2020: The Masked Year’s Review

Normally, I would have linked my 2019 review here before proceeding, but nah… I didn’t get a chance to write about it, though mostly it was one of those times where I stayed quiet and pushed myself furr — further.

This year opened a lil crazy than normal for me, because I was offered provisional admission to do a business degree in a state university in my country, I had been waiting for a time like that, but as happy as you think I was, I wasn’t intrigued :).

This was because I wasn’t expecting it any longer and I had made strong plans to drive my career further this year, made strides to joining a few teams around. After like a few weeks of resumption, Ms. Rona visited us and fast forward to the present…

This review will basically bullet-point most of my wins that I want to share, in most areas of my life,e.g Health, Career, Social Creation, Relationship, Business, Finance, Community, Tech, etc alongside fails and learnings.

Ready. Set. Go

Note: This is solely my form of public testimony to my Creator and nothing more, if anything more, this will also be like a form of appreciation to all the amazing folks that had taken a chance at me this year.

Career Reflections 💼

• Landed a Product Design Role with an amazing AI startup
• Worked on lots of projects with amazing clients and friends like Recreate, Wiremoni, Fidelity Bank , OSCA, Korote, NaijaCharade, CreatorsApp amongst others in the UX and Product Space for organizations in Nigeria, Rwanda and San Francisco
• Joined the Kimoyo Fellowship as an Assistant Mentor

• Was gifted by Malpern ThatPortfolio Book by Dann Petty
• Went back a little to digital painting and stopped

• Landed a contract design role with a startup in Rwanda
• Got a MacBook, iPhone and Pods
• Became Global Ambassador for Duolingo

• Joined Atlassian User Groups as a Co-Leader
• Joined the African Learning Institute as a Founding Design Member
• Joined Slack as a Community Leader for Lagos Nigeria

• Become a Todoist Product Ambassador

• Joined an InsurTech Startup (Mizala) as a Product Associate
• Began working on my startup Twzz
• Got a Feature by Beyonce on her Site for Black Designers and Creatives

…this being said, you might feeling like wowed and shiii, but there are a few things that didn’t actually go as planned (Didn’t own a portfolio, lol, made little updates on my Dribbble Account, Wrote Zero blog post, didn’t launch a single side gig, began and couldn’t complete my illustration challenge). Despite all this I still was able to smash goals…

Funny how the strike of Corona came with less and and more good for me.

Social Media 📬

This area came with a lotta flex for me, ahaha. I maintained my Instagram account more than I though I was going to do. Follow me here. It turned out one of my fave spot of the year 🥳

Business and Startups 🚀

• I began Twzz with a very small but mighty team (Update coming May 2021)
• I had alot of savings atleast
• I was able to learn from other guru in the startup world on how this things works
• Got involved with other startups thereby positioning my self to gain equity
• I took my mind off funding a few ideas I had rather focused on building first.

…this being said, but these are a few things that didn’t actually go as planned … (I and a friend didn’t get the chjance to lauch a studio we planned to, the parent company of Twzz; The Avocodes didn’t gain lotta traction but we’ve got this, had a lil conflict building and learning, too)

…and funny how this is the first time you are reading I am innvolved in things like this. That’s the game!

Health and Fitness 🏋🏽‍♂️

• I began a gym training session with an accountabilty partner and an amazing coach, Usen. Also the Nike Training App had been of much help.
• Lost a few pounds and got very concious of my diet
• Became very strict on my diet and the food I eat (thanks to Bella for always making me loose guard and take junks 🤨)
• Cut down on taking carbonated drinks
• Didn’t get Covid 🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳

…asides not being consistent with my workout, waking up late in the morning and eating late at night… Everything elses seems good 😭

Saving and Finance 💰

I was heavy on spending and savings this year

• Towards the end of the year I was able to reopen an emergency fund
• Made up a Zero Template for my monthly budget, thanks to Teslim and Chi
• Began earning in 💸

…one of the best things I did was making a Zero Budget late, wish I did it earlier. Didn’t invest in stocks or BTC, because I am yet to understand that field well. Funny how I am ending this year being owed approx $600 by N* R*, hopefully they see this pay up before I go legal.

