Product Tuesdays

The customer is why the business exists. Jo-Sharon Udoh and David Edokpayi on what customer support really is, where companies get it wrong (expectations set too high, then an unanswered customer), how to hire and keep support heroes, and why the customer may not be king but still needs hand-holding and honesty.

And the debate: is customer success different from customer support? Reactive versus proactive — where support ends, success begins, and you don't build the second without the first.

Guests:

• Jo-Sharon Udoh
• David Edokpayi

Hosted by Goodnews George, with co-host Emmanuel Ogunsola.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 27 September 2022.

Who should decide how a product is designed — the customer or the business? An open debate with the room, a poll, and a conclusion that cuts both ways: the customer is the only reason the business is alive, so design along how they already behave. But innovation does not wait for customers to ask for it. Nobody requested the next big thing; it came from the research the company did to see the next opportunity.

Eighty percent of the time it's the business, looking at the data, deciding what to build; then, while it's being built, you listen hard to the people using it.

Hosted by Emmanuel Ogunsola, with co-host Goodnews George.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 20 September 2022.

An open debate - business or customer - with the room, no guests.

Two senior software engineers, Oyewale Oyediran and Moyinoluwa Adeyemi, on what world-class actually means: learn the fundamentals before the frameworks, share what you learn in writing, and let the community carry you - every job they've had came through it.

Also: knowing when to stop and ask for help (sandbox a problem for four hours, then reach out - it's not weakness), rubber-ducking your way to the answer, and the lesson that took longest to learn: it is not enough to do the work, you have to tell people you're doing it. It isn't bragging if it's true. Recorded with a packed room of engineers asking questions.

Guests:

• Oyewale Oyediran
• Moyinoluwa Adeyemi

Hosted by Goodnews George, with co-host Emmanuel Ogunsola.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 13 September 2022.

Testing is a process, not a gate. Chibuzor Obilom and Kolapo Bankole take us through the software testing life cycle end to end: planning, what to automate and what not to, bug reports developers will actually act on, and surviving the week when "it has to go live" no matter what.

Should testers sit with developers or apart? Shift-left means everybody starts working at once — QA, security, engineering — so no one unexpectedly elongates the timeline. Beyond that, it's context: the company, the team, the situation.

Guests:

• Chibuzor Obilom
• Kolapo Bankole

Hosted by Emmanuel Ogunsola, with cohost Tobechukwu Otuokere.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 30 August 2022.

Data is how you find out what is really happening — and what is really possible. Wole Oyekanmi and Abisoye Falabi walk through a data-driven product development process from the ground up: correlation versus causation, funnel analysis and where your users are dropping off, experiments sized to the team you actually have, and shipping the smallest useful thing — a dashboard, a prototype, an MVP — so people can give you feedback.

The thread running through it: communicate expectations. Tell management where you are, where you're going and what is possible, because a lot of the time they don't know.

Guests:

• Wole Oyekanmi
• Abisoye Falabi

Hosted by Tobechukwu Otuokere, with co-host Emmanuel Ogunsola.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 23 August 2022.

Design is not how it looks. Paul Otu, who leads design and user experience at Interswitch Group, on the moment he stopped measuring design by how it looked and started measuring it by whether it solved the problem — and why, in a world where every product is expected to work, you can't sell features or even benefits anymore.

We cover how to start and grow a product design career, working with stakeholders who want it their way, what designers owe engineers (and vice versa), portfolios, and the difference between a designer and a design leader. The Space dropped mid-conversation and was restarted; both halves are here as one episode.

Guests:

• Paul Otu

Hosted by Emmanuel Ogunsola, with co-hosts Tobechukwu Otuokere and Goodnews George.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 16 August 2022.

Nobody's path into product management is straight. In the very first Product Tuesdays, three product managers working in Nigerian fintech trace how they actually got here: a data analyst who got bored of the numbers and asked her MD for something else, a broadcaster-turned-project-manager who thought product management wasn't for her and nearly went into front-end development, and the detours, pauses and restarts in between.

Then the room takes over: impostor syndrome and what to do when you don't feel good enough, moving from project management to product management, how much technical depth a PM really needs, and what the job is at its core ("you are not the god of the product — you are there to bring masterminds together"). If you are new to product, or trying to grow in it, start here.

Guests:

• Adeola Adeyemi
• Julian Duru
• Deborah Ogana

Hosted by Emmanuel Ogunsola, with co-host Tobechukwu Otuokere.

Recorded live as an X Space on Tuesday 9 August 2022.