End of Year Review 2023: The highs, lows, and in-between!!!
Coming from last year and into 2023, one of the key indices for me was the theme of the year 2023 in my local church, which is Creative and Turnaround year. I was so excited that the year truly would tow in that direction and had to key into what God has in store for me, and truly, I experienced it in leaps and bounds
While the year is rounding off in a couple of days and unveiling another year, let me take you on the journey of the lessons learned in 365 days
Career Progression/Trajectory
Earlier in the year, I celebrated a milestone of one (1) year of work anniversary with one of the best banks in Nigeria. this elated me as I have grown in leaps and bounds, building quality relationships as well as building products across diverse industries within the bank that users love as well as generating revenue.
In addition, I have worked on five (5) products with diverse features embedded in each product where a few of them have gone live while others are on the implementation stage. you can be so excited when what you designed is already in the hands of the user.
Community building and impact
I am an advocate of giving back to the community no matter how little or big it is. Last year, the founder of Grazac Academy reached out to me on LinkedIn, inviting me to become a Design mentor, and truly, it has been a great experience mentoring four (4) great designers giving them clear-cut direction and navigating their career path.
Fast forward to 2023, the founder of veet reached out to me with the same proposition as above engaging via 1v1 mentorship while mentoring three (3) entry-level designers on navigating their career path, asking questions concerning design, etc. If you are a designer and you need a mentor for guidance on your career path, feel free to use the link to schedule.
In addition, there was an application requesting Design Mentors in August 2023 with Friends of Figma Africa, for their First Cohort of the mentorship Program where I will be disseminating my wealth of knowledge to 1000 designers in Africa and also called upon to help shape the next set of designers.
Lastly, I volunteered with an Early stage Edutech Startup Ise to gain more insight into building products in the education sector as well as deploying my skills in designing products. I appreciate T.S Akinwumiju for the opportunity as well as the great colleagues in the design team in no particular order: Amirah, Kenneth, Faith, and Shammah where we collaborated all along during the project.
Building Relationships
This year, I added some friends on the list from last year who were instrumental in my growth, and well also learned from them constantly such as Onyemowo Onu, Aise Idahor, Stephanie Orkuma, Tobi Amodu, Barnabas Inyang, Gladys Lolo, Obi Anayo, Joseph Brendan, Design yard Community etc.
In Addition, 5 Designers/mentees got their respective jobs or gigs while resharing job posts via the social media platform which in turn I was elated to help in my little way.
Personal Development
As a way to constantly improve my craft or skill, I took some courses on Udemy termed UX Requirements Made Simple and UX Strategy by the veteran Joe Natoli. these courses gave me more enlightenment and refined my thinking on how to build great products.
The downside of things this year
There were tons of opportunities that came my way this year and some were accepted/declined or referred to others for a job or gig. also, times when my mental health creeps in trying to figure out a problem with loads of work and deadlines in between. All these happened to me but with God and some friends, I was able to scale through the journey to become a better version of myself amidst the vicissitudes of life.
Conclusion
Looking back at the Achievements and lessons learned throughout the year, it is fair to say God came through for me in different ways this year as we forge ahead to 2024. There are plans and tons of opportunities that will come my way. I am earrnestly looking forward to it.
Happy New Year in Advance!!!
