Feedback on TN Endorsement application

Stage 1: Tech Nation Endorsement
1

Hey everyone,
I’m preparing to submit my TN Global Talent (exceptional promise) application under the Product Design track and would appreciate some expert feedback before I finalise.

Here’s a breakdown of the evidence for review:

Recommendation letters:
Founder and CEO of a digital product company with a team of over 50 people building multiple live technology products for the African market, including a social networking platform with 25,000 registered users. Describes my UX audit and redesign of the web platform, the introduction of Microsoft Clarity for evidence-based product decision making, and my broader ecosystem contributions.

CEO of a technology hub that has delivered programmes in partnership with the World Bank, UNDP, and the European Union, training over 4,000 young people across Nigeria. Former Country Mentor at Google Developer Groups Nigeria. Describes my product design contributions across multiple projects and my invitation to speak at DevFest Owerri 2024, which he independently validates through his GDG background.

Founder and Creative Director of a design brand, Mandela Washington Fellow, 2025 Eurobest Awards Jury Member in Design and Industry Craft, and 2024 Cannes Lions Shortlisting Juror. Describes my 18-month paid engagement across client projects and the UK Government Digital Access Program DigiGirls initiative, which trained over 2,000 women in digital technology skills across Nigeria.

Mandatory Criteria

Led a non-profit with a specific focus on the digital technology sector. - Founded a digital technology training organisation that has trained over 5,000 women across Nigeria in product design, software engineering, data analysis, cybersecurity, and blockchain development. Community of 4,000 members, 600 scholarships awarded, 100-plus volunteer facilitators.

Evidence pieces:

  • Impact assessment document with details around our programmes over the years. Also includes testimonials from students that have now grown their career from there.
  • Youtube channel for the platform with over 182 videos and 1K subscribers
  • Partnership with an established company (Bundle Africa) with pictures covering the flag-off event
  • Multiple press coverage links over the years
  • Participant outcome on one of the top participants
  • Supporting letter from a patron of the organisation.

Speaking at high profile digital technology events.
Two internationally recognised speaking engagements. DevFest Owerri 2024 organised by Google Developer Groups, speaking on UX in the Age of AI and what human centred design means when AI generates interfaces. TEDx Umudike 2025, speaking on media as a catalyst for stories that matter.

I’ve included link to the speaker presentation for devfest, speaker flyer and images of me speaking in stage with the audience in view. (Devfest)
For TedEx, included the Yotube video of the event, a link to the speakers page on their website, invitation mail.

To establish a pattern of speaking, I’ve also included evidence to 3 other speaking engagements including the Figma config watch party, the Mega Student leadership conference and Hack4FUTO.

Optional Criteria 1 — Innovation as key contributor to product-led digital technology company

  1. Led UI design of the web platform for a decentralised blockchain-based social media application rewarding African content creators with cryptocurrency. Owned the web platform across wallet and financial interface, NFT marketplace, social feeds, and authentication flows. Platform reached 20,000 plus downloads before closing. Featured in The Guardian Nigeria.

Evidence pieces:

  • Press coverage of the project
  • Annotated design screens showing U contributions
  • Signed letter from the manager of the team
  • Link to website showing number of downloads (20K)
  • Figma Link
  1. Conducted an independent UX audit, identifying three friction points rooted in user psychology for a product-led company building a social media app for African creatives. Introduced Microsoft Clarity, shifting the team from assumption-based to evidence-based product decision making. Current platform metrics show 91.36 per cent scroll depth and 0.98 per cent rage click rate across 611 recorded sessions after redesign.

Evidence pieces
Link to the UX Audit
Screen and link to the CEO (on fb), acknowledging my presenting this audit for the product.
Microsoft clarity screenshot showing the numbers.
Annotated design screens showing the changes
Figma file

Optional Criteria 2 — Recognition beyond employment

  • Figma Community contribution. Published School Management Admin Dashboard UI, adopted by 18,000 designers globally, ranking first in Figma Community search results for its category above paid alternatives and files from established international design studios.

Evidence pieces:
File URL
Screenshot of search results for “School Management Admin Dashboard” showing file as the
First result above established design studio files.
Screenshot of the comments section showing four independent public comments from designers
over three years, including the detailed peer review referencing design maturity and
professional standards.

Mentorship and community building. Co-founded a design mentorship community with 500 active designers, delivering 50-plus structured sessions since 2023. Formal partnerships with Phase Nigeria and Propel, both of which independently announced collaborations on their official social media accounts. Participant testimonials published by a Foundation on their own Facebook page with community branding visible.

Independent press recognition
Independent press recognition. Featured in Punch newspaper, TechNext, Shoutout Atlanta, and Giants Magazine from 2022 to 2024. The features covered my work as a product designer and building an organisation that led women into the digital technology space.

2

I would appreciate your feedback, @Raphael @pahuja @Akash_Joshi

I understand you’re very busy people so any help is appreciated!

3

Good day @Francisca_Chiedu appreciate all the good work for the community. Please, in your free time, help me review :pray:

4

Following up once again sir @Raphael
I’d appreciate your help :pray:

5

@Remy_Dikeh

The authors of your recommendation letters. CEOs and a Founder can be okay, but I still suggest checking their LinkedIn profiles to ensure they are profiled as experts, as required by Tech Nation.

Mandatory Criteria

Is the impact assessment document from an external body that audits companies performance and growth? If it is internal, it may be considered self authored. YouTube can be useful if your trainings are meaningful, focused, and relevant to the sector with substantial metrics showing industry reach and impact in the last five years.

For the partnership, official emails or a partnership agreement can help, but just only pictures showing a flag off may not be convincing.

