Zakir Shaikh, MSc  ·  Doha, Qatar

I build the measures a consumer business runs on.

Seventeen years turning the behaviour of a 1.8 million-subscriber base into decisions — who to target, on which channel, with which proposition, and when. Currently leading customer value management and analytics at Vodafone Qatar.

1.8MSubscriber base analysed
+30%Lead-to-conversion lift
17 yrsAnalytics & customer operations
MScData Science, Merit
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Where I work

The customer lifecycle, end to end

Select a stage to see what I do there.

01

Propensity scoring across the whole base, and lead routing that sends each cohort to the channel most likely to convert rather than to whichever channel has capacity. Cold and hot lead segmentation using big data tooling, with the data models behind lead assignment and risk profiling.

02

Journeys designed and measured across SMS, IVR, app and USSD — wherever the customer actually is, not only where reporting is easiest. Multi-channel conversion flows in place of single-channel campaigns.

03

Prepaid-to-postpaid cross-sell and structured upgrade targeting into higher-value propositions — Postpaid, Fibre, VIP — through lifecycle journeys rather than mass offers. Segmentation and propensity in place of blanket campaigning.

04

Segmentation models that separate what different customer groups actually need, and predictive models that anticipate service needs before they surface as complaints — moving a care operation from reactive to proactive.

05

The part most teams inherit rather than build. I designed First Call Resolution at Vodafone Qatar from nothing — the definition, the measurement logic, the data integration, the reporting — and it became a company-level KPI. Metrics defined well change how a business argues with itself.

What I do

Three things, repeatedly

All of it shipped inside a live consumer business.

Measurement frameworks

definition → logic → data → reporting

KPI sets that survive scrutiny, from first definition through to the dashboard a Director opens on Monday. NPS, CSAT and First Call Resolution owned end to end.

Customer analytics

segment → propensity → journey → outcome

Segmentation, propensity and churn modelling in SQL and Python, turned into targeting and lifecycle journeys rather than left in a notebook.

Analytics leadership

team + standards + governance

Leading blended onshore and offshore teams, setting analytics standards, and keeping data lineage, access control and audit readiness in place while the work ships.

Selected work

What changed as a result

Vodafone Qatar unless noted.

Rebuilt segment targeting from the base up

Customer value management · 2024–present

Replaced blanket campaigning with segmentation, propensity scoring and lifecycle journeys built on observed behaviour. Year-on-year segment revenue growth of [CONFIRM]%, alongside a 30% lift in lead-to-conversion across digital and assisted channels.

Defined First Call Resolution as a company KPI

Customer experience measurement · 2018–2023

Built the measure from scratch — definition, measurement logic, data integration and reporting — until it became a standing experience KPI across the business, with its diagnostics driving service changes alongside care, quality and training teams.

Put an executive performance layer in Directors' hands

Reporting & automation

Automated month-to-date and month-on-month tracking that previously ran manually, giving senior management timely visibility to steer campaign investment. Dashboards across payment journeys, care IVR, chat, telesales and NPS in Tableau and Power BI.

Explainable AI for customer care operations

MSc thesis · Liverpool John Moores University

Predicting first-contact resolution, satisfaction and churn from call data using classical machine learning and NLP, interpreted through SHAP and LIME so the reasons behind a prediction stay legible to the people acting on them.

Ways to work together

Two routes in

Say which one you're here for and the reply will be faster.

Senior analytics roles

For recruiters & hiring managers

  • Head of, Lead or AVP roles across product analytics, customer analytics, BI and data science
  • Consumer businesses — telecom, OTT and streaming, banking, e-commerce, anything subscription-based
  • Qatar and the wider Gulf, open to relocation within the region
  • Currently employed, so conversations are confidential by default
Discuss a role

Advisory & project work

For founders & independent clients

  • Standing up an analytics function: standards, tooling, hiring, governance
  • Defining a KPI framework you can defend to a board
  • Segmentation, churn and propensity models, built and handed over
  • Dashboards in Power BI or Tableau, with the data model underneath them
Scope a project

Get in touch

Tell me what you're working on

Replies within two working days, Doha time (GMT+3).

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