Welcome to the MVP Show . My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills . If you have not checked it out already , I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP . The link is in the show notes . With that , let's get on with the show .
Today's guest is from Ghana . He works at Multithread ICT Solutions as an application developer . He was first awarded his MVP in 2023 , so brand new . You can find links to his bio and socials in the show notes for this episode . Welcome to the show , Tchesco .
Thank you very much , Mike . Thank you for having me here .
Good to have you on the show . Tell me how excited were you when you got your MVP .
Actually , it was the news I wasn't prepared for . I just cleared my mind of it because I knew maybe I wasn't for this . My colleague at the same office got the award and just checked what I got , I was like really Okay , that's great . Let me check my email . I saw it and I really wanted to cry . I was like what ? This is just amazing .
I was so excited . I was so much excited . Thank you very much , Microsoft , for this award .
Wow , that's so cool . That's so cool when you're not doing things around Microsoft business applications like the Power Platform . What do you do for food ? What do you do for fun ? Tell me a bit about your family Food .
I love cooking . What I do for food is cooking . I love cooking . I love keeping my wife in the kitchen . Most of the time , when I'm not doing anything related to Power Platform , I learn C-Sharp development , web development and Android development . Also , iot is a bit of what I like doing most of the time .
I do play a lot of video games online mostly , but not football actually , I'm not a fan of football games , but adventure games Nice .
How did you get into technology ?
About the technology . Let's say right , when I was a child I was having this passion of tech and my disquieting of trying to find out what is this ? What does this solve ? What is all those things ? When I was in senior high school I used to have a cousin who was having a computer repair shop . Whenever I closed from school I came to his shop .
I helped him some more for some two hours before going back home .
When my dad saw that and then , due to lack of fun to proceed my university school , he rather put me into those technical training where I have a one-year training in hardware networking and after that I was supposed to start university but still we couldn't get any funding and I had to go start working and I struggled here and there to get a job because back
then I was very young and it was hardware networking . Nobody was trusting me giving me the idea , the idea of computers , to try my hands on . But I saw something in my area that was where I was staying . It was a lot of printing press graphic studios that are around .
So I just volunteered one of them that I wanted to help in graphic designing and one of the company took me in and though I didn't know anything about graphic designing , I started learning online on YouTube , and that is my favorite part . I like learning a lot when it's YouTube or whatever it is . It just encouraged me .
So from there I started building myself gradually into the graphic designing world and then preparing myself to also further my education . But fun was not coming that much to still proceed , so I still have to rely on YouTube tutorials here and there most of the time .
And I started I wanted to explore more of the world of the IT , not just graphic design and not just no . So I started learning programming , starting with HTML , css and JavaScript here and there . Back then I got introduced to some of these communities . Those time it was those Facebook developers and then the Google developers I got introduced .
So with that I got into in touch with some people who were also in my background my coming , who did not go to university and study programming but rather learn it on the ground on YouTube , and they guide me and direct me in whatever courses I need to follow , whatever how I need to stretch up myself in learning on my own .
So I started learning on my own gradually too , in 2019 , when we got the first MVP in Ghana and my sister her name is Audrey , she just introduced me to like , hey , just go , there is this new guy who just awarded MVP and he's the first one in Ghana . I'm like , what is MVP ? What is all this about ? She said like oh no , you come , come and join us .
We are having the celebration for the guy . So I joined him . I prepared a t-shirt for them if we celebrated . And then they went to their community where I started preparing flyers for their meetups and co .
And that is where I started facing all this , my Microsoft technologies and I realized that , oh , there are a lot of opportunities here , me getting lost in learning whatever is available in the world , if having a direct path to actually get me to somewhere .
So I started learning on Microsoft learn and then the same developer tool , so my how to design C-Sharp and all those things , so trying to find my way . Then this company , more to try just for me online , and was like I like your theme , I like the way you study and we like to give you this opportunity to develop apps over here .
I said , ok , since I love learning , why not ? So when I came to the company , I thought it was just me learning how to design in Android Studio or web development . But they told me look , there is a way the world is going now and then it is a low code and you need to learn this .
Though you want to learn your background , you want to put yourself into whatever it is , but this one is the way forward . Next generation , that's what the director told me that Try , learn this and I believe in the next five years you will take me later and I said , okay , no problem .
Then they gave me three months in learning and they were having the senior developer and then later they hired a new developer to join and then we are training the team and have a three-month learning in that journey and power platform fully .
And then later , after the three-month , then we found ourselves in the full one-year developing apps for a company , a banking guy here and then it was no one app , it was more than 15 app developing , automating , let's say , the whole process of the company . So it was very challenging and also great for us .
Our team build us a lot into this field and we grew up . After the one year we were all like , yeah , now we understood what is power platform . Now this is the . This is yes , this is true , this is the way forward .
And power platform was very amazing because when I started learning my , when I started my journey into the tech and learning programming , it was very difficult for me to understand . What is this ? Wow loop , these if statements , and in JavaScript I always struggled to understand . They say , if , do this , do that . And I struggle and struggle .
But when I came to power up and I just like I wanted to do this , how do I put this button visible or invisible ? They said try this if . And then they say , if this is not this , put it through or put it first , and it works .
I was like this is cool , but it did not come to my mind that this is the same if statement I'm trying to implement in JavaScript .
