Obafunto (Funto) Ayinoluwa, Digital Product Leader, Financial Services

How I work

Start where the value leaks

I find the point where people drop off or effort piles up, and aim there first.

Prove it small, then scale

The cheapest test that can move the number goes first. Keep what works, cut what doesn't.

Build with AI, on purpose

Real agents with tools and guardrails, the kind you can put in front of a customer, not a demo.

The work

Where I've done it.

Now

Director, Digital Product, Member Experience · Avion Rewards, RBC · Oct 2025 to Present

Reimagining a 10.5M-member loyalty program

I lead the end-to-end member-experience transformation of Avion Rewards, directing two PMs and their 11-person cross-functional teams across Personal Banking, Small Business, and Commercial. I found that most members earn passively despite full digital access, so I'm rebuilding the experience around visible, personalized value.

~10.5M members~$1.5B annual valuepersonalizationsegmentation

Before this

Lead Digital Product Owner, InvestingRBC Digital · 2022 to 2025

Owned funding and purchase for a self-serve investing platform. Roughly tripled pre-authorized contribution setup across two low-cost releases; $450M AUA and 150K+ accounts in year one.

Associate Director, Business Architecture & StrategyRBC · 2021 to 2022

Built future-state operating models across Canada, the UK, and Malaysia, turning capability gaps into phased roadmaps that survived contact with delivery.

Earlier at RBC: Core Banking portfolio strategy, the Transformation Office, and the bank's inaugural Amplify innovation program. Before that, risk and security audits at AO Partners in Lagos.

Applied AI & teaching

Teaching product management, building with AI.

AI Product Management Instructor · BrainStation, Toronto · Apr 2024 to Present

I teach product management to cohorts of working professionals, most of them new to the discipline: strategy, research, experimentation, stakeholder leadership, and the applied-AI side of the job. The assistant you just used is the kind of thing I teach people to build, agents with real tools and guardrails, not demos. I led BrainStation's AI Lab on building AI agents with OpenAI.

product strategyuser researchexperimentationAI agentsapplied LLMs

See the AI Lab: Building AI Agents with OpenAI, Mar 2026 →

Funto holding a Product Management @ BrainStation sign with his cohort — Product Management cohort · BrainStation

Funto with a BrainStation cohort — A BrainStation cohort

AI Lab cohort at BrainStation Toronto — AI Lab: Building AI Agents with OpenAI · Mar 2026

BrainStation Toronto studio signage — BrainStation, Toronto

Speaking

On stage, and in the room.

Feb 2026Leaders in Product: Driving Customer Impact in Modern Financial Services
BrainStation, Toronto

Mar 2025Starting and Building a Career in Product Management
BrainStation, Toronto

2025Beyond Development: The Many Faces of Innovation

BFUTR Summit · Obsidi / BPTN

Oct 2023Reimagining Your Technical Career Path

BFUTR Summit · Obsidi / BPTN

Funto speaking on a product panel, mic in hand — On a product panel, Toronto

Funto speaking at the Leaders in Product panel — Leaders in Product · BrainStation, Feb 2026

Industry panel on financial services at BrainStation — Industry panel, financial services

Funto with attendees after the panel — After the panel

Recognition · Education · Credentials

Where the work's been recognized.

Patent & awards

Nominated, Product Manager of the Year, OBSIDI Awards · 2026
Named inventor, “System for Management of Point-to-Point Transactions” (U.S. provisional patent application)
Technology & Operations Team Award · 2025
Digital STAR Award · 2024