Understanding the Product Market: From ideation to Sales

@TechCrushHQOct 9, 2025

The Spaces explored how products progress from ideation to market and the cross-functional roles that make this possible. Host Abishala set the stage, then four practitioners shared journeys and practical guidance. Product designer Chris Akendi moved from graphic to product design via curiosity, freelancing, and building in public, emphasizing iterative, user-centered processes and communication as a critical soft skill. Digital marketer Mark Queenie traced a path from web development and training to full-stack marketing, explaining how marketing supports the product lifecycle end-to-end, advising beginners to sample all branches (SEO, PPC, content, email, social) before niching. Product manager Bunmi (MoneyPoint) shifted from data science to PM with mentorship and a clear roadmap, proactively forming a team and project to gain experience; she detailed the PM lifecycle (research, design, dev, QA, beta, launch, scale) and stressed diplomacy, networking, and capstone-style hands-on work, noting six months is a realistic ramp with diligence. Product manager Titilola Adu (Luminy Events) transitioned from customer success and user research to PM, urging continuous learning, volunteering, and community-based mentorship. Q&A covered choosing a track, recommended communities and books (e.g., Inspired by Marty Cagan), building cross-functional communication, and program announcements and upcoming tracks.

Tech Mentorship Webinar: Understanding Product–Market From Ideation to Sales

Session Overview

Host: Abishala opened the Tech Mentorship Webinar Series, situating this session within ongoing tracks (front end, back end/app development, technical writing, virtual assistance, AI, Web3).
Topic focus: How product design, product management, and digital marketing jointly drive a product from ideation to market and ongoing relevance.
Logistics: Past recordings are available via the host’s profile and shared in the community; Q&A at the end; guidance to take notes. Applications for the program are still open briefly (extended through Monday). Upcoming sessions will cover cybersecurity, cloud computing, ethical hacking, data science/analysis, and business analysis.

Speakers and Roles

Praise – Product Designer (journey from graphic/brand design to product design; mentor/trainer).
Mark – Digital Marketer (full‑stack; background in web design, agency work, training with Google/Facebook).
Bunmi – Product Manager at Money Points (PM across AI and fintech; remote work experience).
Titila – Product Manager at Luminy Events (background in customer success and user research; transitioned from project management).

Product Design: Role, Path, and Practical Advice (Praise)

Journey & Motivation

Started in graphic design, evolved into brand design, then discovered product design ~2 years ago via peer recommendation.
Predominantly freelanced while studying; faced setbacks (academic strike, difficulty landing roles) but leveraged “building in public” and community visibility to earn referrals.
Acknowledged money as a motivator but emphasized curiosity and growth as primary drivers.

What Product Designers Do

High‑level systems thinking: Product design is iterative, not a linear A→B→C path; expect cycles (e.g., D→A→E) based on insights and feedback.
User-centric problem-solving: Deeply understand users’ problems and validate solutions before aesthetics. Decisions must be grounded in user and business reality, not designer subjectivity.
Cross-functional communication: Continuous alignment with stakeholders (clients, PMs, engineers) and users.

Skills and Tools

Tools (e.g., Figma) are insufficient on their own; the differentiator is thinking and communication.
Critical soft skill: Communication. Poor communication leads to misalignment, funding hesitance, stakeholder friction, and wrong user inputs. Clear articulation of ideas, solution rationale, and feedback loops is essential.

Advice to Beginners

Learn within a structured community or tech school to gain support, accountability, and network longevity (mentors who continue to check in years later).
Be consistent and visible: Publish work regularly; treat learning as lifelong; keep improving after landing a role (avoid stagnation).
Build in public: Share progress, thinking, and iterations; it attracts opportunities and fosters accountability.
Learn the business side: Understand how design supports product viability, market fit, and growth.

Host Reinforcement on Consistency & Community

Boot camp programs are intense by design, enabling immersion and accountability.
Community encourages “show your workings”: templates are provided to help learners share progress online, even if they’re new to visibility.
Visibility matters for relevance and opportunity; continuous showing up helps differentiate in crowded spaces.

Digital Marketing: Full-Stack Perspective and Pathfinding (Mark)

Journey & Scope

Early exposure to computers (family background in computer engineering); learned HTML/CSS; started in web design.
Entered a 360° agency (offline + digital marketing); trained for Google and Facebook digital skills programs across states.
Transitioned from training to execution for brands: building sites, product design, and end-to-end digital marketing.
Operates as a full‑stack digital marketer who can take a product from ideation to scale (web dev, design, PPC, SEO, content, social, email).

Challenges & Evolution

Initial learning was “scattered” due to lack of structured guidance/community; today, academies and structured curricula simplify and accelerate skill acquisition.

Digital Marketing Across the Product Lifecycle

Ideation: Market research, surveys, interviews to validate problem–solution fit.
Go-to-market: Strategy, content development, channel planning.
Growth/scaling: SEO/SEM, performance marketing, lifecycle email.
Decline/retention phases: Adjust tactics to re-engage or reposition; DM involvement persists throughout.

Beginner Strategy: Broad First, Niche Later

Get baseline exposure to key pillars: content marketing, SEO, PPC, social media, and email.
Don’t niche immediately; first understand each area’s role in the lifecycle and customer journey.
Align eventual specialization to strengths and passions (e.g., natural writers → content marketing; creative strategists → campaign strategy; data‑driven → PPC/analytics).
Option to remain full‑stack or niche down based on fit; both paths are valid.

Visibility Matters

Show up online: Consistent public engagement around your craft attracts opportunities (people notice and invite collaboration).

