Michael Akanji

2025 in retrospect: how we launched and failed yet again and what I've learnt. I came into 2025 quite excited at our plans to launch Oddstacker yet again in 2025. Working on this product since 2018 has shaped my journey in tech. I've become a proficient UX/UI designer, brand designer, and backend engineer. When it comes to products my defining philosophy is that anything can be sold and made to work. It just has a cost and if it's beyond what the team can pay then they fail. I reflected on the journey ahead from this standpoint, a lot. I didn't want to be baselessly optimistic. Being an innovative product in the iGaming space wasn't something we were the first to pull. Technical iGaming products like Bet Exchanges have been successfully sold and have defined the space. We launched and tackled the nemesis of every new product — marketing and distribution. From day 0 I was experimenting. I treated all my assumptions as variables. The users would guide us to product-market fit. We chose influencer marketing as our marketing approach. It is the most effective distribution strategy in the space. We encountered a number of problems. 1. Low user purchasing power: this I already realised and factored into our launch strategy. 2. Influencer behaviour: we quickly discovered that a lot of the influencers in the Nigerian iGaming space were unprofessional. From unanswered emails to a gross lack of appetite for work. It quickly became obvious many of them didn't see their social media platform as a brand. 3. Influencer pricing: the top influencers were very expensive while offering little in return. And since a number of top brands in the space went along with that, there was no incentive to change. A lot of their social media followers were bots especiallyonX and Telegram. In addition, a lot of their human followers were farmed through giveaways and online *philanthropy* and it reflected a lot in their mindset. 4. The market's mindset: The majority of the market were neither technical nor strategic. It seemed they needed to be spoon fed. It was anticipated, somewhat, so we adapted. Just more than we thought we needed to. We couldn't work with a lot of these influencers and it affected our reach. We created a plan on how to work around this moat. By this time we were about 3 months in and had over 5,000 sign ups. Daily engagement of about 200 - 500 players, 30k - 50k in daily stakes, and over a million Naira in stakes, cumulatively. At this point we had a working strategy, we just needed to scale it. And this was the problem. We had two solutions: spend insanely on the influencers to get that scale or switch to web 3 and utilize it's incentive based product adoption to both scale and reach a wider international audience. We couldn't afford 1. Solution 2 was cheaper and more startup friendly, and we were to go that route, however, we couldn't implement that for reasons that were beyond my control. #startup #founder #success

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Wrote my first engineering blog post. It's about the frontend work behind the Cowrywise NG Stocks launch. The waitlist page alone pulled in 150k unique visits and converted over 50% into applicants. By the time we closed, we had 80k+ people waiting. The article covers the technical implementation, from the waitlist form tied to Posthog and customer.io workflows, to a 170+ replies Slack debate, to how cross-functional friction actually led to better decisions. If you're into frontend engineering, growth engineering, or just curious how we approached a product launch, give it a read. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/ewQNNAfK

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Know your audience. Design for them. A pension platform targeting Nigerians aged 40 to 65 launched with a 23MB homepage filled with autoplay videos, custom fonts, and heavy scripts. On networks like MTN and Glo, it took 25 seconds to load. Most users never even saw it. After optimizing the site using lightweight HTML, compressed assets, and simplified content, they brought it down to 900KB. The result? Sign-ups tripled. The lesson? Speed isn’t just about performance. It’s about trust, accessibility, and respecting the reality your users live in.

