URGENT: Please Help with Exceptional Promise Rejection

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Hello,

I am currently a Lead product manager with a total of 7yrs working experience but 4yrs post-graduate experience. My background working between 2019 to 2021 was fully focused on UX Design before I was promoted to Senior product manager which is what I’ve been doing from then till now. Between end of 2016 to 2019, I co-founded an IT company focused on building web applications and training students to design and build.

I applied to Technation with the premise of UX Design since I have quite a portfolio of products I’ve designed and managed.

I’m currently confused as to why I’ve been rejected because there’s been no mention of what is wrong with my evidences in their letter except two in the optional 1 (These two were when I worked at PwC which is known normally as a consulting company, however, I was working at the PwC Experience Centre which is a tech innovation centre strictly focused on developing applications).

Kindly find their feedback below:

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Here’s a breakdown of my submission:

  • Personal Statement

  • 3 Letters of Recommendation - CTO, Head of Data, Head of Engineering & Co-Founder

  • Main Criteria

    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Co-Founding IT Company: Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum of Association with Shares, Flyer Design containing services offered, Link to Social Media pages for company, Link to Twitter post about company from my personal account, Link to Product Marketing Plan, Link to Product Strategy, Screenshots of the Online Learning App.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Award: MSc. Certificate with 50% Scholarship offer for IT course.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Award: Certificate from Deloitte for winning the Data & Analytics competition, Certificate from the University of Reading for participating in the Planet Informatics committee which is focused on presenting IT solutions & mentoring for university students.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Employment Contract & Salary: 3 different employment contracts & salary slips + bonuses for the three companies worked in the past 3yrs which are on the high side (Added the screenshot of the comparison from glassdoor for all salaries & the google conversion)

  • Optional Criteria: At least 1 example of innovation as a founder of a product led digital technology company or as an employee working on a new digital field or concept

    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Virtual Reality Application: Description of the application, Description of my contribution, Screenshots of the design process and some of the designs, Letter of Recommendation from colleague who is also a founder of an extended reality company and is known as an industry leader, Links to Google Drive for video showing how the app works with the project outline.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of a Chatbot Application: Description of the application, Description of my contribution, Screenshots of the design process and some of the designs, Letter of Recommendation from manager who is now head of data and is known as an industry leader, Links to Google Drive for video showing how the app works with the project management outline and user testing feedback.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Healthtech Application: Description of the application, Description of my contribution, Screenshots of the design process and documentation, Letter of Recommendation from manager who is also the co-founder of the company and is known as an industry leader, Links to Google Drive for product requirements document, ideation process, status report and product strategy document.

  • Optional Criteria: At least 1 example of significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contributions to the field as a founder or employee of a product-led digital technology company

    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Customer Onboarding Application: Description of the application, Description of my contribution, Screenshots of the design process and some of the designs, Screenshots of the dashboard from the application showing the metrics of number of sign ups, approvals etc., Letter of Recommendation from operations manager who was the leader of the onboarding process, Link to Google Drive which shows in detail the entire process from conceptualisation to design.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Vehicle Management Application: Description of the application, Description of my contribution, Screenshots of the design process and some of the designs, Screenshots of the dashboard from the application showing the metrics, Letter of Recommendation from engineering colleague who was the lead frontend engineer on the project, Link to Google Drive which shows in detail the entire process from conceptualisation to design.
    • 3 Page PDF Proof of Employment Contract & Salary: 3 different employment contracts & salary slips + bonuses for the three companies worked in the past 3yrs which are on the high side (Added the screenshot of the comparison from glassdoor for all salaries & the google conversion) - Repeated this from mandatory criteria.
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@ms_moyon Overall, I think your application is still weak as you have not demonstrated the right information on your evidence, based on your given information. Anyway here are my comments:

MC: Certificates and contracts are only to support your primary evidence. They are not strong and are not enough to show that you are exceptionally better than standard persons.

OC1: Did you describe in written text or provide any solid evidence to show that that product is innovative, a new concept, or never existed before at least in a specific situation?

OC3: I see the standard activity you did, but I do not see any quantifiable measurement which shows the impact of your work.

