Building Digital Platforms for Low-Connectivity Markets
I design SMS, USSD, and mobile-first systems supporting national infrastructure, subscription platforms, marketplaces, and civic participation across emerging economies.
(Africa)
/ month
onboarded
reached
(Botswana)
Product Experiments & Growth Strategy
Stanford Seed Transformation Program
Diagnosed acquisition and activation funnel leakage across 6 products using customer journey mapping and Business Model Canvas prioritization, producing strategy maps that guided regional expansion across African markets.
Blaza Mobile Marketplace
Designed seller onboarding architecture for a mobile marketplace launch, developing user personas and implementing in-app messaging, SMS activation flows, push notifications, and lifecycle email campaigns to improve seller acquisition velocity and early retention during beta rollout.
Public sector and digital technology system
UNICEF U-Report Program
SMS Engagement Platform · 20,000+ Users Registered · National Rollout
Supported nationwide youth registration activations and research design for Botswana’s UNICEF U-Report platform, informing polling strategy, policy formation and stakeholder insight reporting.
- Conducted nationwide mall and school activations registering participants onto the platform
- Designed surveys, interview guides, and focus-group research instruments, analyzing qualitative findings to generate stakeholder insight reports
- Analyzed participation data and sentiment trends to support rollout decisions, polling themes and platform messaging strategy
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
BOTSWANA MINISTRY OF HEALTH
THE PROBLEM
THE SOLUTION
SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE
HOW I CONTRIBUTED TO THE SOLUTION
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and health agencies were under pressure to understand and control how the virus was spreading.
Mobility tracking became a critical tool for managing movement and identifying potential exposure risks.
In Botswana, mobility tracking was done through traditional paper log books at checkpoints, retail locations, and transport hubs.
But as cases surged and the volume of entries multiplied, the manual system strained under pressure, making it clear that the approach was becoming unsustainable.
The biggest hurdle was coordination & information centralization. As case numbers climbed, the manual logbooks scattered across different locations made real-time tracking nearly impossible.
Officials found themselves constantly a step behind especially with retrieving traveler’s history across multiple checkpoints.
There were also privacy concerns, since personal details were exposed to the public, some people chose to omit information, adding to the challenge of accurate tracking.
To address this gap, the Ministry of Health partnered with a local digital startup to introduce BeSafe, a QR-based mobility tracking platform designed to:
- ✦ Centralize check-ins across public locations
- ✦ Improve mobility data accuracy for exposure tracking
- ✦ Reduce privacy risks from open paper logbooks
In a country with limited digital infrastructure, BeSafe was designed to be lightweight and compatible with devices of varying capabilities, supporting both English and Setswana to ensure broad accessibility.
The user interface was streamlined for ease of use, allowing individuals to quickly apply for travel permits and complete QR-based check-ins within seconds.
This infrastructure gave the Ministry of Health a centralized, real-time view of nationwide mobility patterns, strengthening exposure tracking and enabling faster public-health response.
- ✦ Translated stakeholder requirements into feature workflows supporting QR check-ins, movement permits, and exposure-tracking visibility
- ✦ Coordinated beta-testing cycles between public-sector partners and engineering teams to validate usability across low-connectivity environments
- ✦ Monitored product adoption signals and user feedback to inform iteration priorities during national rollout
Public sector and digital technology system
UNICEF U-Report Program
SMS Engagement Platform · 20,000+ Users Registered · National Rollout
Supported nationwide youth registration activations and research design for Botswana’s UNICEF U-Report platform, informing polling strategy, policy formation and stakeholder insight reporting.
- Conducted nationwide mall and school activations registering participants onto the platform
- Designed surveys, interview guides, and focus-group research instruments, analyzing qualitative findings to generate stakeholder insight reports
- Analyzed participation data and sentiment trends to support rollout decisions, polling themes and platform messaging strategy
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported the Ministry of Health in Botswana to deploy a COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens.
The platform enabled movement permit applications, monitoring the spread of the virus and public-health coordination.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
Public sector and digital technology system
UNICEF U-Report Program
SMS Engagement Platform · 20,000+ Users Registered · National Rollout
Supported nationwide youth registration activations and research design for Botswana’s UNICEF U-Report platform, informing polling strategy, policy formation and stakeholder insight reporting.