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I LEARNT SOMETHING NEW TODAY!!! I had the privilege of sourcing for a trusted Flutter Dev to jump on a quick Fintech project with my team and my client needed this urgently, so I made a post and shared to 2 communities on WhatsApp requesting for strong recommendations. It was a short contract role and the budget was 1M. Barely 2mins after dropping this post, my DM was blazing. What caught my attention the most was how these Devs were introducing themselves. I quickly realized that most people don't know how to sell themselves at the first introduction. 50% of the intros I received were sent this way: "Hello. Good morning." It literally stopped there. I was amazed. While some just sent their CV with their names, expecting a strong response. Well, I'd advise that such intros are done in a better way like this... Step 1: Keep your first message short, warm, and professional. When you DM, don’t just say “Hi”. Give them context immediately. Example: Hi John, I came across your post about the Product Design opening in the WhatsApp group and I’m really interested. I’m a Product Designer with experience crafting user-centered dashboards and mobile experiences for fintech and SaaS platforms. Step 2: Mention your portfolio and relevance. Follow up in the same message with a relevant link and quick note on fit. Example: You can view my portfolio here: (include your portfolio link here). Some of my works like the (project A) and (project B) are similar to what the role seems to need. Step 3: Close confidently but politely. End with a short line that opens up the conversation. Example: I’d love to learn more about the role and how I can contribute. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best Regards, Wisdom Nic. ------- These steps and pointers I believe are very key. I'd also love to hear from you, what else could be included?

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Designers Nailed Zap by Paystack’s UI, Yet a ₦250M Fine Hit. Proof Design Isn’t Everything! Zap by Paystack launched in March 2025, a sleek app promising money transfers in ten seconds. Its designers, crafting in Lagos, shaped every pixel with care. With smooth flows, a scan-to-pay feature, and clean layouts, they created an app that felt effortless, as if Nigeria’s messy payment world could be simplified through elegance. It hit the App Store, users loved it, and Paystack’s bold consumer push seemed unstoppable. Then the Central Bank of Nigeria imposed a ₦250 million fine, about $190000, on Paystack. Zap, using Paystack’s processing license and a Titan Trust Bank partnership, was seen as a wallet taking deposits, a role needing a banking license. A trademark issue with Zap Africa added noise, but the fine was about regulation, not design. The designers’ work, flawless and user-friendly, wasn’t the problem. Rules and oversight were. This story shows a simple truth: life doesn’t revolve around design. We can build perfect interfaces, but the world, with its regulations and complexities, has the final say. I’ve shipped products across fintech, crypto, and B2B platforms, creating intuitive experiences. Working at Paystack someday sits high on my design career wishlist, but like Zap’s team, I’ve learned design is one piece of a larger puzzle. Compliance, strategy, and timing often matter more than a great UI. The takeaway is clear: designers, we’re essential, but we don’t run the show. Our best work thrives when we consider the bigger picture, like regulators and markets. Zap’s designers did excellent work, but the fine still came. Let’s design with humility, knowing our role is vital but not the whole story. I hope to see Zap fly, and I trust Shola Akinlade and his team of tech whizz to get out of this lurch. What’s your view? How do you balance design’s impact in a world that demands more?

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Ever wondered how developers know where a bug is hiding 👀? We had a community call a few weeks ago and a product designer asked me a question. He said, “I hear devs say they have a bug to fix and I always wonder how they know it’s a bug and how they know where the problem is and actually solve it. How do you people handle this?” And it hit me how we say certain things and just expect everyone who hears it to actually understand. My response to him was that we (devs) write our code in components and modules. Take, for instance, a wardrobe, and you put your jeans, T-shirts, shirts, pants, and native wear in one place. Neatly folded yes, but all on top of each other. i.e., a folded pair of jeans sits on top of a plain trouser, and then the Ankara or senator is just on top of that. As much as every clothing item is folded, it makes searching for something really difficult. Imagine now, you put the jeans in one drawer, the T-shirts in another, the Ankara goes to another section, the shirts are hung neatly. When there is an issue, it’s easier to solve it because you know what section has what you need and how to narrow your search. That’s what modules and helper functions do for us. A module is a unit of code that groups related functionality together — routes, controllers, schemas, middlewares, services, etc. This can include functions (a block of code that performs a task) or classes (a group of many functions). Using the wardrobe analogy, imagine a compartment where all your jeans are – jackets, trousers, shirts, bags. That compartment is your jean module, and so when you need to use that module in another module, all you have to do is call it (import) and you can use it. What helper functions do is help you separate all the concerns needed for your API, especially when you have a number of database queries in that API. Instead of having redundant multiple queries, you can just separate the concerns into these functions and when needed, you can effectively make changes and corrections without tampering with other queries. Debugging in dev lingo is really just looking for an anomaly. You’re expecting a certain response but when that action is triggered, you get something else. Either a clear error message or even a success message that doesn’t give the expected response. Say when this button is clicked, it should do this. If it doesn’t do what it’s expected to do, that’s a bug. There are many debugging methods, no doubt. But one of the best ways is to first separate the concerns. So, the next time you hear a dev mention a bug, know there's a method behind the drama 🤣😁.

