Workforce management platform for Nigerian SMEs that prioritizes trust (real-time earnings visibility) before efficiency (automation).
We interviewed 50 people spanning across business owners, managers, supervisors, and frontline staff. The pattern was consistent: Managers spend 3+ hours every week chasing shift coverage on WhatsApp. When someone calls in sick, they ask other staff to cover. When nobody comes, the workload concentrates on those on duty, reducing productivity significantly.
Restaurant owner in Lagos has 12 staff. Every week:
The core problem: Visibility breakdown. Without data, trust erodes. Without trust, operational chaos persists.
During the TSAcademy capstone, I led a cross-functional team of 10 PMs. My responsibilities: end-to-end product vision, user research design and execution, feature prioritization, pricing hypothesis, cross-functional negotiation, and MVP delivery in 3 weeks.
This section showcases the decisions I made—and what I learned navigating tradeoffs.
Instead of building every feature in the world, I asked: What's the minimum viable thing that addresses the core pain?
Two insights shaped everything:
So the strategy became: Real-time earnings visibility + frictionless shift claiming + automatic tracking. Not 'automate everything.' Just remove the friction and build trust.
When staff are absent, don't make it a problem to solve alone. Post the shift. Let other staff claim it for extra income. Problem solved in 30 seconds instead of 30 WhatsApp calls.
This reframes absence from 'chaos' to 'opportunity.' Staff get extra income. Managers find cover instantly. Network effects kick in as more staff join.
App works without internet. Staff clock in/out offline. Data syncs when connection returns.
Nigeria's networks are unreliable. WiFi cuts out. 3G drops at inconvenient times. If staff can't clock in because there's no signal, the product fails. So I built for offline.
Display earnings as monthly totals ('₦45,600 this month so far'), NOT daily ('earned ₦800 today').
Daily ₦800 feels demotivating. Monthly ₦45,600 shows real value. And it matches how SMEs pay (monthly salary cycles). I learned this from interviews. One manager said: 'If I saw ₦800, I'd feel like I earned nothing. But ₦45,600? That's real money.'
Each employee gets a unique, one-time-use code (expires in 30 days, can't be reused).
Secure (can't be exploited). Scalable (no shared company code bottleneck). Auditable (tracks who used what code).
Show the math: Salary - Deductions + Overtime = Total
Staff don't trust 'math on paper.' When they see the formula and can verify it, trust builds. Month-end disputes disappear.
Cut, not because they're bad ideas, but because they solve problems users don't have yet. v1 validates the core hypothesis (visibility → trust). v2 scales to automation once trust is proven.
Timeline: Monday design kickoff → Friday prototype → Monday user testing → Wednesday refinement → Friday launch.
Tools: Lovable.ai + React (no-code accelerator). This speed forced ruthlessness on scope. Every feature had to justify its existence in 15 minutes of user feedback, not 2 hours of spec debate.
Owners care more about visibility (trust) than automation (efficiency). The ticker—not the scheduler—was the feature they reopened the prototype to show staff. This validated the hypothesis before production.
If I built this again: I'd extend the beta to 10-15 businesses before finalizing the earnings display format. Small UX changes here compound on adoption.
I don't have time to learn new tech. But this... I just opened it and posted a shift. A staff member claimed it in 30 seconds. I've never seen anything work that fast. If this costs ₦10,000, I'm paying it.
The shift thing is nice, but honestly? I use this to check what my staff earned before they ask me. No more arguments about who worked what. They know the number before they talk to me.
I have 8 staff and I was spending my mornings on WhatsApp. Now I post, they claim, done. Gives me back 2 hours every day. That's real money back.
Before this, I never knew if my manager was paying me right. Now I see the number every day. ₦45,600 this month. I can plan. I can trust. That changes everything.
The shift marketplace is genius. I was broke, I saw a Saturday shift posted, I claimed it. Extra ₦6,500. If there are more shifts, I'll keep using this.
My manager used to write down my hours on paper. I never knew if it was right. Now it's automatic. Clock in, clock out, done. And I can see exactly what I earned. No stress.
Click through the actual product. No mockups.
Open WEAVE Prototype →
Earnings visibility drives adoption. The ticker, not the scheduler, was the feature users showed to staff.
From testing with 3 managers and their teams:
The earnings visibility feature is what managers and staff care about most. Not the scheduler. Not the fancy features. The ability to see exactly what's owed and when. That single feature builds the trust layer that makes everything else stick.
Leadership is about creating clarity so others can contribute their best thinking. Data shapes decisions better than assumptions (interview findings drove every call). Building reveals what matters faster than planning (execution > theory).
Focus: Perfect the core experience before adding features.
This project proved something fundamental to me: good products come from listening, not from assumptions.
I could have built payroll automation, biometric auth, and advanced analytics. Instead, I asked 50 people what actually hurts. I designed a solution. I watched how they interacted with it. And I learned what actually matters.
That's the methodology I'd bring to any PM role: Research → Design → Build → Learn → Iterate.
Not theory. Not guessing. Just asking, building, and paying attention to what actually works.