- Conducted nationwide mall and school activations registering participants onto the platform
- Designed surveys, interview guides, and focus-group research instruments, analyzing qualitative findings to generate stakeholder insight reports
- Analyzed participation data and sentiment trends to support rollout decisions, polling themes and platform messaging strategy
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported nationwide deployment of Botswana’s COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens, enabling QR movement permits, regional monitoring visibility, and public-health coordination during peak response operations.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
Public sector and digital technology system
UNICEF U-Report Program
SMS Engagement Platform · 20,000+ Users Registered · National Rollout
Supported nationwide youth registration activations and research design for Botswana’s UNICEF U-Report platform, informing polling strategy, policy formation and stakeholder insight reporting.
- Conducted nationwide mall and school activations registering participants onto the platform
- Designed surveys, interview guides, and focus-group research instruments, analyzing qualitative findings to generate stakeholder insight reports
- Analyzed participation data and sentiment trends to support rollout decisions, polling themes and platform messaging strategy
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported nationwide deployment of Botswana’s COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens, enabling QR movement permits, regional monitoring visibility, and public-health coordination during peak response operations.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
Public sector and digital technology system
UNICEF U-Report Program
SMS Engagement Platform · 20,000+ Users Registered · National Rollout
Supported nationwide youth registration activations and research design for Botswana’s UNICEF U-Report platform, informing polling strategy, policy formation and stakeholder insight reporting.
- Conducted nationwide mall and school activations registering participants onto the platform
- Designed surveys, interview guides, and focus-group research instruments, analyzing qualitative findings to generate stakeholder insight reports
- Analyzed participation data and sentiment trends to support rollout decisions, polling themes and platform messaging strategy
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported nationwide deployment of Botswana’s COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens, enabling QR movement permits, regional monitoring visibility, and public-health coordination during peak response operations.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
UNICEF U-Report Program
SMS Engagement Platform · 20,000+ Users Registered · National Rollout
Supported nationwide youth registration activations and research design for Botswana’s UNICEF U-Report platform, informing polling strategy, policy formation and stakeholder insight reporting.
- Conducted nationwide mall and school activations registering participants onto the platform
- Designed surveys, interview guides, and focus-group research instruments, analyzing qualitative findings to generate stakeholder insight reports
- Analyzed participation data and sentiment trends to support rollout decisions, polling themes and platform messaging strategy
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported nationwide deployment of Botswana’s COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens, enabling QR movement permits, regional monitoring visibility, and public-health coordination during peak response operations.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported nationwide deployment of Botswana’s COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens, enabling QR movement permits, regional monitoring visibility, and public-health coordination during peak response operations.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
Public sector and digital technology system
BeSafe COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
Public Health Monitoring System · Botswana Ministry of Health
Supported nationwide deployment of Botswana’s COVID-19 contact-tracing platform used by 1.5M citizens, enabling QR movement permits, regional monitoring visibility, and public-health coordination during peak response operations.
- Coordinated beta-testing cycles between government stakeholders and engineering teams to validate feature updates
- Logged village-level location gaps, permit-routing issues, and usability feedback into developer iteration pipelines
- Monitored App Store reviews, social media responses, and performance stability under low-connectivity conditions
Designed bundled solar systems for residential, commercial and agricultural clients by capturing Voice-of-customer and translating it into energy needs.
Supported uptime-critical infrastructure for commercial systems (5KVA-80KVA) requiring continuous power supply.
Supported generator and backup battery systems by coordinating servicing needs, spare-parts availability and maintenance auditing.
Product Management
- Managed 4 industrial power-backup products for commercial and enterprise clients across mining, tech, banking and healthcare by translating solution requirements into system configurations
- Collaborated with engineers, suppliers and sales teams to align product features with sales enablement materials supporting solution adoption
- Converted technical specifications and incident reports into client-ready recommendations, on-boarding guides and product feature improvement plans
Project Management
- Owned delivery strategy for nationwide maintenance services, installations and daily service call-outs by coordinating engineers, suppliers, and clients
- Tracked service execution to align delivery timelines with SLAs, monitoring quality control and client feedback
Pricing Management
- Developed product pricing structures and project costing, aligning local competitive analytics with supplier insights and servicing scope
- Prepared high-volume customized quotations supporting service engagements, negotiating contracts with potential clients and international vendors