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Over a year ago, I had the opportunity to feature in TechCabal’s Entering Tech series — a one-minute video series aimed at helping young Africans break into the tech industry. In my talk, I shared practical insights on how to get started in frontend engineering. Seeing TechCabal repost my talk recently is a reminder that the message still resonates. If you’re considering a career in frontend engineering and wondering how to begin, the core advice remains just as relevant today.👇🏾 This kind of practical guidance is exactly what the Entering Tech content track at Moonshot is built to offer. If you’re just starting out in tech or still finding your path, Moonshot by TechCabal is your launchpad.

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Milestone Unlocked: First Community Contribution for Use-Africa-Pay/core! 🚀 I launched `@use-africa-pay/core` in December 2025 to make payment integration easier for African devs. Today, we just merged our first community PR! They helped us enable TypeScript strict mode, making the SDK more robust for everyone. The stats so far: 📦 800+ Downloads ⭐ 17 GitHub Stars 🛠️ 1 Awesome Contributor It's been an amazing 2-month journey from "just a side project" to an open-source tool used by real developers. If you are building fintech apps in Africa, check us out or come grab a "good first issue": 🔗NPM: https://lnkd.in/da4zxDXw 🔗 GITHUB: https://lnkd.in/dMTUCw3Z #OpenSource #AfricaTech #JavaScript #Fintech #BuildInPublic Paystack Remita Flutterwave mono Monnify #ReactJS #ReactNative

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"Why another payment app? And how on earth do you plan to beat M-Pesa?" I get asked these two questions constantly. The truth? We aren't trying to "beat" M-Pesa at moving money. They won that game decades ago. But moving money is now the easy part. The hard part, the part that’s still broken, is making sure that money leaves a trail that actually helps you grow. Building VycePay has been a lesson in grit. We’re not just coding an app; we’re formalizing an entire economy through @usernames and trust-based data. Stop thinking about payments. Start thinking about "Interoperable Identity." In 2026, the "all-in-one" wallet is the baseline. The real winners in Fintech will be the ones who solve for Credit Gaps that traditional mobile money doesn't touch. Here is how VycePay goes beyond the transaction: ✅ Data over Collateral: M-Pesa shows you spent money; VyceScore shows you are creditworthy. We use transaction velocity to build a verifiable financial passport. ✅ Frictionless P2P: We’ve moved past phone numbers. Global @usernames mean your identity isn't tied to a local SIM card. ✅ Interoperability: Your financial identity should work wherever you go; across borders and platforms. The future of finance isn't just digital; it's personal. Hope you all had a productive weekend. Happy building, and here’s to a massive week ahead! 🚀 #VycePay #Fintech #FinancialIdentity #Innovation #AfricaRising

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𝗔𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗴𝗶𝗴𝘀? 𝗗𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿. ✨ 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭 : Research smartly 🔎 - Track companies that just raised funding. Watch what’s trending on Y Combinator and Product Hunt. - Study industry hotspots → Fintech startups are common in Africa, AI startups in US and China, e-commerce in Australia. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮 : Position yourself 👀 - Engage with posts from founders, product managers, and recruiters (not random likes). - Share work or posts related to those niches so your profile attracts the right eyes. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: Pitch with proof 🎯 - ✍️ Then, create sample work that fits their industry and pitch it. (Yes, do some free work upfront, it can open doors.) - Pitch directly to companies in your niche, and let your visibility + positioning back you up. 👉 Visibility gets you noticed. 👉 Positioning keeps you in the right rooms. 👉 Pitching turns attention into actual gigs. ⚡ Do this consistently for 3–6 months and the results will surprise you: 👉 The trick? Don’t just wait. Go study where the work lives and place yourself right there. You’re welcome 😉. Repost and share to people who will find this useful .