Education and Learnings 📚

• I got a provisional admission to study Business Admin in a Uni.
• Began a Product School Degree Course via Scholarship

• Was able to learn about the world of Product Design in it’s essence
• Learnt new design tools; Sketch, Invision, Spline, etc.
• Got exposed to Blender and the 3D Design World
• Learnt from the twitter street on business, building a startup, raising seed funds, etc

…Inasmuch as I learnt new design tools, I didn't put up a lot of projects for any of them, tried learning Blender took a pause, didn’t complete my Product School Scholarship Course. All this are scheduled to be smashed by Q2 2021

Community and Tech 👨🏽‍💻

• Joining the Slack, Duolingo, Todoist and Oppia communities as a Leader/Contributor
• Spoiler 🚨: Happily gave up running the Dribbble Community and also took a bow out of the Atlassian Community
• Gave a talk at Figma Uyo Event
• Joined the Open Source Community Africa and built alongside the team the best event experience in the African Tech Space
• Joined Open Source Design

…Asides joining the community team of most Fortune 500 brands, I hadn’t my Linkedin, didn’t personally host any events, was passively active in communities

Mentorship 👨🏽‍🏫

• I had David Ofiare to run to if i had design ishs
• I was able to kickstart and run a small design group to help a few designers get better
• Made a lot of distant mentors from Twitter
• Got into DearDesignr mentorship outta over 1.5k applicants

…Most areas of me needs mentoring, i’ve got this. My mentor at DearDesignr aired dfkom, a design accountability group I ran didnt really get the much needed reception I expected

Relationships and Love Life 😍

• Met and solidified a few strong friendship boats with a few persons
• Had allys I could finally open to and talk about me and myself
• Was able to see that I was better off without some people in my life
• Maintained good client relationships throughout the year
• Keep a small circle of max 3 friends. Shout out to Bryan :) , Bella, Perrie and Jammie for having the most impact on me this year.

…Out of context fact: Was caught in the web of being in a thing with a public figure and celeb, but lol, e been no comot road. We moved!

Online Creation 🛠

• I was able to step up my Instagram content game
• I was able to decide on what other area i wanted to do contents for
• Found love for creating contents without caring about the number of followers I had on Instagram or anywhere else
• Learnt to run ads both from Facebook and even in the IG App, thanks to Ihuoma
• Defined my own personal preset feel

…I kinda didn’t make tech contents this year as most expected, didnt find live for it. Let’s see how the new year goes.

Special Shoutouts

I want to specially thank God for making me pull off this year despite being struck by something crazy first, lol. Next is me saying thanks to folks who had one way or another invested in me.

Thank you My Fam, Bella, DidiCodes, Bryan, Perrie, Jammie, Iboro Gordon, Abee my Gee, Eze, The Twzz Team (Nzaki and Atada), Abhinay A., Yemi, Obonguko, Steve Nwadike, Sean Udeke, Usen 🏋🏽‍♂️, Mariam Braimah, Namnso Ukpanah, Ayodele WM, Ope Adeoye, Valentine Oleka, The Akanimoh, AkanImoh from Mizala, Mosmotion, Emmanuel A, Joe Edigbe, Muhire, David Ofiare, Nemi Banigo, Driggn Team, Oladokun Shegs, Tunji from DD, Sam U and others not captured here for investing in my growth this year. Love yall loads.

Also to Ope from Cowrywise, Duolingo, Nike, Instagram, Twitter, and the Todoist team for building this amazing products that shaped me this year positively. And yes,😭 UBA for having the worst mobile banking app of the year.

Learnings for 2020

• I learnt that having and maintaining a tech community is hard. Respect those who do.
• I learnt that most people you rely on to get things don’t ever get it done
• I learnt how social algorithms favours consistency
• I learn that to get people committed to your vision you need to pay them, atimes.
• It takes just a push to get things done
• I learnt that the best way to get good at managing my finance is with a set guide
• Save before you Spend
• I can achieve a lot of things by saving for them overtime than buying it right away
• The best school you can ever attend is Youtube and Twitter School of thoughts, though the later is not for newbies else you’ll get lost and dead innit
• Found out how much I don’t really care about what people will say about me and my friends.

Goals for Next Year : Create ✨

Thank you for reading this far, and cheers to a better year ahead, 2021 👏🏼. Please share and long press the clap button…

Read my article on Design Empathy, Getting Started with XD, Google’s UIUX Design Pattern, etc.

Xoxo.