Our Team
Marnus van Staden
Product & Process Architect | Integration Practice Coordinator
"Find the bottleneck, automate the grunt, measure the gain."
Current Role
Marnus steers product strategy and workflow design at This Is 42. He translates messy operations into data-driven, testable processes, then keeps squads honest on scope, value, and sprint cadence.
Superpowers at a Glance
| Area | Strength |
|---|---|
| Process Engineering | Industrial-engineering mindset + BPMN/AnyLogic simulation to de-risk flows. |
| Automation & RPA | Led Vodacom RPA programme; knows when a bot is better than code. |
| Requirements to Tests | Converts stakeholder chat into BDD scenarios, raising FCI fast. |
| Backlog Economics | MoSCoW + cost-of-delay to keep roadmaps ROI-positive. |
| Facilitation | Octalysis-gamified workshops that end in decisions, not debates. |
Career Snapshot
| Period | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 2012-2015 | Industrial engineer at Eskom; built AnyLogic sims to optimise generation maintenance. |
| 2016-2018 | Senior BA & Scrum Master on telecom OSS revamp; tripled sprint throughput. |
| 2019 | RPA Lead @ Vodacom: automated contract reconciliations, saving 4 600 staff-hours/yr. |
| 2020 | Joined Wilfred and Armand; built BPMN-to-BDD bridge that became our Lab 42 backbone. |
| 2022-Now | Heads product & process at This Is 42; average FCI lift across clients +3.2 pts. |
Certifications & Badges
- Salesforce Administrator
- Salesforce UX Designer
- MuleSoft Catalyst Integration Champion
- Professional Scrum Master I (Scrum.org)
- UiPath Advanced RPA Developer (legacy)
Toolbox
- Modelling
- BPMN.io, AnyLogic, Miro
- Automation
- UiPath, MuleSoft, Zapier
- Product
- Jira/Linear, Gantt, Cost-of-Delay curves
- Analytics
- Power BI, Qlik, Python pandas
- Facilitation
- Mural, Liberating Structures, Octalysis
Recent Wins
- FCI Rescue
- Took a 42-story backlog from FCI 3.4 to 7.1 in six workshops; unlocked Fixed-Pack quote that landed 18% under budget ceiling.
- Simulation-Driven Scope Cut
- AnyLogic model predicted 20% idle time; culled two low-value features, saving R1.2 m dev effort.
- RPA Quick-Win
- Built bot in 10 days that matched 12 k SAP POs; payback < 3 months.
Speaking & Community
- SA BPM & RPA Summit — "BPMN meets BDD: Killing Scope Creep with Executable Specs."
- Scrum User Group — Panel: "Cost-of-Delay vs Story Points."
- Volunteer mentor, GirlCodeZA — process-automation bootcamps.
Beyond the Keyboard
Weekend woodworker, jazz-blues bassist, and serial sour-dough experimenter (his rye starter "GrootBrood" makes guest appearances on Retro calls).
Get in Touch
- /marnus-van-staden
- marnus@thisis42.com
- Calendly
- Process mapping consult (30 min)