My Product Marketing Journey; a Timeline.

2020-2021

It was 2020; the year of the pandemic. It was also the year of clarity. We all had a lot of time on our hands; people found out their passions and tried out new hobbies. I was not left out. I had just graduated university and for some long and boring reason, my school had not released me to go for NYSC before the lockdown began. Feeling stuck was the catalyst I needed to prompt me into trying out new things.

Prior to the lockdown, I had enjoyed the idea of creating content. I had written all my life, and had tried one time to help a friend manage her small business’ Instagram page. A year before, in fact, representatives from 谷歌 Digital Skills for Africa had come to my university to teach us about digital marketing. The natural evolution into more could almost be anticipated. It began with being held captive by the familial bond that held the world together at that point in time - social media. I was on Instagram a lot. And one day, I stumbled on a 20-day writing challenge. They had gotten to day 3 at that point, and after an intense internal argument, I went ahead to join them and completed the challenge.

I believe that is when I got introduced to the world of content creation; since it was the first time I consistently created content. It also awoke me to the world of influencers, branding, marketing, etc. I had no idea there were people on social media with a lot of followers who had loyal followers that aspired to being like them or would use anything they recommended. It was like a veil was torn off my eyes. I took everything in voraciously. I took another course by a thought leader in social media management and joined her community. I had an abundance of time, and I always seemed to have data, so heavy research was a no-brainer.

It was also then that I took a free Digital Marketing course certified by Google, became best friends with Youtubers that taught about branding (e.g TheFutur ), followed thought leaders in marketing and started to learn from them. I began to position myself immediately afterwards as a social media manager. I had no laptop and a very bad phone, but my positioning must’ve been really good because I began to get jobs I could freelance at. Less than 4 months into 2021, I had already gotten >3 job offers from brands like jewelry shops, bookstores, bakeshops etc. At one point, I even created webinars to teach the basics of social media management.

2022-2023

I took a break after some time. I knew I didn’t want to do social media management forever, but I didn’t know how to get the big jobs. I continued writing blog articles, creating content and I headed for NYSC (National Youth Service Corps). It was while I was serving in 2022 that I got introduced to the Web3 space. I took a course with Meta on Community management, a course with EkoLance on Web3 community management and content creation, and I got my first proper marketing job at a company that created products at the intersection between AI and crypto.

It was a small startup, with about 5 members of staff. Everyone worked remotely. We had the CEO (who doubled as the software engineer), a graphics designer, a video animator/editor, a part-time UI/UX designer, and me. I was hired to be the brand manager, and I worked as the social media manager, copywriter, content creator, influencer manager, brand strategist, H/R personnel, etc. It was a wild ride, but I am grateful for it because I was able to learn and distinguish what I wanted from my career from what I didn’t. We were able to grow the signups from scratch to greater than 5000, and a few months afterward, I decided to move on.

2 months into my role at the company I just spoke of, I got an unpaid marketing internship at a company based in Amsterdam. This company was at the intersection of regulation, taxes and cryptocurrency. I knew nothing about law and taxes, but I was excited to get cracking. I wrote blogs on topics I was unfamiliar with, I created social media content, I sent email newsletters, I did in-person marketing by attending events and onboarding prospects, I cleaned up their website analytics, I curated webinars and at the end of my internship, I was offered a role. It was also a startup with 7-9 members of staff, and distinctions between roles were constantly fading. Everybody tried their hand at almost everything. It was in this role I learned sales, did a lot of content marketing, edited more, and mediated more partnerships. The highlight of my time has been curating the first crypto taxation and regulation conference as a small team. It was held in the Metaverse, and we managed the project very finely. To give you an idea of how much detail we had to be in charge of, here are some stats. We had:

• 48 speakers
• 53 booth owners
• 1700 interested attendees
• More than 15 media partners, etc.

I was in charge of all the marketing that led to this event, I did some sales work, I managed speakers and booth owners, and so much more. It was a period that stretched me, but that I am immensely grateful for. We are holding this conference again in September, and I am excited about the work we’re doing.

After leaving my crypto-AI job, I stayed at the crypto-tax/regulations company and I’ve been there ever since. My content marketing skills have been honed and many more skills that feed into my marketing career. I have taken some small social media management gigs on the side, as well.

2023-2024

I have always been aware that my big love is marketing. I have worked in the industry for the entirety of my career, but I knew that I needed more guidance and more knowledge. I also wanted to have a firm footing in the tech industry (including web3). It only made sense that I sought another course; product marketing. I wasn’t quite satisfied with only content marketing and I wanted to be more knowledgeable about the structural growth of a brand’s product.

Through a friend, I learned about AltSchool Africa and I was very interested because it seemed like it would require hard work but in a structured environment where I was guaranteed to learn. This is my final semester learning Product Marketing, and I must say that it has been worth it. Sometimes, it’s a madness to juggle my life, my career and my education. I sometimes have to sacrifice my attendance and watch videos / read up on concepts later, but I look back at the quality of work I have done since I joined, and I am immensely grateful I took the step.

I knew that undergoing the training for a year was going to be a lot, and I am grateful to Sultan A. whose scholarship I was privileged to partake in. Half of my fees were taken care of, and all I needed to do was show up and give my best. Within this year, I have learned and we’ve been encouraged to put all we’ve learned to practice. I compiled the “PROJECTS” section in my portfolio recently, and frankly, I was amazed. From customer journey maps to product deep dives; from survey questions to case studies, we did them all.?

I have sighed in frustration, been excited about topics, made new connections, gotten tired, learned new concepts, written more articles and short form LinkedIn content than I ever did. I am glad that I took this step, and now, I am actively searching for a role where I can contribute these skills to improving the chances of a product’s success. Please reach me at [email protected] .

Cheers to more!

Micah Timileyin Tabitha Kavyu