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I designed a finance app that wasn't supposed to make people feel rich. It was supposed to make them feel calm. Most finance apps are built for efficiency. Track expenses. Generate reports. Monitor cashflow. But here's what I learned designing Auro, a cashflow app for Nigerian freelancers: The real problem wasn't missing features. It was that existing finance tools made people MORE anxious, not less. You open your banking app and immediately feel dread. Even when your balance is fine, something about the experience just stresses you out. That's not a feature problem. That's a design problem. Three things that changed how I approached the entire app: 1. Financial stress is emotional, not just practical Freelancers don't just need dashboards and charts. They need peace of mind. The most important question isn't "How much did I spend last month?" It's "Do I have enough to survive this month?" So I designed the dashboard to answer that in under 3 seconds. Big, clear numbers. No hunting. No anxiety-inducing red alerts. You open the app, you know your runway, you breathe. 2. Automation beats discipline every time Freelancers know they should set aside taxes and save for emergencies. They just... don't. Not because they're irresponsible. Because cashflow is inconsistent and doing mental math every time money comes in is exhausting. So I built smart buckets that auto-allocate percentages. Set it once. The app handles it forever. No discipline required. No guilt. Just automated peace of mind. 3. Visual design affects trust more than features do I avoided "banking blue." That cold, corporate shade that makes you feel like you're about to get audited. Instead, I used warm greens. Softer tones. The goal? Create an app people would want to open, not one they'd avoid. Because if the visual experience triggers stress, the features don't matter. Here's what I realized: Sometimes the best product design isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that makes people feel better. If your users are anxious every time they open your product, they'll stop opening it. No matter how good the features are. Auro wasn't just about managing money. It was about managing the anxiety that comes with uncertain income. And that required designing for emotions, not just functionality. Check out the prototype of the app 👇 What's an app you avoid opening because of how it makes you feel?

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This week, I'm kicking off a series of posts on two essential concepts in frontend development Authentication and Authorization. Let me break it down with a story. Meet Tobi. Tobi checked into a hotel on a calm Sunday afternoon to unwind. At the reception, he made his payment and was handed a key card to Room 48. Now, here’s where it gets interesting… Tobi’s experience at the hotel is a perfect analogy for authentication and authorization. ✅ Authentication happened the moment Tobi paid and received his key card. That card confirmed he was a legitimate guest—just like how users log into an app to verify their identity. ✅ Authorization kicked in when Tobi realized he could only enter Room 48—not Room 50 or the executive suite. The hotel granted him access based on what he paid for. Similarly, users can only access specific pages or features in an app depending on their role. Take Jumia, for example When you log in as a buyer, you don’t see pages meant for sellers. That’s authorization in action. 🚀 Tomorrow, I’ll dive into how authentication flow works in React, you don’t want to miss it. Did this story help you understand the difference between authentication and authorization? ♻️ Repost to help someone else learn. #Linkedin #webdeveloper #frontenddeveloper

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Why is it so hard to get your first Tech Job as a Newbie? 7 out of every 10 newbie struggle to get their first tech job. Let’s be honest, breaking into tech in Nigeria (and globally) feels like trying to enter a VIP club without an invitation. You’ve probably: - Taken 3–5 free courses already - Rewritten your CV 10 times - Applied for over 50-100 jobs with barely any response - Started to wonder if tech is “not for you” But the truth is — it’s not your fault. The tech job market is tough, noisy, and confusing, especially if you’re just starting out. Here are the 5 biggest struggles newbies face: 1. Too many skills, no clear direction Should you learn Product Management? UI/UX? Data Analysis? Coding? There’s a sea of options and no one to guide you through. 2. CVs and LinkedIn profiles that don’t pass 5 seconds Most recruiters spend less than 7 seconds looking at your CV. If it doesn’t scream “I can do the job” immediately, it’s ignored. 3. No portfolio = No proof = No job Even if you “know the work,” if you don’t have practical projects to show, you're not convincing anyone. 4. You’re not being seen — no visibility You’re applying on job boards, but you’re invisible. Many tech jobs are filled through referrals, visibility, and positioning. 5. Zero strategy. Just vibes. Most people are hoping that one lucky job post will change their lives. But hope is not a strategy. What You Really Need is a Step-by-Step System Not more random free courses. Not another "tech" WhatsApp group that drains your data. You need a systematic, proven roadmap to go from “confused beginner” to “employable tech talent” without wasting 6–12 months figuring it out alone. That’s why I sat down and created a 3-hour well detailed video step by step course on “How to Get a Tech Job in 90 Days” This course is built for newbies with real struggles. The course is for you if: 1. You're tired of applying and not getting replies 2. You want to switch to tech but don’t know where to start 3. You’re learning skills but not getting jobs 4. You want real, practical help — not more “motivation” Ready to stop guessing and start getting interviews? Click here ( https://selar.com/2t3w31 ) to go learn "How to Get a Tech Job in 90 Days” now. Let me help you go from confused to employed within the next 3 months. Do share with someone who is thinking about starting a career in tech now