Product Management: Transition, Lifecycle, and Day-to-Day (Bunmi)

Transition Story

Studied statistics; began in data science/machine learning. Joined communities but lacked guidance, leading to breadth without depth and unemployability.
Discovered product management via a product analytics module in a Google Analytics course (PM instructor from Microsoft); resonance with personal strengths (diplomacy, leadership) led to a deliberate switch.
Sought mentorship, built a roadmap, and didn’t wait for internships—assembled a team to build a product and showcase process-thinking.
Networking from community management facilitated a first PM role in ~5 months (without a formal CV); initial roles focused on AI products at two companies before moving to Money Points.

Practical Timeline Guidance

With due diligence, structured learning, and strong networking, ~6 months can be a realistic timeframe to transition into PM. Journeys vary—focus on consistency, strategy, and networking.

Product Management Lifecycle

Ideation & Discovery: Identify and validate real market problems; assess solution desirability, feasibility, and business viability.
Product Definition & Design: Collaborate with UI/UX to define experience aligned with product vision; produce key documents (scopes, PRDs) and align stakeholders.
Development: Partner with front‑end, back‑end, and (where relevant) AI engineers; facilitate scoping sessions and sprint planning.
Quality Assurance: Coordinate internal testing and beta testing with real users; ensure quality and usability.
Launch & Post-Launch: Work with digital marketing on GTM; partner with customer support, sales, and partnerships for adoption, feedback, and iteration.
Continuous iteration: Monitor performance, gather insights, and evolve the product.

Role Characteristics & Skills

PM is at the intersection of business, design, engineering, and go-to-market teams; requires fluency in each stakeholder’s language.
Key soft skills: Diplomacy, communication, emotional resilience. Expect negotiation, alignment, and occasional conflict with diverse teams.
Day-to-day varies by phase: heavy research and strategy early; intense scoping and facilitation pre-build; cadence management during build; cross-functional coordination post-launch.
Work model: Remote flexibility enables purposeful living and broader life planning.

Product Management: Complementary Path and Advice (Titila)

Journey Highlights

Early indecision (arts track; English degree; teaching during NYSC); left a secretary role to join a startup.
At the startup: functioned as a project manager and user researcher—interviewed tenants/landlords, identified pain points, tested solutions—first exposure to PM practices.
Moved to PGVest (customer success), listening deeply to customers and funneling feedback into product improvements.
Desired proactive problem prevention (not only reacting post‑incident); quit to upskill and fully transition into product management.

Challenges & Growth

Faced self-doubt and the hurdle of collaborating with engineers without prior technical background; addressed this via continuous learning and immersion in structured environments.

Practical Advice

Continuous structured learning: Leverage bootcamps, mentorship, and peer communities.
Hands‑on experience: Don’t only take courses—volunteer, intern, or collaborate on real projects (even unpaid initially) to build credible experience.
Expect to learn, unlearn, and relearn continually; markets and technologies evolve.

Q&A Highlights

1) Choosing Among Multiple Interests

Explore widely and study each track’s daily realities and long-term trends.
Align with your strengths, interests, and market projections (3–5–10 years perspective).
Review session recordings across tracks to find resonance; seek mentorship; join communities for guided clarity.

2) Communities and Books for Product Management

Book recommendation: Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (accessible even for non-technical readers).
Communities: Slack PM groups; Women-focused tech groups (e.g., She Code Africa, Women Techsters); Tech media like TechCabal for industry news; general tech webinars and bootcamps.

3) What Is Product Management Really?

PM orchestrates the product lifecycle: discovery, design, development, QA/beta, launch, and growth—standing at the intersection of design, engineering, marketing, support, sales, and partnerships.
Needs diplomacy, structured communication, and cross-functional fluency.
Day-to-day adapts to the phase: deep research early; facilitation and scoping mid‑cycle; coordination and optimization post‑launch.

4) Building Communication and Technical Collaboration Skills

These are taught within structured programs and reinforced via capstone projects that simulate real cross-functional leadership (managing multiple tracks, aligning teams, practicing effective communication).

Program and Operational Notes

Recordings of past sessions are accessible via the host’s profile.
The program encourages public visibility (templates provided) to help learners share progress and maintain accountability.
Applications remain open briefly (extended to Monday) before reviews and selections begin; no further reopening is planned for this cohort.
Next week’s sessions (Monday/Tuesday) will cover cybersecurity, cloud computing, ethical hacking, data science/analysis, and business analysis.

Key Takeaways

Build in public: Publishing progress amplifies accountability, learning velocity, and opportunity.
Communication is foundational across roles: It drives stakeholder alignment and trusted execution.
Structured learning and community support curtail the inefficiencies of scattered self-learning.
Networking can compress timelines dramatically; invest in genuine relationships.
Start broad, then niche: Gain exposure across subdomains before specializing based on aptitude and interest.
PM sits at a demanding intersection; success requires diplomacy, clarity, and resilience.
Boot camp capstones simulate real cross-functional collaboration—practice is indispensable.
Lifelong learning mindset is essential in all tracks; technologies and markets evolve continuously.

What Tech Has Enabled (Speakers’ Reflections)

Praise: Autonomy and opportunity—freelancing across multiple projects; flexibility to earn more and manage diverse pursuits.
Titila: Options, clarity, and confidence—doors opened to project management, user research, customer success, and PM; tech enabled reinvention.
Bunmi: Purposeful living via remote flexibility—ability to structure life around meaningful work without being bound to rigid office constraints.

Closing

The host emphasized inspiration into action: keep the momentum, make informed track switches if needed, and leverage community structures for accountability and growth. The aim is not just to start but to endure, deliver, and stay relevant.