The Everyday Leader podcast features inspiring individuals building and leading teams across Africa. Listen to episodes on your preferred podcast platform here.
About our Guest
This episode’s conversation is with Omotoso “Timi” Oluwatimilehin from Lagos, Nigeria. She has over 5 years of experience working in Product Management, Business and Product Operations in Fintech and Blockchain. She has contributed to the immense growth as a founding employee in the tech startup space since 2018, including her current role at Dojah, a fintech API startup.
Timi was a recipient of Best Use of Social Media in 2015 by the Faculty of the Management at the University of Lagos and also as the Most Influential Female at the University of Lagos in 2014. She shares her #TOTS on social media and some of her intriguing perspectives have appeared on top tech blogs.
Everyday Leadership in Action
Here are a few highlights from the conversation with Timi:
Product Managers must learn to build a company alongside its founders: Product managers play a pivotal role in bridging gaps between vision and execution, such as creating compromises when there are resource constraints or disagreements in design decisions. In her past two roles, Timi has reported directly to a co-founder. She has learned to identify data to present to founders to help them make decisions. She has also found herself needing to step up and be more proactive when founders need to focus on non-product responsibilities such as fundraising or participating in accelerator programs. In all cases, open communication and a shared respect for each others’ perspectives and expertise has been critical.
Twitter can be used to learn on the job and conduct market research: In her work and career, Timi has used social media to help herself learn on the job and searching for trends across competitors and industry thought leaders. In the context of her current startup Dojah, this means searching Twitter for keywords relevant to fintech APIs. This has been useful alongside other professional development tools she uses, such as CoffeeChat’s Peer Coaching Network, which makes it easy to speak with other professionals in similar roles.
A strategy of building in public can establish trust and confidence with early adopters: Timi shares her observations around the increased use of “building in public” by fintech and web3 entrepreneurs. This typically involves sharing product roadmaps with either customers or the wider public. While there are risks in sharing future plans when it comes to competition, often at early stages there is more to be gained through increased trust and confidence by early adopters who can see whether the direction of the product and company is indeed aligned with their needs. Timi has also found this strategy helpful to solicit critical and supportive feedback from customers and industry experts.
The Everyday Leader is a podcast featuring conversations with leaders from across Africa’s companies, organizations, and governments about their experience managing teams and projects throughout their careers.
Know of an “everyday leader” in your company or network? Nominate them here.
Timi Omotoso: Product Manager, Dojah