What is the next step?:
I see that you have strong doubts about the assessor’s feedback. If you think the assessor made a mistake, you can appeal and point them to read your specific file(s) and paragraph(s). And they should match the Tech Nation guideline provided, https://technation.io/visa-tech-nation-visa-guide/#mandatory-criteria

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Hi @ms_moyon,

Sorry to hear about your endorsement rejection. You have an amazing portfolio online. Kudos

However, from your above provided list, what I see is that even if OC1 and OC3 passed, MC is overall not strong enough and some evidences contravene TN’s guide. For instance, awards should be merit-based and not solely financial but you included "MSc. Certificate “with 50% Scholarship offer for IT course”.

Tech Nation writes:

Please note that awards must be of merit and not solely monetary (e.g. grants, bursaries or scholarships)

If your MSc were a distinction or from one of the favoured degrees by the UK like MIT, Stanford, TUM, Cambridge, etc., perhaps, that could be a strong evidence. More so, I see that your strongest evidence under MC are the salaries, but I honestly don’t think that is sufficient to satisfy the MC.
In your appeal - point them to your Salary again and how you are high earner and how that satisfies this example “You command a high salary or other remuneration for your services, as evidenced by commercial or employment contracts with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings.” on TN’s guide. Point them also to certificate from UoR about your participation in a committee and mentorship (even though may not considered strong) at least it remotely satisfies this “You have held or hold a significant expert role participating on panels, or individually, assessing the work of others in the same field or a field of specialisation related to the digital technology sector.”

Also for your OC1 and OC3, it seems that you have presented the evidences as what you normally do and it may be difficult to express what your “significant” contribution was. This is evident from what the assessor wrote. As a rule of thumb, always look at what puts you in the best light.

ALWAYS TELL YOUR OWN STORY

Example 1: - Sample OC3
As Product Manager, I recommended and designed the workflow for the incorporation of a text-to-speech feature into a mobile app (significance). This shot the downloads of the app on Apple store up by 10,000 in 48 hours (measurable) and saw the adoption the solution by more than 500 people with hearing disabilities (impact). This is mentioned in reference letter provided by head of digital products also under Optional Criteria 3 (help the assessor see what you want them to see).

Example 2 - Sample OC1
In a company-wide product hunt, I led a team of 5 (leadership) to design and develop the first ever (novelty) multi-department forum for knowledge exchange. The solution has now been integrated as part of the company’s digital ecosystem and serves its over 2500 (significance) staff in Nigeria. As at 31 December 2022, more than 50,000 questions had been answered with over 150,000 likes used across different topics. This earned me the award (Deloitte) attached on the next page (pointing the assessor).

In your appeal, point them to what this kind of comment about you and your work review means in practical terms:

“Ogo is very innovative in solving challenges. She’s able to deliver on time and work with people effectively. It’s always a great experience working with her…” - Abiodun Dabiri (PwC)"

I hope that this also helps someone else.

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I suppoe you didn’t read the tech nation guide well enough to know that PWC related evidence will not be considered. It is ot a product-led company.

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@Francisca_Chiedu Hi, Don’t know if you skipped my explanation but I thought it would count because of the unit I worked at.

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@ask4jubad @alexnk Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. I would review and send in an appeal. I consulted with a lot of people before I submitted and was reassured that the application was good to go without written explanation. So, a lot of the evidences do not have that which is why I’m guessing they glossed over it.

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The unit yoir worked doesn’t matter. It has to be wprk done within a productled organisation.
Please note the following specialisms are generally not considered suitable

  • Service Delivery, Process Delivery, Outsourcing, Consultancy (technical or management), ERP Consultancy, Systems Admin and all related fields.

  • Business skills apply to in-house work within product-led digital technology companies, not tech-enabled or service companies such as agencies, outsourcers, marketing firms etc.

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I am not sure who you shared your application with, if they are tech nation alumni then it means they applied when the criteria was different or they just didn’t bother to look at your evidence. You can try to appeal but the mandatory criteria is not strong, in any case you will stil get a feedback why your application was not endorsed by a reviewer.

1 Like