Credit: innovate4africa.org
My participation in the Innovation Readiness Training of the Innovate for Africa (IFA) Fellowship has been a most delightful start to my 2021! I was enlightened on the art and heart of innovation, met amazing people, and grew a lot in the space of four weeks! The rest of this post provides a summary of my experience, activities, and learnings during the program.
THE BEGINNING
My journey with IFA began with my selection as a fellow in December 2020. The application process was quite rigorous, including a written application, a group interview and a personal interview. And to have emerged as one of the 39 fellows selected out of over 600 applicants is a noteworthy and exciting personal achievement for me!
The fellowship is a one-year experience which is aimed at creating the next generation of African innovators. It begins with a month-long Innovation Readiness Training, after which the trained fellows are interviewed by IFA partner startups for paid work for the remainder of the year. Talk about learning, working, and learning, all-in-one!
THE INNOVATION READINESS TRAINING
This was a very impactful program for my personal and career growth. It was high-quality, fast-paced, and growth stimulating, a true reflection of the demands of innovating in a startup environment! For the four weeks, I was exposed to modules on personal branding, design thinking, strategic analysis, and a hard skills lab. It was hard work that paid off because I emerged with new skills, knowledge and experience that will stay with me beyond the fellowship.
PERSONAL BRANDING
This was focused on crafting my digital identity. I was taught to present the best possible representation of myself online which would attract potential employers, collaborators and other important connections. It also led to the creating of my first-ever portfolio, a new resume design, a video pitch, an updated LinkedIn profile, and heightened self-awareness! In addition, I participated in mock interviews with seasoned facilitators which enabled me to better articulate my strengths, interests, and experience. Throughout, I constantly received feedback from mentors which helped me to improve on my work. Indeed, I evolved!
DESIGN THINKING
I came to understand the theory and practise of impactful innovation through this module. Among other things, this part of the training taught me to prioritise learning as an innovator, especially through active listening. Design Thinking is a problem-solving methodology that puts the focus on the identity and need of the intended user of a solution. It requires that I empathise with them, accurately define their problem, ideate possible solutions, prototype one of more of such solutions, and test them for effectiveness and likely improvements. Essentially, for my solution to deliver lasting value, I must build with the user, and not just for them.
To my apply my lessons on Design Thinking, I was placed in a hackathon team with two other fellows to solve an education-focused problem. We chose to address the lack of access to basic education faced by indigent children in Nigeria due to poverty and poorly equipped public schools. At end the process, we designed a digital education financing platform called EdSponsor which would connect donors with indigent kids and public schools in need of funding. It was a thrilling experience, as we got engaged in conducting empathy interviews, defining user problems, ideating possible solutions, prototyping one of our solutions, testing it and then pitching it to a high-level panel of judges from institutions such as Harvard and MIT.
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
This module put me in the shoes of a real-life consultant! I learnt to apply Systems Thinking to analysing the functioning and positioning of an organisation, following the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) and STEEPLE (Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political, Legal, and Ethical) frameworks. Such analysis enable business and other organisational leaders to make decisions on which are the best strategies to adopt, predict opportunities/ threats, and be best placed to seize/avoid such. JUMIA, the African e-commerce giant was the subject of our case-study in this module. I learnt very much from analysing its strengths, weaknesses and winning moves, such as the use of its J-Force for market penetration in Nigeria.
HARD SKILLS LAB!
This one here is a standout for me! Fellows were placed on either of three tracks: Product Management, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing. I opted for the Product Management track as I have been very interested in this career path and very keen to create impactful solutions! It turned out to be much more fun than I had expected! l got to work on a real client case on a team of five aspiring Product Managers (PMs)! It was tedious work but I loved it! It exposed me to the realities and norms of Product Management as a career. I learnt to create a product requirements document, a product roadmap and prototypes! I was also matched with an amazing mentor who is an actual Product Manager for guidance on my personal and group deliverables! His insightful counsels and coaching made me love the PM role much more!
THE IN-BETWEENS!
This is so much more to say but for space and time, I need to begin to wrap this up! IFA went over and beyond the required to provide a truly immersive and transforming experience on the Innovation Readiness Training. In between the training sessions, we had high-profile guest speakers come speak to us, sharing their experiences and practical wisdom with us. These included Efosa Ojomo, Faith Adesemowo, and Chiedo John. Some of my lessons I noted listening to these distinguished persons include: the journey to success is a marathon, my values ought to drive my decisions, and market-creating innovation is most impactful in the developing world.
Overall, the training gave me the opportunities to put all the IFA values to work: I had to be innovative on my assignments, embrace collaboration to get the best work done, show grit to pick up on big ideas and work at them until I succeed, maintain a growth mindset about everything and never see mistakes as setbacks, and to prioritise inclusivity and diversity when receiving inputs from other persons on or outside my team.
CONCLUSION AND REFLECTION
If the fellowship were to be ending at this point, I would have been fulfilled! But I am glad, it is not! I still have months of practical work experience at a startup and monthly development sessions to look forward to! Yay!
And as I take the next steps forwards, these takeaways from the training linger on my mind:
There is much joy and untold impact in purposeful collaboration
Innovation is not built in silos; it is a product of diverse inputs.
Efficient work requires structure and strategy.
Impactful products are born out of researching, identifying, and solving true user needs.
Thank you, Team IFA, for creating this one-of-a-kind experience!