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What I’ve Learned Working With International Teams as a Nigerian Developer. Working with global teams has taught me three big lessons: 1️⃣ Good communication beats good assumptions. If you don’t say it clearly, someone will interpret it wrongly. 2️⃣ Your time zone is a superpower. You get to push work forward while others sleep. The cycle becomes continuous. 3️⃣ Your background is an advantage, not a barrier. Nigerian developers carry creativity, resilience, and problem-solving that companies don’t even realize they need. The world is bigger than your local environment. Show up. Speak up. Your skills can compete anywhere. #GlobalTalent #NigerianDevelopers #RemoteWork

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Could this be the end of the road for traditional Designer → Developer workflows? This week, I experienced something that genuinely changed how I think products will be built going forward. Last year, I designed CollatePay a side project focused on helping Nigerians convert crypto to cash, convert gift cards to cash, and pay bills seamlessly. The product design was completed late last year, but development slowed down due to unforeseen challenges, something many side projects struggle with. Then earlier this week, the backend engineer, Muhammed Agbaje, reached out with an idea: 👉 “What if we let AI help us write the Flutter application directly from the designs?” Curious enough, we immediately jumped on a call. For nearly 4 hours, we experimented live configuring environments, connecting workflows, and testing what modern AI development could actually do using Figma MCP and Claude Code. What made this even more interesting was how Claude Code operated using multiple agents, each handling different parts of the application simultaneously: • Onboarding flows • Bills payment • Gift card conversion • Core navigation & screens • Application structure and integration Instead of one long development pipeline, AI agents were essentially working across different product modules at the same time. We monitored the process end-to-end as the build came together. Then we generated the app build. Installed it. Started testing. And honestly… I was shocked. On the first trial, the app was already functional and visually close to the original design. For the first time, it felt like the gap between design and production was shrinking dramatically. Of course, this is only our first exploration. Some interactions are still missing, refinements are needed, and we’ll keep improving until the experience fully matches the vision. But one thing is clear: Designers are no longer just designing. Engineers are no longer building alone. AI is becoming an active collaborator. Over the coming weeks, I’ll continue sharing how this project evolves as more of my designs are turned into functional applications using AI + multi-agent workflows. We’re still exploring. And this feels like only the beginning 🚀 A screen recording of the app build review is attached below. Since I couldn’t upload images or videos directly, I used the actual Figma design board as the video thumbnail. We’ll likely create a detailed walkthrough video once the build is fully refined and properly integrated 👇 #BuildInPublic #AIInDesign #DesignToCode #ClaudeAI #MultiAgentAI #ProductDesign #UXDesign #FlutterDev #SideProject #StartupJourney #FutureOfWork #Figma #AIEngineering

