Please can we meet you?

My name is  Olaopa Dolapo. I currently work as a freelance product designer. I am also a content strategist leading the content team at NitHub. Basically, I work in the design and communications space.

As an Alumna of Utiva product design school, I would love to know how you got started in Product design, and what motivated you to go into that field.

I learnt about Utiva in 2022 and subscribed to their mail to get more information from them. Around April, I got an email talking about a scholarship event for a Utiva cohort. I attended the event and attempted the test given to qualify for the scholarship. Later that day, I got my scholarship admission mail and was informed I was one of the 20 people who got the scholarship. Before then, I had little knowledge of design and design thinking processes and did a little bit of it with Coreldraw, Photoshop, and all. And because of that, I chose product design when asked to pick a course to join in the cohort. I thought product design was all about designing pretty interfaces, but I decided to do my research and discovered it is way more than that. I particularly like the design thinking process because I have been able to apply it to many other things.

I learnt more about the design thinking process on joining the cohort and discovered how to apply it to products. I got to learn about the UX part where you try to provide solutions to the problems that humans have. I got serious about it and enjoyed every bit of it. I really loved the experience.

After Utiva training, I went on to keep improving my skills. I attended another physical training program for 2 days. Although it wasn’t intense, I got to learn more. I also signed up for a Google UI/UX course and since then I have just been developing myself.

Last year, somebody reached out to me to handle the product design phase of a product. I did it up to the wireframing part and stopped because school resumed and I had to return back to school. I started another project in November last year, creating a product that meets the travel needs of people. I did my user research and I got help from a lot of people, especially on Twitter.

I had to put a pause on that too because balancing work and academics was difficult. The holiday is here again. I am back to product design and I am currently collaborating with other people and working on some things. I also hope to complete my travel product before September.

It is great to see how far you have come in your role as a product designer, how do you stay up to date with different trends?

I try to stay on different trends by learning from social media and developing myself through courses. Around January this year, I got a scholarship for another course “Open UX”. I also have a community of friends, experts, and colleagues in product design that help me stay on trend. Design Twitter is another medium I use too.

How are you staying updated with these trends, do you sometimes get overwhelmed by information overload and how do you handle it?

Yes, I do. I get overwhelmed by information overload, and sometimes I feel like I am not able to catch up well. As I said, I take courses to help with that because taking in all the information at once may confuse me. Sometimes, I take breaks to go back to what I have been taught and also get back on the right track.

I love documenting and jotting a lot. I have notes on every UI/UX class I have taken including all my Utiva classes. There's a special product design handbook that contains all of these.

Taking breaks does not mean I go off totally. I go back to my notes to resharpen my understanding and also implement all the new things I have learnt —that’s how I can be a good teacher to teach others.

What would you say are the benefits of hopping on design trends?

I think the benefit is it helps you stay up to date. They say "No man is an island of knowledge". You cannot know everything and I feel product design is something you keep learning as you climb the ladder and move up to higher roles. Hopping on design trends just makes you stay up to date. For example, the last time I used Figma, I saw that new features were added to the platform.

If you don’t hop on the trends, you will not be able to stay up to date, and your progress might be stunted.

Sometimes it can be harmful and good to stick with what you know, but other times, just make sure you keep updating yourself so you can be a better product designer.

In your journey so far as a product designer, what has largely motivated you?

I think the major thing that has motivated me is understanding that product design is not just about building beautiful interfaces but solving actual human problems.

That’s an enlightening perspective, you have come a long way but what are your plans for the future?

Since I have a very long break, I am planning to use it to develop myself. My plan for the future is to teach others especially people from underserved communities. Currently, the people I am teaching are not from underserved communities.

I feel like if I ever want to leave product design, the only thing that will keep me back is the fact that if I don’t want to do this thing, they are people out there, especially people that cannot afford to and would love to do this.

One of my plans is to build a community with my friends in the product design space too and think about how we can give back to the community.

I am a product designer because of the scholarship I got from Utiva. It was all for free because someone paid for me. I want to give back too

What are your final words?

My final word is just to put your heart into what you are doing. Whatever you are doing, do it well because you don’t know what it can do for the next person. As I said earlier, someone paid for my time at Utiva and I am also trying to move it forward by teaching others. I am currently teaching the second person (since I started teaching product design) and it’s all for free because I know somebody did this for me too. Have a motivation behind whatever you are doing, don't just do things because others are doing it.

Olaopa Dolapo is currently a student at the University of Lagos. She serves as Content Team Lead at NitHub. In other non-profits and tech outfits where she works and volunteers, she works as a Product Designer, Content Writer, and Media Strategist. 

As a product designer, Dolapo's interests lie in creating designs that serve functional needs or solve social issues. She is currently experimenting with designing solutions to and rethinking design for transportation and tourism. 

Connect with her on LinkedIn HERE

Connect with her on Twitter HERE