Your press coverages can serve as external validation, show the publications, media mentions, interviews, and event coverages. A supporting letter from a patron can be acceptable if the patron is reputable, an expert, who understand and can describe your impact.

Speaking at high profile digital technology events can be acceptable if you were invited as a keynote speaker or domain expert to speak on a relevant topic, and if you were on stage speaking to at least 100 people. TEDx Umudike 2025 could have been okay, but the topic “media as a catalyst for stories that matter” does not appear to be relevant to the sector.Your strategy to establish a pattern of speaking shows intentionality and not just a one off activity.

To be honest, to give helpful feedback I will need to see what you are presenting as evidence for these claims. If you can share them here, I am happy to take another look.

All the best.

6

Thank you for the detailed feedback! @Raphael, would you be okay with me sharing a drive with the evidence? In your DM I mean

7

No. Anything outside the guidance I can give here, where the aim is to provide value to the forum is a paid service. It takes about 10 - 60 minutes to give detailed feedback, and even with the high level descriptions most applicants post here, we still try our best to make sense of them and respond in a way that is genuinely useful.

Some applicant who benefit from the platform and eventually get endorsed do not even say thank you or post what worked for them for others to learn. Do I bother? In all honesty, no. But courtesy demands its and also needed for the platform’s growth. On the other hand, some who get rejected come back to place blame on those who spend hours contributing freely. We received feedback from some applicants, and this is one of the ways to improve how I contribute, so the feedback becomes more useful.

I hope you understand.

8

Sure, that is understandable, and I appreciate the effort that this takes from your day-to-day.

For the founders, their LinkedIn profiles all reflect authority in the industry.
for the patron, I think he fits into the last two (understands and can describe impact), but wouldn’t consider him reputable or an industry expert.

For the MC 1 -
Evidence pieces:

  • ** Impact assessment document with details around our programmes over the years. Also includes testimonials from students that have now grown their career from there.*
  • ** Youtube channel for the platform with over 182 videos and 1K subscribers*
  • ** Partnership with an established company (Bundle Africa) with pictures covering the flag-off event*
  • ** Multiple press coverage links over the years*
  • ** Participant outcome on one of the top participants*
  • ** Supporting letter from a patron of the organisation.*

I also have a YouTube video for the flag-off partnership event with Bundle, with media links covering the partnership (multiple links)

If the impact assessment were seen as self-authored, would it be best to remove it then?

MC2 - Speaking events
On the TedEx event - My talk
drew on my experience as a product designer and founder of [digital platform] to explore how
media and storytelling shape who gets to participate in technology and whose stories get told in
the digital age.

Evidence pieces
YouTube recording of the event from TedEx
Screenshot of invite
Digital flyers showing me as one of the speakers
Do you have anything to say about the optional criteria too?

OC1 - significant contribution to the field as an employee of a product-led digital technology company

  1. Led UI design of the web platform for a decentralised blockchain-based social media application rewarding African content creators with cryptocurrency. Owned the web platform across wallet and financial interface, NFT marketplace, social feeds, and authentication flows. Platform reached 20,000 plus downloads before closing. Featured in The Guardian Nigeria.

Evidence pieces:

  • Press coverage of the project
  • Annotated design screens showing U contributions
  • Signed letter from the manager of the team
  • Link to website showing number of downloads (20K)
  • Figma Link

OC1(2) - significant contribution to the field as an employee. I conducted an independent UX audit of a live social platform for African creators, was commissioned to lead the full redesign, and introduced Microsoft Clarity to the team, shifting them from assumption-based to evidence-based product decision making. Microsoft Clarity data shows a 91.36% scroll depth and a 0.98% rage-click rate across 654 recorded sessions on the redesigned platform.

Evidence pieces:

  • Link to the UX Audit
  • Screen and link to the CEO (on fb), acknowledging my presenting this audit for the product.
  • Microsoft clarity screenshot showing the numbers.
  • Annotated design screens showing the changes
  • Figma file
  • Supporting letter from the CEO
9

…for the patron, I think he fits into the last two (understands and can describe impact), but I wouldn’t consider him reputable or an industry expert.

Because it’s a tech non profit initiative, a letter from a tech expert would be stronger. If it were a money making venture, then even a commercial or business person could work.

Pictures and videos can validate partnership evidence, but documents, emails, or letters are stronger to show that you are actually in a partnership.

The TEDx theme and your topic may be dismissed as not being relevant to the sector. What you spoke about becomes secondary if the event itself is not sector focused. It won’t clearly show how it advanced the sector.

OC1 is about innovation, and again, all the evidence you listed will not show how you invented or did anything innovative. Press coverage of the project can serve as external validation, but you still need to show the innovative product that was built through the project.

I will suggest you work more on your evidence and also understand what Tech Nation expects in each criterion, as this will increase your chances.

All the best.

10

Thank you very much! @Raphael

11

Hi Remy, the Figma template for OC2 is the biggest risk. 18,000 adopters sounds strong, but from actual assessor feedback: “Figma templates with 9,000 downloads were noted but template usage metrics lacked sufficient weight” - and that application was still rejected on OC2. The stronger angle is the design mentorship community. 50+ structured sessions since 2023 with named partnerships is closer to what passes. But you’d need to show it has selection criteria, is primarily in-person, and you have personal recognition within it - not just co-founding it.

On MC, the non-profit is the strongest piece if positioned correctly. 5,000+ women trained is the scale assessors need to see. The question is whether the evidence isolates your recognition as the leader - not just the organisation’s impact. A patron letter from someone who isn’t a sector expert (as you noted) will weaken this. Replace it with someone who is.

12

Thank you so much for this detailed feedback. From this I’d guess i have to make do without the Figma then.

I’ll work on the rest of the changes.