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If you're a frontend developer looking to level up and stand out, here is what to focus on to go beyond basic components and UIs and master what matters. 1. Performance: Speed is UX Fast apps delight users. Learn: ✔ Code Splitting & Lazy Loading ✔ Lighthouse & Core Web Vitals ✔ Bundle Optimisation (Webpack, Vite) ✔ Image Optimisation (Webp, SVG, Responsive images) ✔ Efficient Rendering (Reconciliation, Virtual DOM) 2. UX/UI: Design with Intent Good design is invisible. Learn: ✔ Design Systems (Storybook, Figma integration) ✔ Accessibility (ARIA, WCAG) ✔ Responsive Design (Flexbox, Grid, Media Queries) ✔ Motion & Micro-interactions (Framer Motion, GSAP) ✔ Form UX & Validation (Formik, Yup) 3. JavaScript Mastery: Think in Code Go beyond syntax. Understand: ✔ Modern JS (ES6+, async/await, closures) ✔ Functional Programming (Pure functions, immutability) ✔ TypeScript (Types = safer code) ✔ Event Loop & Call Stack ✔ Error Handling Patterns 4. Frameworks & Libraries: Deep Dive Pick one, master it: ✔ React, Vue, or Angular (Component lifecycle, hooks, state management) ✔ State Management (Redux, Zustand, Pinia, Signals) ✔ SSR & CSR (Next.js, Nuxt.js) ✔ Component Patterns (HOCs, render props, compound components) 5. Testing: Ship with Confidence Your code should come with a safety net: ✔ Unit Testing (Jest, Vitest) ✔ Component Testing (React Testing Library, Cypress) ✔ End-to-End Testing ✔ Test Coverage & Best Practices 6. DevOps & Build: Own the Pipeline Know how your code gets live: ✔ CI/CD for Frontend (Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Actions) ✔ Code Linting & Prettier ✔ Feature Flags ✔ Environment Configs 7. API Integration: Frontend Meets Backend Smooth communication = better UX: ✔ REST & GraphQL ✔ Axios, Fetch, SWR, React Query ✔ Error Boundaries & Retry Logic ✔ API Versioning & Pagination 8. Monitoring & Debugging: Stay Informed Don’t just build—observe: ✔ Browser DevTools Mastery ✔ Logging & Error Tracking (Sentry, LogRocket) ✔ Performance Monitoring ✔ Real User Monitoring (RUM, Hotjar, FullStory) 9. Security: Build Trust by Default A secure frontend protects users and data: ✔ Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) & Content Security Policy ✔ Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) ✔ HTTPS, Secure Cookies, SameSite ✔ Input Sanitisation & Validation ✔ OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (Frontend auth flows) ✔ Refresh Token Handling (Rotation, Expiry, Storage) ✔ Handling Tokens Securely (JWT, LocalStorage vs HttpOnly cookies) ✔ Encryption on the Frontend (Web Crypto API, AES, RSA for sensitive data) 10. Soft Skills & Growth: Be a Well-Rounded Engineer Technical skills get you hired. Soft skills grow your impact: ✔ Communication & Collaboration (with designers, backend, QA) ✔ Code Reviews & Mentorship ✔ Time Management & Task Prioritisation ✔ Writing Technical Docs & Knowledge Sharing ✔ Staying Up to Date (Blogs, Communities, Conferences) Stay creative, stay curious, and keep learning! #Frontend #JavaScriptDeveloper #ReactDev #UIDesign #WebPerformance #mobile

