Welcome to Episode I

This is ProductDiOxide.

One of the challenging aspects of being a product person in Africa is the exponential amount of noise versus real signal. So many voices telling you how to do product with no evidence they have done it. Every time I look for a product outlet that speaks to our realities, I find advice written for someone else's world.

A world where infrastructure behaves. Where data is cheap and reliable. Where customers default to trust.

This is not quite the way it is here.

We build where assumptions die quickly, where discovery is not optional, where reality revels in bodyslamming our product strategies if those exist at all. Our problems are wicked, and we solve other wicked problems just to attack the ones we actually want to solve. We operate in 54 diverse markets, and this demands that we have our stuff on point and be steady product creators in uncertain arenas.

There are people doing this product work with enormous success and devastating failures that become invaluable discovery for the rest of us. People leveraging what I call Grey Gold: the accumulated intelligence of generations who understand these markets at a level no algorithm can replicate.

Yet that knowledge rarely gets highlighted. We see mythical narratives of entrepreneurs who raised millions, without product analysis. Nothing on the intrapreneurs quietly powering the continent. When you attend global product conferences, African product creators are absent. Even when diaspora Africans (who are kicking ass) get the platform, they minimize continental ties for mainstream acceptance.

I have seen that African product wisdom. I am part of it. It is time to put the shine on African product excellence. This is why we are bringing ProductDiOxide to the African potluck of product thinking. We will amplify signal and filter out noise. We will highlight what works, who is doing the work, and give proper context for building products in this dynamic environment.

If you build products for African customers, or want to, welcome to your workspace.

We dey here. Let's get to work.

— Chidi

PreviewDiOxide

What You Are Getting Every Tuesday

What You're Getting Every Tuesday

Ignite is where I share hard takes on product work in Africa that you won't find anywhere else. These are takes rooted in the realities of building across African markets, covering everything from discovery in truth economies to navigating the complexity of 54 diverse markets. You'll get sharp analysis grounded in what actually happens when you build here.

Coach's Corner is where I make coaching accessible. Many product people don't have access to coaching, so I'm bringing it to you through real situations from real people in the trenches. Think of the PM navigating organizational politics, a founder figuring out their first product hire, the product leader trying to build discovery discipline in their team. Hit us with the product wahala, and you will get coaching based on my work with product teams across the continent.

Spotlight highlights African products, product people, and teams doing excellent work that deserves recognition. We have intrapreneurs building state-of-the-art products for creatives and teams solving complex logistics problems. Countless others that should get their shine as quiet builders creating real impact. Spotlight is exactly that…the spotlight.

The Elements is your curated feed of product intel. Links worth your time, tools worth trying, jobs worth applying to, and opportunities you need to know about. Everything filtered for relevance to product people building in and for African markets.

The Chidi Question ends each issue with a provocation designed to make you think differently about the work. Hit reply with your answer because we will read every single one.

And then on Fridays, Extra Oxygen gives you a short pickup for you to chew on to cap your week. A reflection, a principle, or something to carry into the weekend.

What’s Up, Product Doc?

Join the PO₂ WhatsApp Community

This is where African product people gather between issues to share what's working, ask hard questions, and connect with builders across the continent.

Think of it as the hallway conversations and voice notes we talked about in the welcome note, except organized and accessible. You'll find product managers, founders, coaches, and intrapreneurs trading real intel about building in our markets.

The newsletter comes on Tuesdays and Fridays. The community is live all week.

COACH’S CORNER

Getting to You-Role-Fit

A product executive is interviewing for a product role and is concerned they might be walking into a feature factory:

"Chidi, I am interviewing for a senior product leadership role at a large organization. The job description talks about product lifecycle management, agile delivery, and driving digital transformation. It sounds good on paper. But I have been burned before by roles that promised empowerment and delivered feature factories. How do I use the interview to figure out if this is real?"

Coach Chidi:

Ah, the age-old dilemma of what's on paper versus what's real in the JD. I get it. One of the tough things about job descriptions is that they are very descriptive but not very truthful. "Agile delivery" and "digital transformation" can mean anything from empowered teams solving real problems to order-taking dressed up in product language.

Here's some counsel for you—run discovery on them.

The interview should be about evaluating you-role-fit. You need to know three things.

First: Do teams have the authority to say no? Ask for a recent example when a product team pushed back on a stakeholder request. Not a hypothetical. An actual example. What was it? Why did they say no? How did leadership respond? If they cannot give you an example, or if every "no" requires executive escalation, you are walking into command-and-control. Your actual job will be translating executive wishes into Jira tickets. I know, that's harsh.

Next: Will you have input into product strategy? Ask how product strategy gets defined. Who is in the room? What inputs drive decisions? If strategy is handed down and your job is execution, you are a delivery manager with a fancy title, if that’s your cup of tea. If customer insights and product leadership shape strategy together, you might have real influence.

And then: Do they value discovery? Ask when customer discovery changed a product's direction. What did they learn? How did leadership react? If they talk about speed without mentioning validation, discovery is theater. If they share stories of pivots based on evidence, they value learning. And you’re golden. 

One more thing, and this is important to me: ask about coaching. "How does this organization invest in product leadership development?" If they treat it as a nice-to-have or look confused, you will be alone. That’s tough for a product leader. 

Listen carefully. The words matter less than the examples. If they cannot give concrete stories, they do not have a product operating model. If their answers reveal a feature factory, I say you walk. No title is worth building where product discipline is not valued.

Ask the hard questions. And good luck. Tell us how it went.

Product Question of The Week

What is the real reason you are a product creator or builder? Or. If not already, why do you want to start?

Just give it to me in one or two sentences. Try not to give me vision statements, or impact talk that is based on LinkedIn performance levers. Just the raw truth about why you stay in these chaotic markets or why you want in.

Hit reply. I want to hear it.