From Nigeria to MVP: Oluwatobi Yusuf's Tech Ascendancy and the Growth of the Power Platform Community

Today's guest is from Nigeria . He works at AXA as a team lead in business process re-engineering . He was first awarded as MVP in 2022 . He's a low-code advocate , developer and consultant for about three years . He is one of the community leaders at the Nigeria Power Platform User Group .

You can find links to his bio and social media in the show notes for this episode . Welcome to the show , Oluwatobi .

I'm really delighted to have supported it to get through to this stage . I didn't get a call , but maybe they really did great . I really smile getting to see what they really are completely here . The other thing I do for fun I attend events . I'm a fan of networking and connecting with people , sharing knowledge .

I'm also a community , even outside of tech community . I see a very nice conference coming up . It's something I definitely would jump on and attend .

It's a funny thing . I don't know if it's funny , but it's really nice when you eat it together with fried plantain . I'll give you a treat .

They all decided to come to the tech club Because tech wasn't really , you know , it wasn't a big thing at the time . It wasn't popular as it is now , you know , with tech rules and tech series and all of that playing around . It wasn't like that then . So I was in school final year .

So they created this tech club beside my school and you know the total was teaching Python and , you know , r . Then at the time , and my friends happened to be about it when they joined For me , I was just , you know , doing my team . Then my friend introduced me to the course . She was part of the first course .

I went to that school , I applied to the first course , became a student and told me it's a great program . You learn to load and things like that . And that's how I joined the tech of the following course and that's how I started learning Python . You know , I learned Python . I learned Python and R study at the time .

Then , towards the following semester I did a bit of C sharp . Then after that I graduated from school , went on to do a bit of my country . We do what we call the youth service . We're here after I graduate more like a seven year country and most times we are kind of posted to teach .

So I'm posted to teach in school and after that , you know , I was able to get this opportunity to instan at the company and the reason I got the internship was because of my background knowledge in C sharp , which I go to a lot of the schools on . Yeah , so as I got the internship , I'm from there . I've been growing in the tech field .

The manager worked up to me and told me , oh , it could be . And then Power Platform was even popular in Nigeria then and this was , you know , 2020 , 2021 . Yeah , 2021 . So Power Platform wasn't really popular , you know again , for some countries or some companies or say , you know , it was not more .

You know , so we knew nobody was very well in Nigeria as of now . So it was the first month I think we still got the power platform , a Power Platform , power Platform . I just checked what it's about , you know , yeah , you know on the first , you know , check what's about on that . So , out of curiosity , I was like , what is Power Platform ?

So I went , I did some research . So then , you know , we had this template . It was just , you know , the Power Platform . We had the . It was there called Common CDS . We had CDS . We had the Canvas app , as well as the Assistant . They had PowerSporter . Then I just went in .

I stayed around the templates that were existing there For just the last month of my internship and that was it . So I had the internship , I went to my service and I was sitting by myself again because I was doing that at five times .

So after I was done with my service , I had a complaint called one internship and they asked what is the power platform in-frame at the time ? So this was like a start-up but they are like a Microsoft partner complaint . So they were looking for interest for power platform and they asked me I got a power platform before and I said yes , I put out 10 flicks .

I've done this . I've done the same thing . I was out , you know the broken in , but at this point , or this organization , I now really learn to what the power platform is all about . Then I only put out a template . But coming to this company , you know I was able to go to a lot of training resource .

I was able to do another resource that made me like the tool and then say jumping on project . So they come to me , they do like projects , I'm going to make plans . So I was like who was the issue what do you need to automate ? What do you need to build an app around ?

Because when I got to jump on the model , you don't want to accept a service management . So then when I automated some services for some financial institutions and that's like very deep and deep into the power platform , Wow , that's that's .

You know , I feel it's something every organization can jump on . If you are not using any of the power platforms , power Automate should be something because they are automating a process and they are making the process seamless .

And the very important thing is most of the applications or solutions are built that I believe are the biggest impact I've ever thought on and the funny story is they are not the most technical .

So you would see simple automations like the off-boarding process or on-boarding process for an organization and the function is simple as that For just your reporting , normal reporting , you know that kind of thing . And by doing the very good organization then and they are still using this world document here , so on you know , get the reports for everybody .

Then at the close of business the person will go around and see get different reports . And I was like they want to call one note and they are following it and I was able to get the reports together and every , each staff can just jump in at the close of business . You know they can automations , they can notify them .

They are made at the close of business or bits dashes . So at the close of business each staff does get their notes . They click on the link in the mail and they will be the staff on the list . So now that would or one person going to meet all of the same numbers to get the report was eliminated .

And you know , some times you know you don't even get to see people . Maybe they come to the office or something else . You cannot get them on the call , they are shit and all that Right now , wherever you are , you see the mail from the leadership and it's on you to obey the shift , not on one person .

So the third part I think that was one of the key things that really drove me back .

