Innovate for Africa Fellowship - The Becoming of an Innovator

I used to think innovation is all about the solution, now I know that it is less about the solution and more about the problem and the people involved. What changed? My four weeks encounter with Novustack; an organization set to build innovation ecosystems across Africa by supporting aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to power development in Africa.

The Innovation Readiness Training which is for one month out of the 12 months fellowship is a well thought out plan. It wore the garments of Design thinking, personal branding, Product Management skills lab, strategic analysis and on-boarded guest speakers who are entrepreneurs and innovators in various industrial sectors. Overtly, it simulates a high-paced startup environment.

Design Thinking

The design thinking process which was applied in the 2 weeks Hackathon where I was able to collaborate with a team of 5 fellows from different backgrounds and specialty; 3 Data Analyst, 1 Digital marketer and myself as the only Product Manager. We proffered a tech-based solution to the problem of finance and market faced by smallholder farmers in Africa, tailoring it specifically to Nigeria.

As Helen Keller rightly said, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." This was my take away from the 2 weeks Hackathon in which our product received a grade of 90% from industry experts and CEOs of companies.

Personal Branding

In the Personal Branding sessions, I learnt the importance of personal branding in one’s career journey. With an optimized personal branding which include a properly carved curriculum vitae that exclude buzzwords and include well sought after skills and relevant experiences, an optimized Linkedin profile, Portfolios including past projects one is proud to show off and also preparations for interviews that culminate an excellent personal brand. This is because ‘Your optimized CV and Linkedin profile can get one to an interview, the performance in the interview which is dependent on the prior preparation brings home the job'.

Strategic Analysis

In this module, I was able to strategically analyse an organization- carrying out the SWOT Analysis (Strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and also the PESTEL Analysis. Arguably, this gives a strategic insight to the position and performance of the organization.

Guest Speakers

We had various savvy entrepreneurs from different fields leading the space in innovations. Amongst are; the co-founder of Social Lender- Faith Adesemowo, Pricepally- Luther Lawoyin, Drugstoc- Chibuzo Opara and the Founder of Talent Mine Academy; Aramide Kayode. I learnt more than I signed up for in these sessions, I was greatly inspired as I was privileged to spy into the many years of their Journey in innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the key takeaways for me in the form of a statement was from Faith Adesemowo; ‘As much as it is necessary to prepare for rejection, are you also prepared for acceptance as well?’

Another Key takeaway I wish many people know is that Teamwork makes the dream work as said by John C. Maxwell. I will never forget the valuable experience with my team members: Herbert Olinga from Uganda, Ayodeji Folayan, Sophia Daniels and Ajibade Misturah while we worked on the Hackathon project. We worked seamlessly as if we’d known one another for years. That was surreal to me. This was also reinforced by what Aramide Kolawole said during her guest lecture, that; “to make it big in this era, we need to embrace partnerships and collaborations and shy away from the mentality of being seen and taking all the glory alone!” Here is the success that emanated from our teamwork.

One of the most challenging moments for me was the client project on our hard skills which for me was Product Management. The world of product management is an entirely new world to me and it wasn’t so easy finding my balance. What I did was to embrace all the resources provided- thanks to Novustack for a job well done! I also sought after materials in their simplest form on various platforms like google and YouTube to better drive home some hard points. In the end, I was better off than when I first began. This growth mindset and grit applied throughout the one month journey was a direct impact of Novustack on me. I was also able to work on my portfolio by building a website on wix for the very first time of using wix and also building a portfolio. Here it is, you can be the judge of that!

What I will count as my proudest achievement in the 1 month Innovation Readiness Training (IRT) was completing the IRT training not just ordinarily, but also with an award of recognition for exemplary Assignments in my project and also as a Fellow that showed up during the asynchronous classes. My mantra throughout the training was, ‘whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well’ even though it is easier to monitor people during synchronous classes when everyone is online, if I refuse to show up when I am supposed to be working asynchronously, then I am deceiving no one but myself. It is also in my values to complete everything I started in grand style, this is why it was paramount for me to show up everytime. And it paid off at last even though I thought no one was watching. What I learnt is that those watching will never tell you that they are watching, be at your best every time you show up.

Going forward, I look forward to using my newly acquired soft skills such as collaboration, Inclusivity and diversity, grit, growth mindset and Innovation as well as the Hard skills like Product Management to positively contribute to a start up by tackling challenging problems for its development. In the meantime, I will embrace continuous learning and iteration because I believe we all are work in progress no matter our level of attainment, There is Still More!