How this Nigerian Student Became a Product Manager at Flutterwave
Some weeks ago, I saw a LinkedIn post from someone who got a highly sought-after job at Flutterwave, a Nigerian fintech company valued at 3 billion dollars. What made this announcement interesting was the fact that she was a final-year student at a federal university.
For context, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a union of lecturers at the various federal and state universities in Nigeria has been on a 7-month strike. The strike has put the education of millions of university students on indefinite hold.
Tell me about yourself
My name is Precious Adeyemi. I’m in my final year at the Obafemi Awolowo University where I’m pursuing a BSc. degree in Public Administration. I’m an ambivert who enjoys networking.
How and why did you become a product manager?
In 2020, I saw the light. It started with me being a campus ambassador for some tech companies and I realized I liked the tech industry. However, I didn’t put too much effort into it until 2021 when I started coding. I wanted to explore a career in Frontend Engineering but as fellow Gen-Zs would say, it was not giving.
What happened next?
At that point, coding felt like an escape plan and not something I was passionate about.
So what did you do?
I sat myself down and said, “Even though I want to escape from sapa, I need to at least enjoy what I am doing”. After that, I thought about my skillsets. Particularly, I took note of the fact I like interacting with people. Next, I began researching tech careers that were suited for someone with my skillsets, experiences, and personality.
What career paths did you discover from the research?
I remember coming across Developer Relations and Project Management, which I was already doing a little bit of at AIESEC. Then I found out about product management. I liked the idea of product management because it had technical elements but didn’t necessarily require you to be technical. That was the start of my product management journey.
Was this still in 2021?
No, this was around January 2022. I set a goal for myself that by June 2022, I should have at least landed an internship in product management.
You must have been dedicated
Yes! I was ready to take product management courses and consume as much product management content as possible. As planned, I was doing just that before the ASUU strike happened.
How did the ASUU strike impact your journey?
When the strike happened, I got tired of waiting around and deemed myself ready for a job. What I did next was tweet about being open to product management internship roles. The CEO of a startup saw my tweet, reached out, and offered me an internship opportunity at his company.
Wow! Was that how you landed the Flutterwave job?
No, this was another tech company. I started interning there in February 2022 and I stayed there for a few months. Don’t worry, I will get to the story of how I got the Flutterwave job.
Lol! Forgive my impatience. I’m just intrigued by your story
It’s alright. Back to the story. If you remember, I talked about being a campus ambassador for some tech companies in 2020. One such company was Flutterwave. I was a campus ambassador for their Barter product. During that period, I tried to familiarize myself with some Flutterwave employees.
Oh, I see
There was one person in particular who I was always in contact with. I constantly shared updates about my product management journey with him and asked him to let me know when there was an open position for a product management intern. Luckily for me, he remembered me when a position opened and even sent in a recommendation on my behalf.
I did some interview rounds. I think they were also interviewing some other people for the role.
Were you friends with the person that recommended you?
Not at all! We weren’t friends. Perhaps now, I might be able to call him a friend since we work in the same company. Although, he works in an entirely different team.
What do you think distinguished you from other applicants?
Sometimes, it’s easy to brag about one’s abilities but personally, I think God’s grace was a very large contributor to how I got the offer.
I also think that my resilience and tenacity were important. I say this because, throughout my journey in tech, I have always relied on growing my network and reaching out to people. Whenever there was a development in my journey, I would update some people within my network. I didn’t care if they were replying or not.
That’s an interesting approach
Yes, it was. Of course, I was aware that these people were busy so once in a while, I would send a message saying something like, “Hi, I hope your day was good. I just want to inform you that I just completed a course in ABC and I’ve learned XYZ. I think I am 45 percent ready to get a job”. When I take another course, I’ll send another update and increase the percentage of my readiness.
I was in people’s DMs, regardless of whether they were responding to my messages. The important thing for me was that they were aware of someone called Precious who is working towards landing a product management job so if an opportunity opens up, I would be one of the first people that come to mind.
You mentioned that you are in your final year at the university. How would you say the ASUU contributed to your growth?
I can’t lie. I’m one of the people grateful that the strike happened. I’m grateful because it gave me time to build the foundation of my career. As a result of the strike, I got my first internship opportunity and it was also because of the strike that Flutterwave took me. I say this because usually, Flutterwave doesn’t employ students. In summary, the strike has impacted me in a good way.
