…winning starts with great onboarding.

Hi, my name is Tobi Otokiti, and I am a Senior Growth Product Manager at Flutterwave. 

Monday, 3rd August 2020, I woke up early, freshened up and prepared a cup of hot ginger tea to start my day. My very first official meeting with the team was scheduled for 10 a.m. But before the meeting, I told myself it’s a special day. What’s a special day without selfies and pictures for memories and for the ‘Gram’? 😉

So I took some cool pictures 👇🏽

It was my first day as a Waver and I was excited about the day. Here’s why: 

Two weeks before my resumption, the people team with all their awesomeness reached out and said “Tobi, we want you to start speaking with some of our leaders in the organisation, so it’s easy for you to hit the ground running at your resumption.” From my experience as a product manager, you must be able to win the heart of your stakeholders and kick-starting this alignment before my resumption was sweet. I saw the people team as being proactive. That action from the people team for me was the first green light that I was choosing the right company.

So, we scheduled meetings, and I had 1:1s with each product manager and the organisation’s leaders I would be working closely with. All of my conversations with them made me feel like I was coming into an organisation that feels like home. 🏡

Also, a few days before my resumption, the people team sent an email with a calendar schedule of my onboarding into Flutterwave for my first week. An explainer video on work tools was attached as well, thereby leaving no stones unturned. All of this preparedness and thoughtfulness for a new joiner into the organisation made me look forward to resuming… Second green light. 

That’s why I was looking forward to my first day!

Now, it’s the early hours of Friday morning and I’m reminiscing about how my first week went. Indeed, time flies when you are enjoying the company of colleagues you are working with. I’ve had the most effective onboarding experience in my five years as a PM. Guess what makes me even more proud of the team? The onboarding was great even though it was 100% virtual. 👏🏽

To set me up for success in my new role, the Flutterwave team took time to explain the following:

  1. People (Team members in functional and cross-functional departments)
  2. Tools (Slack, Notion, Internal tools etc.)
  3. Culture (Vision, Core values, Perks/Benefits etc.)
  4. Products (Understanding our products)

People

We interacted with different key stakeholders in each department who presented how they work in their teams, the go-to persons for internal support and how their team contributes to Flutterwave’s business. I loved these sessions because the presenters spoke with enthusiasm, and there was time to ask questions. Also, each presenter came prepared by presenting well-detailed slides, so it was easy to follow through.

Tools

The People Manager, Victoria, did a great job in showing us how to use internal work tools to aid collaboration, communication and efficiency. The walkthroughs were on how to use Slack, Notion and other internals tools. This session was insightful because it left no room for assumptions on whether people knew how to use the tools or not.

Culture

The exciting thing about this session is that the CEO, GB, and the leadership anchored these sessions. They shared stories on how Flutterwave started, the core business, and the challenges encountered along the way. These stories would particularly help me always to remember the WHY behind building Flutterwave and serve as a great anchor. Also, the core values of the organization and  how each team member plays a vital role from the lowest to the highest level in contributing to the success of Flutterwave. These core values are:

  • We are Customer Focused
  • We Communicate Respectfully
  • We build Trust Capital
  • We are Loyal to one another
  • We Create and Innovate

And most importantly, we are BUILDERS! We are here to solve problems and make a global impact.

Products

Flutterwave is a product-led organisation. The products and services we offer to our millions of users are why we exist. The products we build help us to achieve our mission statement, which is “simplifying payments for endless possibilities.” During this session, the product managers did a deep dive on how Flutterwave products (Flutterwave for Business, Flutterwave Store, Barter & Moneywave) work. I’m more than excited to work with my team to optimise existing products and build new feature enhancements that make our users choose us over any market player.

And so, if you are a business owner and you have not yet registered your business on Flutterwave store, you are missing out in growing your business and earning more money.

You can get started here: https://flutterwave.com/ng/store. It is FREE, no hidden charges. It’s our way of supporting you because we genuinely care about you! ❤️

I’m excited to be called a Waver at Flutterwave. I’ve come to see how important the first one week at a new company can charge and inspire you to bring your A-game to the company. A solid onboarding with people, tools, culture, and products can help an employee, and a company set each other up for success.

More than ever before I want to build products with my amazing colleagues that genuinely help our users’ businesses. When people think about easy ways to make financial transactions, I want Flutterwave to be top of mind, #1. 

Raise a glass 🥂 to Flutterwave achieving its vision – which is to make it easier for Africans to build global businesses that can make and accept any payment, anywhere from across Africa and around the world. 🌍