through research, A/B testing and analytics.
  • Led a cross-functional team and external agencies, owning budget, resourcing and KPIs.

Jun 2023 to Sep 2024

Lead Project Manager

Brixel · Zurich

  • Owned the partnerships with financial institutions, UBS and Baloise, that drove growth.
  • Was the main bridge between senior client stakeholders and the internal product team.

Mar 2020 to May 2023

Marketing & Growth Lead, Founding Team

WePractice · Sparrow Ventures (Migros Group) · Zurich

  • Founding team of a mental-health venture. Closed two funding rounds and grew it to 10 locations, 23 people and 170+ customers.
  • Generated 1000+ client matches in year one and built the full go-to-market on a hypothesis-and-data approach.
  • Built and led the marketing and sales team after Series B, owning budget, KPIs and growth.

Sep 2019 to Sep 2022

Growth & Venture Builder

Sparrow Ventures · Zurich

  • Built and ran growth and go-to-market for several internal startups, from early validation to scale-up.
  • Used research and experimentation to improve conversion, lower acquisition cost and raise customer lifetime value.

Jan 2017 to Aug 2019

Intrapreneur, Innovation

Die Mobiliar · Bern

  • Ran market pilots for new products (Smide, now BOND Mobility, plus XperCheck and Lizzy) from MVP to launch, inside one of Switzerland's largest insurers.
  • Coached cross-functional teams and explored new data and partnerships.
A worked example

A strategy case I'd run for CEMEA

Not theory. A real enterprise-level question, worked the way the team works: frame it, size it from the data, prioritise with a clear framework, then make the call to leadership. Click through the four steps, and try the prioritisation matrix.

Working example · illustrative figures

Frame the question, then break it down

A good strategy answer starts with the right question and a small set of testable hypotheses, not a hundred slides.

The question

How should Visa win the next wave of cash-to-digital conversion across CEMEA's high-cash, young, mobile-first markets?

Hypothesis A
The gap is acceptance, not cards

Consumers have cards; merchants, especially small ones, don't accept them. The bottleneck is acceptance, not issuance.

Test: SME acceptance rate vs card penetration, by market.
Hypothesis B
Fintechs are the fastest route

Partnering with local fintechs and wallets reaches digital-first consumers quicker than going bank by bank.

Test: wallet user growth vs bank account growth.
Hypothesis C
Remittances are the wedge

Cross-border flows into the region are huge and a natural hook into everyday digital payments.

Test: remittance volume vs first-time digital-payment adoption.
From day one

My first 90 days

Here's roughly how I'd spend my first three months on the CEMEA strategy team, from learning the business to delivering a first piece of real analysis.

Phase 1 Days 1 to 30

Learn the business

  • Meet the strategy team and the leaders across CEMEA whose questions we serve.
  • Get deep into how Visa makes money in the region and where the pressure is.
  • Learn the data, the tools and how the team frames and delivers work.
Phase 2 Days 31 to 60

Own a piece

  • Take a slice of a live strategic question and structure it independently.
  • Pull the quantitative and qualitative evidence, and pressure-test the hypotheses.
  • Build the analysis into a clear, decision-ready story.
Phase 3 Days 61 to 90

Deliver a recommendation

  • Bring a sharp recommendation to senior stakeholders and stand behind it.
  • Turn it into a prioritisation and implementation path, not just a slide.
  • Bank the relationships and credibility for the next, bigger question.