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Tacit Knowledge vs Documented Requirements in Software Development One thing my years in software development have taught me is that many Nigerian startup clients understand what they want to build, but struggle to properly document it. In many cases, what they provide is a bullet-point idea document, not a true Software Requirements Specification (SRS). Yet the SRS is the bedrock of software engineering. It guides development, testing, system architecture, and system documentation. Recently, a service provider contacted me about a client who wanted to build a fintech application. The documentation they sent was simply a list of features at the surface level. During development discussions, I had to ask deeper questions: 1. What is the revenue model? Where are the key features that generate revenue (e.g., interest rate variations by duration or principal amount, penalties, transaction charges)? 2. What is the reward or incentive system model? In this case, none had been defined. 3. How does the product compete with existing fintech platforms? 4. What are the business rules behind the features? These rules are critical for building core engines such as a savings plan engine. Most of these answers were not in the document. However, the client actually had the knowledge — it was simply tacit knowledge, gained from experience in the industry. They had the answers, but were not always aware of them until someone asked the right questions to trigger those insights. This is where an experienced developer adds real value. Part of our job is not just writing code. It is helping clients transform tacit knowledge into structured documentation, such as a proper Software Requirements Specification (SRS). Once documented, the client can review it, refine it, and align the vision with the development team. Interestingly, this process sometimes creates tension. A project manager may successfully secure a project through strong presentations and then act as an intermediary between the client and the developer. When deeper requirement analysis begins, intermediaries may assume the developer is trying to “show off” or become an “island of knowledge.” But in reality, you are simply doing the work necessary for the project to succeed. In my experience, when you help clients turn their experience and ideas into clear documentation, two things happen: 1. The project becomes easier and more predictable to build. 2. Clients develop deeper trust in your expertise. Good developers don’t just write code. They translate ideas into systems. And sometimes, that means helping clients turn tacit knowledge into structured knowledge. #SoftwareEngineering #Fintech #RequirementsEngineering #SoftwareArchitecture #BusinessAnalysis #StartupNigeria #TechInNigeria #ProductDevelopment

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True Luxury is Built on Standards, Not Shortcuts. I am creating a portfolio and doing a study on HTML/CSS/JS security from design to deployment. I also am focusing on luxury modern design in web development for 2026. I am ensuring that my “Cloud Dancer” and “Obsidian” environments are: Ethical: Building for the universal web, not just one browser engine. Systactically Pure: Clean code is secure code. Performance Optimized: Browsers process standard properties fast. Excellence isn’t just what is seen; it’s the integrity of the hidden structure. You can check out the light/dark theme, on CodePen, at the link in the comments. Is your digital space built with the same integrity as a physical structure? #SilentArchitect #ModernCSS #UXEngineering #WebPerformance #KineticFriction #LuxuryDesign

I just shipped a fintech app that finally lets freelancers in Nigeria & Kenya get paid by US/UK clients without losing 12–18% to hidden fees and shady middlemen. And honestly? I almost quit this project halfway through. Here’s the ugly truth: when the client first briefed me, I thought “another remittance app.” I’ve designed a few 🤪. Multi-currency wallets, transfer flows, invoicing modules — seen it, done it. But then I talked to the actual users. One freelancer told me she’d been waiting 6 days for a $2,400 payment to clear. The platform kept saying “processing.” No estimated arrival. No breakdown of fees. She eventually got $1,980 after “FX adjustments” she never agreed to. Another small business owner in Lagos showed me three different apps on his phone. One for receiving USD, one for converting to NGN, one for paying suppliers. He was losing hours every week just moving money around. That’s when it hit me: we weren’t building a payment app. We were building trust in a system that had repeatedly betrayed these people. So I threw out the original wireframes. Listen, If your fintech product doesn’t make users feel in control before they hit “send,” you’ve already lost them. We redesigned the entire transfer flow around one radical rule: nothing happens until the user sees exactly what they’ll get and when. Real-time fee preview (not buried in T&Cs) Exact arrival date (not “3–5 business days”) Recipient gets the full amount shown (no “partner bank deductions” later) Once the money lands, users can: - Hold it in USD/GBP/EUR wallets that actually earn yield (yes, real interest) - Issue invoices directly from the app - Spend globally with a virtual card - Track every expense in one dashboard The feature users loved most wasn’t the fast transfer. It was the “What I’ll actually receive” calculator on the send screen. However, the real unlock was retention. I have seen most remittance apps treat the transfer as the finish line. We treated it as the starting line. Now early users are keeping 60–70% of their money in the app post-transfer. They’re using it daily. And yep, that’s a financial OS habit. If you’re building a product for emerging markets, remember: people don’t want another tool. They want to stop feeling screwed every time they move money across borders. P.S. If you’re raising in dollars but operating in foreign currencies, let’s talk. I’ve now lived your pain from both sides of the screen. What’s the most infuriating hidden fee you’ve ever been hit with? Drop it below. I read every comment. Oh! A DISCLAIMER: This UI screenshot is a fun project and has zero connection with the fintech project I just wrote about.

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