ckithika
Senior Product Manager
I’m a product manager and former software engineer who has developed a passion for customer first driven strategies. My 10 year experience as a product manager has taught me a lot about putting the customer first and creating a blend of value to them and profitability for the business. I started my career in software engineering, which gave me a huge advantage of understanding engineering processes and expectations. I translated these to business-speak and acted as an intermediary between the two worlds. I’ve had the pleasure of working for startups and enterprise corporates, from which I have learnt invaluable knowledge and experience in technology.
I’m looking to transition to the web3 space to fulfill a desire to contribute to the next frontier in technology. I believe this is an area that will revolutionize the world and investing my skills in building the foundation of that future gives me a lot of motivation. I’m looking for a new home where I can exercise my creative, where I can grow myself as a product manager and most importantly, build impactful products
I’m looking to transition to the web3 space to fulfill a desire to contribute to the next frontier in technology. I believe this is an area that will revolutionize the world and investing my skills in building the foundation of that future gives me a lot of motivation. I’m looking for a new home where I can exercise my creative, where I can grow myself as a product manager and most importantly, build impactful products
Experience: 10 years
Yearly salary: $90,000
Hourly rate: $50
Nationality: 🇰🇪 Kenya
Residency: 🇰🇪 Kenya
Experience
Chief Innovation and Product Officer
Longhorn Publishers 2019 - 2020
Longhorn Publishers PLC is a Pan-African publishing house that is publicly listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. At Longhorn Publishers PLC, I led the technology team in the digital publishing department that was comprised of engineering, product management, design and content personnel who developed and managed a portfolio EdTech products. My main responsibility was defining and implementing the digital strategy of the digital publishing business unit, ideating and scaling product roadmaps and identifying strategic partnerships to help scale the technology business. I was also tasked with identifying ways in which the organisation can leverage new and existing technology products to improve operational efficiency and delivery across the organisation.
Product Manager
Kwara 2018 - 2019
Kwara is a Nairobi and Berlin based startup offering cooperative financial institutions (e.g. SACCOs) a digital platform so that they can deliver modern online and mobile banking experiences to their members. I was responsible for product roadmap development and execution of Kwara's core banking SaaS platform, including conducting market research and prioritisation of the beta product.
Product Manager
Andela 2017 - 2018
Andela extends engineering teams with the most talented software developers in Africa. Andela recruit the most talented technologists on the African continent, shape them into technical leaders, and place them as full-time distributed team members with companies that range from Microsoft and IBM to dozens of high-growth startups. Backed by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV (Google Ventures) and Spark Capital, Andela is building the next generation of global technology leaders. I was responsible for the Andela technology platform team, delivering core architecture as a service for other products teams at Andela.
Product Manager
ROAM 2015 - 2017
Responsible for the creation of localized business products for 8 markets across the continent with focus on revenue and leads. The role is positioned as the key liaison between business leaders with engineering and marketing teams. I was also responsible for researching global and local trends in the online cars space and using this information to design and roll out a Cars Classifieds Roadmap that is in line with group strategy.
Engineering Manager
Brighter Monday 2014 - 2015
Responsible for managing and advising on the system architecture of legacy platform while managing the technical outputs of the platform's software engineers. During the platform rebuild, I worked as the key liaison between the businesses and the engineering teams, responsible for translating business requirements to detailed specifications to be developed by a team of software engineers. This included managing and prioritizing bugs, wire framing and coding as necessary.
Software Developer
iHub Nairobi 2012 - 2013
Joined the iHub as lead developer where my main responsibility was developing backend architecture and setting up server infrastructure of the iHub website. Other duties included developing customized in-house tools and reporting modules that were in-line with iHub’s internal processes. Worked with the lead designer to integrate a responsive HTML design into the core framework.
Chief Technical Officer
Ringier Kenya 2010 - 2012
In charge of the Technical Division of Ringier Kenya Ltd, a subsidiary of a Swiss media and publishing company (Ringier International). Tasks include architecture design and implementation of Rupu (a daily deals e-commerce platform) and Pigiame (an online classifieds site that operated in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda).
Software Developer
Mobile Pay 2009 - 2010
Joined the Tangaza Money Transfer (a mobile money transfer product) software development team where my main role was to integrate front-end products to the payment gateway API and managing database redundancy for the core database.
Skills
business-development
product-lead
product-manager
strategy
english