Is Public Administration still a career path you intend to pursue?
[chuckles] what do you think?
I genuinely don’t know and I am trying not to make assumptions
For context, Public Admin has to do with managing government affairs. Right now, I don’t have a reason to manage any government affairs. If in the long run, I get to work on a tech project for the government, no problem. However, I will work on such a project in the capacity of a product manager, not as a public administrator.
Have you ever considered dropping out?
It has never crossed my mind to drop out. Despite how discouraging it can be, school is still very important. I can say that most of the things I know and the people I have in my life are because of school. I cannot deny that it has contributed to who I am.
Also, I’m in my final year. The only thing that can make me drop out of school is a full scholarship to study at Harvard, Oxford, and the likes. School refines you. I’m not just talking about the curriculum. I’m referring to school in its entirety — the people, environment, and experiences.
What’s the day in the life of a PM Intern like at Flutterwave?
When I wake up, I check my emails to see if anyone sent a mail or if there’s any notification from Jira or any of the other tools we use. The next thing I do is check Slack because we work remotely.
Every morning, we have daily standups where everyone gives an update on what they are working on. Based on the updates given during the standup, I update my roadmaps to keep track of work progress.
I usually have meetings with my line manager. I also have meetings with people in other teams like Compliance, Customer Experience, some stakeholders, and even engineers. To be honest, it is usually one meeting after another. After each meeting is a call to action where I work on a document or a presentation.
Before I check out by 6 pm, I check my emails and reach out to my line manager to see if there’s any task I need to work on. In a nutshell, that’s my daily routine.
What is the best part about working at Flutterwave?
Two things — the people and the vision. At Flutterwave, we build products because we believe in a particular vision. Then there are times when I see someone else using a product I worked on or a feature I pushed to live. That feeling is something I cannot explain. All I know is that it gives me a feeling of accomplishment.
Also, at Flutterwave, we have one of the best cultures. On the company’s Slack channel, I can literally reach out to anyone from any team, in any country and they would respond in a welcoming tone. They are always ready to help. Also, when we have our general meeting, you can tell from the interactions that the work environment is not toxic but fun.
Flutterwave also has a track record of hiring very smart people so that helps a lot.
Tell me about a product management concept you had to learn on the job
Product management is one of those professions where you learn almost everything on the job. While taking courses is great, the real work is the practical application of what you’ve learned.
When I was taking courses, I used to write user stories and PRDs and I thought I was great at it but it’s different when you are handling a real project and you have to explain every single aspect to stakeholders and engineers. The stakes become higher. Mistakes come with consequences. You just have to get it right.
Also, as a product manager, a lot of people’s work and productivity is dependent on you getting it right and explaining it right.
There is also the aspect of doing research and making presentations. Until you’re tasked with speaking with users, understanding the problems they face, analyzing the data gotten from your research, and explaining it to your team in the simplest way possible, you wouldn’t realize how difficult making presentations can be.
Another thing I had to learn on the job was technical writing. Aside from poetry, I’ve never enjoyed writing so I initially struggled with that.
What would you advise a newbie to get a job?
If you’re really thinking of doing product management, you need to have the drive. That is, you will need to be self-motivated. People would be able to see it in you. It would show in the way you ask questions and respond to questions when you reach out to people.
You cannot reach out to someone and ask them, “What is product management?”. They would not take you seriously. A better approach would be “Hello, I’m doing XYZ currently in my quest to become a product manager. After doing this, what do you suggest should be my next steps?”
My point is that your drive should be obvious. Some people get lucky and have people take chances on them but for most people, you have to prove over and over that you are worthy of an opportunity.
I also believe in prayer and would advise others to do the same. I’m the type of person who believes prayer + hard work = success.
Lastly, don’t beat yourself up. If you apply for a job and don’t get it, it doesn’t mean that you are not qualified. Every day, less qualified people get hired while more qualified people get ignored.
Any last words for our readers?
A lot of people glorify tech. More particularly, they glorify the process in a way that makes it sound like a walk in the park. However, it is not as easy as people make it out to be.
I want people to know that tech and product management are not easy and I wish more people would talk about the background work they had to do before succeeding.
This is part of our series called “My Product Story” where we provide a platform for product professionals to talk about the highs and lows of their career journeys. If you would like to share your story with us, reach out to us here.