You know , with that man hours , you know that was seen in the week was off me , I think in the person's personal day , like the person's phone are padded , you know general of the issue post , but with these eliminated at that time and the person just goes to the phone , the post .

Each person goes down in the post and at the end of the day they are seeing as more than one choice in man hours padded in a week . You convert that into or take that man hours into something else in the business . I'm sure you know that with the business more productive so that , like I said , most of the solution are leveraging for the next time .

They are not that much you know if somebody can jump on .

They are the likes of Bola Ewaju in Hokkae and Dibidabo , who have also contributed very much to the community standing today , I was voting to be community leader from 2020 , so we are going to meet , so I think , july also , and I have over a thousand members and you know we've been running our program every year , so every month , so we have the bootcamp coming

out the next and you know we try to want to add the data you know , but I'm not going to attend and generally we try to encourage the community because it's a communication and it has really grown because right now we no longer do it . So then , when 2019 ? I think we've been coming to respond to that , and then we have one location in Lagos .

Right now , we are in over nine states and we have , like I said , over a thousand members and we have the bootcamp going on in those nine states . So , while we are in our bootcamp this year , between the both in Lagos , we are running the same bootcamp also in Badon , we are running the same bootcamp in order to get a good state and order .

You know there are nine states . You know Shostik , also in Oyo state , also in different states . I love green . You know two different areas of the country , so they're going to respond to all of these things and it's really growing and talking about activities . Now , the bootcamp definitely it was a sensitive thing to empathize with .

You know the knowledge of our platform , but we all know that it has been all of these things maybe . So what the community has going to have to do is to create a section to become a community strategy in 2022 where we are diamountly meeting . So we are meeting twice a month and we categorize this meeting into the beginners and the intermediate class .

So beginners are people who have more idea of this too , but want to learn . So we add a track for the power arts and power to meet and we add another track for the power bear . You know those impressive games . You can add it to some of them . So we add a beginner and intermediate class .

So classes for the power and power bear , and we add a beginner and intermediate for the power bear , also making it to classes and load this class twice in a month .

So we guide them step by step , not taking them to the big step , and we give them assignment , you know , guide them on this journey and this is not just one percent job , it's all of us and all the community with us .

We come together to try to tell them then our schedule , because a lot of us also work in the same places and we find a way to play more of this in our schedule and we are moving people with that . You know , and we did that till the end of the year to cure for that year and end of the year .

You know , we empower people and we let them know at this point that we are good enough to go through the substitution exam and once we get this substitution exam , then we can do stuff like the job . I love that system . Yeah , some people have already put in some jobs .

They add more idea of power platform for the team for the bootcamp , the students for the bootcamp . We've been a classie and right now they are fully on the team for the entire occasion .

I'm someone that , like , I'm still on . I'm someone that , like you know , never knew who I was . So , when it comes to the biggest thing in the Microsoft space and the ecosystem , it's one of the things I keep myself impressed with . And I was doing that and I was taking it for the number three .

On my LinkedIn page , on my Twitter page , I was talking about all of these things you know , microsoft was dropping all of these small ideas and things like that and I was passionate about community . That's why I was being a passion . You know , it wasn't because I wanted to apply for the program , it was only because I was being a passion .

So it was something I was doing and putting out there . Then I got a message from an MVP , one of the entities , saying that who should I be considered , you know , being or joining the MVP program ? I'm like , seriously , I've seen players come to me like young I'm those two years , they end up coming too , and I joined 10th and so on .

So that's like going to three years or a year plus . I feel like that's a lot to learn . And I said they're doing good . You know already working on a transition and doing a lot then , and so you can do this .

It's something that I can jump on and you know , I'm pretty sure that it will also give me that exposure and that will take me to work on a job at the end of the program . It can't be me , that's for you . I can't do that that fast . So I'm going to talk about the issues , the issues , the exposure issues you get to see .

First off , I think I'll talk about the fact that you can talk to the product owner .

So now , when you see a challenge or something , you know what , you'll find the access , the access of an entity to talk to the product , the product thing , that , oh , there's something wrong with this product or you really can't work on this product , and the product can also have in the open mind to misting products as entity .

You know , oh , what do you have to see ? What do you think ? What are you really wanting to do to that and the take on the contribution . That's definitely what I'm trying to do . And then another thing that will be something that will definitely keep me going to keep pretending I remain my entity . And then another thing that maybe be the exposure .

I would say maybe I'm on this show because I'm an entity , so I said I need a lot of exposure . I've gotten from different places , people inviting me to speak at a event , and from sexual , because I'm also an entity , and the only positive part is that you get into any new product .

So , before Microsoft releases anything that makes it the best , go to person . So , being an entity , we have been told about it . So these are the new products and the new features that are about to be on our products . What do you think about this ? I don't know , and they're always open to feedback , to get feedback from the entity .

So these are things I really enjoy being an entity .