Ramona Furter
See the Blueprint
Application · Pencil · AI Transformation Lead

I turn ambiguity into change that actually sticks.

Twenty years taking vague, high-stakes goals and turning them into structured plans, aligned teams and delivered results, inside large regulated companies and from zero as a founder. I'm AI-native: I use Claude and agentic tools every day and build real products with them end to end. This is my application for AI Transformation Lead at Pencil, the part of the work I most want to do next.

See how I'd run an engagement Read the CV
20 yrsturning ambiguity into delivery
0 → 23health venture built & scaled, founding team
DailyClaude & agentic tooling, in real work
CHF 100M+business I owned strategy for
Portrait of Ramona Furter Builder, not just adviser
Why I fit

What the role asks for, and where I've done it

The role structures messy client problems into workstreams, moves clients past pilots into real AI workflows, and codifies what works into reusable Blueprints. That's the shape of my last decade. Here's how it lines up, point for point with your posting.

01

Structure ambiguous problems into workstreams

My instinct with a vague goal is to break it into hypotheses, decide what we'd need to believe for it to work, and turn that into a few clear workstreams with owners and tests. It's how I've built every venture and growth plan I've run.

Proof: built the full go-to-market for WePractice on a hypothesis-and-data approach; ran early validation to scale-up across several Sparrow Ventures startups.

02

Change beyond the pilot, inside real orgs

The hard part isn't the pilot, it's getting a working idea adopted as the way the team actually operates. I've led that change inside large, slow, regulated companies and made new things stick, not just demo well.

Proof: as Intrapreneur at Die Mobiliar (a major insurer), took products from MVP to launch; now lead AI-driven business models at Swiss Post from idea to roadmap.

03

5+ years of transformation & programme work

Twenty years of running complex, cross-functional work to a deadline: internal teams, agencies and external partners pointed at one outcome, with budget and KPIs on me. Aligning a mixed group around a single plan is the part I'm best at.

Proof: founding team that grew WePractice to 23 people across 10 locations; led cross-functional delivery and external agencies at ifolor, reporting to C-level.

04

AI-native: Claude, agentic, and I build

You want daily AI use and agentic fluency, with prototyping and code-reading a plus. That's not aspirational for me, it's how I work. I lead AI business models by day and build my own products end to end with AI, including this site. I read the code, wire up the automations, and ship.

Proof: AI Project Lead at Swiss Post; built the Pedal Peak platform and smedium studio end to end with Claude, agentic workflows and n8n.

05

Senior stakeholders, managed independently

I'm comfortable being the person in the room with senior clients: owning the relationship, the narrative and the hard conversations, without needing a partner to hide behind. That's how I've worked with large institutions and C-level for years.

Proof: owned the UBS and Baloise partnerships at Brixel as the main bridge to senior client stakeholders; reported to C-level at ifolor.

06

Codify what works into reusable Blueprints

I don't like solving the same problem twice. When something works I write it down as a repeatable process the team can run without me, and I feed what I learn back into the product. That instinct to systematise is exactly the Blueprint job.

Proof: built repeatable growth and GTM processes reused across multiple Sparrow startups; STEM-adjacent base, BBA plus CAS in Innovation and Digital Marketing.

Curriculum vitae

Ramona Furter

Transformation and growth lead in Zurich with twenty years of experience, open to relocating. I turn ambiguous goals into structured plans, aligned teams and measured results, increasingly with AI at the centre of the work. 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 AI 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 growth 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 delivery team.

Mar 2020 to May 2023

Marketing & Growth Lead, Founding Team

WePractice · Sparrow Ventures (Migros Group) · Zurich

  • Founding team of a 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

How I'd run an AI transformation engagement

Not buzzwords. The method I'd actually use on a Pencil client, laid out as a Blueprint: frame the ambiguity, split it into workstreams, design the repeatable process, then codify it so the next engagement starts ahead. Figures here are illustrative placeholders; the questions and the structure are real. Click through the four stages.

Worked example · illustrative figures

Frame the ambiguity before promising anything

A client says "we want AI in our creative process". That's a wish, not a plan. I'd start by turning it into a sharp problem statement and the few things that have to be true for it to work, so we're solving the real constraint, not the loudest symptom.

The first question

Where does AI actually remove a bottleneck the client feels, and what's stopping them from adopting it for real?

The real bottleneckWhere time and money actually leak in the creative workflow today, by stage.
What blocks adoptionGovernance, brand safety, skills and fear, the reasons pilots stall before scale.
Who has to changeThe people and teams whose day-to-day must shift for this to be real, not the org chart.
What "worked" meansThe one or two numbers leadership will judge this by, agreed up front.
Where AI moves the needle · illustrative
Creative production speed High
Cost per asset High
Adoption readiness Low

The gap that matters: the value is obvious, the readiness isn't. So the engagement is mostly change management, not tooling. That framing decides everything that follows.

From day one

My first 90 days

Roughly how I'd spend my first three months as AI Transformation Lead: learn the platform and the accounts cold, run a first engagement to a real result, and leave behind the first Blueprint.

Phase 1 Days 1 to 30

Learn the platform and the accounts

  • Get fluent in Pencil hands-on: configure it, prototype with it, find where it shines and where it frustrates.
  • Sit with the assigned client accounts and the internal teams, product, delivery, sales, to learn the real picture.
  • Read the existing Blueprints and engagements, and map what's already reusable.
Phase 2 Days 31 to 60

Frame and start a real engagement

  • Take one account from ambiguity to a sharp problem statement and two or three workstreams with owners.
  • Get one real workflow live on Pencil with the client's own team, with governance in place.
  • Agree the one or two numbers leadership will judge it by, and stand up the measurement.
Phase 3 Days 61 to 90

Prove it, then codify it

  • Show a measured result on the first workflow, honestly, wins and misses both.
  • Write the first Blueprint so the next engagement starts ahead, not from scratch.
  • Hand product a short, specific list of what to build to make the next one easier.

Straight about the fit

I'd rather be honest than oversell. I haven't come up through a tier-one strategy consultancy, and I'm not an engineer: I read code, prototype and wire up automations, but I don't write production software, and deep SQL is a working skill for me, not a deep one. If the role needs a former McKinsey associate who codes, I'm not quite that profile.

What I am is rarer for this job: someone who has actually led change to completion inside large, slow organisations and from zero as a founder, and who genuinely lives in AI tooling, Claude and agentic workflows every day, building real things with it. Most transformation people can do one or the other. I'd bring both to your clients, and I'd love to talk about whether that's the trade you want.