My Tech Transition: How Florence Ogunbore moved from Human Kinetics to Product Management
Florence Ogunbore's interest in product management was sparked during a conversation with her boss. She shares how she made the move from human kinetics and health education to product management.
My Tech Transition is a monthly ConTech series that shines a spotlight on Africans who have successfully transitioned into tech.
Written by David Onugha
Florence Ogunbore's interest in product management was sparked during a conversation with her boss. Now a product manager at Softcom Limited, she talks about her transition from human kinetics and health education to product management.
What are your responsibilities as a product manager?
As a product manager, I work in retail. This involves dealing with merchants and providing tools to enable easy end-to-end business operations for them. I interface quite often with our customers, which are businesses that use our tools. I also work in terminal payments, which deals with the use of POS terminals to accept payment, and I do a lot of interfacing with the engineers.
What's a typical workday like for you?
A typical day starts with me attending to emails or Slack messages I woke up to. After stand-up, I attend to the items on my to-do list. My to-do list mostly involves resolving blockers or dealing with customers.
Then I work towards achieving my weekly deliverables, which are basically my quarterly Objectives and Key Results (OKR) broken down into doable tasks, leading up to the final OKR at the end of the quarter. A typical day for me also involves creating documentation to make processes clear to team members.
How were you able to transition into product management after studying human kinetics and health education at the university?
I had some web development experience before moving to product management. I sat in on client meetings, interfaced with customers, wrote documentation, reviewed other people's work — ensuring that they aligned with the client's wants — and coordinated the developers.
This was my first project management experience, and I also took a project management course to improve my skills. My boss at the time told me about a product management course he did, and that interaction sparked my interest.
I applied for the Women Techsters Bootcamp and got in. This was how I started learning about product management. It was a fun experience, as I could see my problem-solving skills being put to good use.
What other new skills did you have to pick up?
I really had to improve my commercial awareness. I had transferable skills from my stint as a developer and these eased my interactions with the engineering and design teams. However, I had to brush-up my knowledge of concepts like pricing, market valuation and business analysis.
What challenge did you face in your tech transition?
Securing my first proper job. After transitioning into product management, I was applying for jobs but nothing was forthcoming. I was also plagued by self-doubt and kept comparing myself with others. Luckily, the Women Techsters Bootcamp was fully hands-on, and I got the opportunity to work on live projects, which boosted my portfolio.
I also jumped on product management challenges on social media and made sure to document and share my career journey online. Eventually, a recruiter read my article on Medium, reached out to me on LinkedIn and I got my first product management job.
What advice would you give anyone looking to transition into tech?
The tech space is very dynamic and accommodates various backgrounds. Even if you're from a non-technical background, your skills can seamlessly fit in tech. Conduct thorough research on the roles available. What sets you apart are your transferable skills, so find the best ways to leverage these skills in the tech industry.
Take time to learn about your desired role, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and commit to continuous learning. Share your journey on platforms like LinkedIn and other social networks.
Avoid comparing yourself to others, as you never fully understand their struggles. Treat this journey as your race; you're the driver. Keep showing up, stay committed, and that consistency will prove its worth.