UPG Viewer

29 Years Old

Kenya

Female

Yes! That is really who you are!

I graduated from Karatina University, Kenya, with a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology in 2017. From there, I started an internship with a Fintech company as an IT officer and was later absorbed into full employment where I worked till January 2019. I moved to a different company as a software developer, where I worked for a few months before transitioning into a Product Owner role. I worked with this company for close to 4 years, till June 2022 before moving to the current organization I’m working with (YLabs) as a Product Manager, in August 2022.

I am passionate about using my technical and people skills to solve real-world problems such as Poverty, Quality education, and Good health and wellbeing. This is the reason why I enjoy working with YLabs because it focuses on alleviating these issues for young people. I have led the development of a digital platform that enables youths within Rwanda to access information on topics such as Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), Gender Equality, and mental health. Throughout its development, I was responsible for collecting user requirements, translating them into development tasks, prioritizing the work, and creating roadmaps to align the team on the product vision, its goals, and expected milestones. I also help with product analytics during the Monitoring and Evaluation phase, which is the best part in my role, because I get to see the impact that our work has on the young people.

I have also been mentoring young people who’d like to start their career in Product Management. During weekends, I sometimes take time to visit children’s orphanages and support them either financially or by helping out with any chores. In the future, I hope to lead an organization that helps young people to create employment, to reduce poverty levels within the country.

Prioritization, Team work, Technical knowledge, Project Management, and User research

Team work

While I do enjoy some focus time to myself when working on specific tasks, I find it very effective to work as a team. For instance, at YLabs, we once had website that we built out as an extension of our existing platform to a different country. As soon as it was about to launch, the funders mentioned that the Website wasn’t going to be super effective and that we needed to change it to a mobile app instead. This was a massive change, with super tight timelines. The website was being overseen by a different Product Manager by then, but he could not handle everything by himself. We had a meeting with the entire team, drafted a plan on what needs to be done within the remaining time to achieve the set goals, and delegated this work to individuals. We managed the website as 3 product managers, plus a team of other people (designers, developers, marketing team). We had the highest level of teamwork during this time, and we managed to deliver quality and tested work before the deadline.

Yes, I have acted as a volunteer a couple of times:
1. I volunteered to act as a product manager for a non-profit organization that was developing an AI-driven virtual meeting platform to help native speakers and disabled people around Africa to easily connect.
2. I also volunteer to mentor young people in Product Management

What I have learned during my volunteer is that it always feels great to be a part of change, without expecting to get anything back. It’s the most genuine help you can give, and it helps you grow some soft skills that go a long way. For instance, by interfacing with the people you’re volunteering to help, eg my mentors, you develop empathy towards them, and it keeps building up. You also develop patience and learn how to prioritize your work better.

Undergraduate: I have completed an undergraduate degree

I would focus on water conservation.

I come from a village in the Eastern part of Kenya, which gets super dry in most seasons. Also, when I come to the city, I’m surrounded by poor drainage systems, and most times people consume unclean water since it’s expensive to get cleaned and distilled water. Therefore, to alleviate the lack of water during dry seasons my project would ensure that I plan for water conservation strategies, such as building boreholes, setting up dams, and setting up big tanks. I’d also work on getting water filters and distributing clean water to society within the cities.

1. Inadequate funds – It’s not easy to drill a borehole, set up a dam, or supply distilled water to the communities because there’s a large number in need, and the resources needed are intensive. I’d ask for donor funding or work on partnering with the local/county government for financial aid.
2. Reliance on the community to keep the projects running – The community will play a big part in the success of the project. If they support the initiative, the project will be a success, and vice versa is true. We therefore need buy-in from them so that we can work with set guidelines and rules.
3. Reliance on the weather – the dry area initiative will be impacted by the lack or availability of rain. We’ll need to have an effective plan for harvesting as much as we can with every little amount of rainfall.

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