I'm Aminat Afolabi, a product manager with a software engineering background, building across AI, edtech and fintech.
In classrooms, you lose marks for a right answer without the workings. I still think that way about product. Product is as much about the decisions behind what gets built as it is about the final outcome.
Pick a book to open it. Each one leads to the full set of decisions, trade-offs and evidence.
01
Product Manager
Most hackathons end with a ranking and silence. 96 teams deserved to know why they placed where they did.
I designed the judging and results system end to end, built around a good experience for judges and participants. The call: public ranking, private feedback. Every score needs a written reason, and each team sees only its own.
02
Product Manager
StacStart was built for academy students who sign up and pay. A federal skills programme needed it to take thousands of sponsored learners at once.
I led product and the engineering team on the rebuild. The call: bulk onboarding first, job-readiness tools later. Nobody learns if they can't get in.
03
Co-Founder, Product
Out-of-home advertising charges for estimates and runs through agencies. Meanwhile, venue screens sit idle, burning electricity for zero return.
As co-founder on product, my call was to prove the hosts would show up before building the booking engine.
04
Product Manager, Freelance
Nodecademy is a 24-week software engineering school across Frontend, Backend, AI/ML, Full-Stack and Cybersecurity, built with Splexxlabs.
I oversaw the build of the website and worked with engineering on the experience for tracking applications and receiving payments, then on the LMS that supports every learner activity. I wrote the PRDs behind it and helped scale the product while I was on the team.
05
Product Lead
A money assistant you talk to in English, Pidgin, Yoruba or Hausa. It plans with your real spending, and nothing moves without your confirmation and PIN.
Built for the Monnify × API Conference Lagos Developer Challenge. I came up with the vision and led product.
06
Product Lead
Each member gets a unique virtual account from ALATPay's Bank Transfer API the moment they click to pay, webhooks update both sides' dashboards the instant money lands, and collectors see a live payment history without opening a bank app.
It started with a weekend I spent matching bank alerts to people for a friend's asoebi, the story I opened our pitch with.
Four things I believe about building products, and the moments that taught me each one.
01
Users · learned on Zuri
Before Zuri, I thought calculating my balance before opening my banking app was just my habit. Then I spoke to friends, professionals and parents who did the same. What seemed personal was actually a shared problem.
See the Zuri project
02
Experience · learned on the hackathon platform
On the hackathon platform, I designed for judges, participants and admins. Judges needed simple scoring, teams needed accessible private feedback, and admins needed a way to correct errors without changing a judge's comments.
See the hackathon project
03
Ownership · learned on StacStart × iDICE
During the iDICE rebuild, I set clear goals and priorities, made progress visible in Jira, and trusted engineers to own their solutions. Everyone knew what mattered without needing constant oversight.
See the iDICE project
04
Strategy · learned on iDICE and Mimuads
From a biochemistry lab to product, one stop at a time. Pick a stop, or let it play.
The lab taught me to test assumptions before trusting them. I also played volleyball for the university team.
Learned to build: front-end development and software engineering practices. My frontend and capstone projects are on GitHub ↗.
Started the university's first female-focused tech community and grew it to 350+ members.
A US-based fellowship building with React and AI.
Grew membership 40% in a year to the largest GDG on Campus chapter in Sub-Saharan Africa, and co-led CareerFest X TechSummit for 2,600+ people.
A self-serve, verified screen-ad marketplace, now live in Lagos. Read the case study.
Shipped the StacStart MVP, led the rebuild for iDICE (50,000+ learners onboarded), product-managed the hackathon platform, and moved the team onto Jira. Staff of the Quarter, Q2 2026.
Led product for Nodecademy ↗: the website, application tracking and payments, the LMS and the PRDs behind them.
Recognition
Six months into my first PM role, Conclase named me Staff of the Quarter for Q2 2026, recognising the product work on StacStart.
Contact
I'm looking for product roles in fintech, AI and edtech. I'd love to walk you through my workings in person.