So later , when I was trying to perfect myself as today when I have a free time I started learning C-Sharp and then I realized that in the C-Sharp , oh , actually , this is the if statement I was struggling over and this is how it is , and it came easily . Now , like wow , no Power Platform . It just helped me . It's a local .
It helped me a lot understand what is the big deal in the development area . That is how I became into this .
Thank you , Wow , that is such a great story and the fact that you used YouTube to learn . You then found out about Microsoft Learn and you got your training materials there and I love that . That's such a good and powerful story about how , if you're really determined to get involved in the technology , the resources are there and you can learn .
Tell me how much of your design experience has carried over into the user interfaces you design now in Power Apps , yeah , yeah .
Thank you very much . So the company , when the company took me , they know that I design a lot and I do a lot of flyers and they're like look , you can use this because you understand the users , you understand when they say design this post , you know how , what are the colors and how to attract the public .
So now use that mindset , that idea , and implement it in apps . So my first time designing app , I was very confused and when I saw the Power App interfaces in the blue button , I was like , even in this blue button , I don't like it . These blue colors , I don't like it . Let me come up with something . But I thought Power App was limited .
So I started searching for how to make sure my UI become more beautiful . So that's where I started learning , going here and there always , as usual , I always search like that . So I found out that no , I can use whatever capability I have in the designing world before bring it inside here in terms of combination of colors , in terms of how users see things .
So that's where I started implementing those kind of experiences I have and because I started designing since 2010, . So I became much easier understanding all those UI , people and things . So it became easy for me when I see something , when you tell me you need this type of app , I know that actually , when it's this , this must confess .
If it's this , this caption must confess for the user to know this is what the user must interact with first . So those things just come just like that . Whenever I'm standing in front of any design , I know that this is , it just come , and I know that . No , this is what I need for this particular part .
This is what I need , and when I do it , I just present it to people . I have some few people in the office that are like , please try to criticize this for me . They are like , actually there's nothing to criticize here , you've done it already . I don't know any idea how to do this , so , but I always try to get more people .
So when I get , my colleague can give me a comment on whatever I design , because they feel that I know it already . So I try joining those UI US people communities and whatever I design I put over there to perfection myself , because not everybody at my company has this profession in the UI or the designing . So I joined those groups to help me .
Whatever I design I present over there guys , try to judge me and be . What about the colors ? What about the positions of the rainbow ? Yeah , so I use all those kind of things to get out to make whatever I do every day as a design , you know . Front end .
I like it . Do you use any design tools outside of Power Apps ?
Okay , any design tool like for designing apps or what ?
Yeah , like Figma , like Adobe XD , any type of you know designing type tools that .
I use Figma . I use Figma for designing . I use Photoshop for some of my SVGs . If I need , I use Illustrator . Whatever I need , if the tool is available and can do it for me , I just use it .
Excellent , excellent . In your thought process of building solutions , do you start from wireframes , do you , or do you get straight into building in the designer studio ? What's your kind of thought process when you start pulling an app together ?
Okay . So instead of me going into the wireframe , I just have the meeting preparing in my mind . So whenever we go into the meeting and then they are like , okay , we need this app that will do this process , I start preparing the user interfaces right from my mind .
So when I'm done with the meeting and I need to go to the development world , though , the company may need an interface to propose to the customer . So I always design all those interfaces in Power Apps and I screenshot , send . So that's what I do .
I use Power Apps to design the wireframe and everything , with everything set but not connected to any data base , just a dump interface that can show the various points or parts that is needed to show in the app . So that's what I do . That's what I started with , that's what I do before .
Now , as a professional , I start going back and then prepare right from the scratch , either using Figma or any of those tools , to show for the customers .
Yeah , nice the tell me about the community in Ghana . How big is the Power Platform community ? How much has it grown , particularly before COVID ? To now Give me a bit of a lie of the land how has it developed in Ghana ?
So it started with this guy called Abu Kondi who is now in France . He's an MVP for France now . So when he was here in 2018 , he gathered some few people and thinking of A lot of communities in Facebook , google and AWS whatever we too , let's create , let's have something for Microsoft . So he created the Microsoft user group Ghana .
That is the first community for Microsoft and he started running events over there and then back then it was on . It was in person . That was 2018 , 2019 in person event , but people were not that much interested in the whole thing and then it was difficult getting so . At first it was run .
We used to do it at the Microsoft office here in Ghana , so the place was small , but you get only 10 people 15 people coming .
So it was a bit challenging at the beginning for people to get knowing into those things , and for this you need to go to universities and since we are not going to universities , rather , running the events at the Microsoft office , it was not attracting people and then a lot of students were not aware that much of the community existence , of all these tools or
technology . So when the Microsoft guy got MVP sorry , abu when he got MVP , and then that's where it was expanded a bit in the news papers and then daily graphic and code . So people started knowing that , okay , actually there is a Microsoft community here with a new leader that got a big title that they call Microsoft MVP .
So what I told is this and after they award , we run our events . The place was full , so people were questioning and wanted to know what is all this . So that's where it started .
And then a lot of people started training those who use the technology Though there are a lot of professionals in Ghana here that has Microsoft technologies but they were not involved in communities .
So when he started this , he gathered all of them and everybody started bringing their idea like , look , okay , instead of doing it in this place , let's go to universities . And when we tried the university , well , that's where you realize that actually there are a lot of people that are interested in this .
And then we were at the wrong place , looking for the people . And that's where we shifted from the Microsoft event Microsoft office and we started targeting the universities and running events over there . And from there where we started with 20 and 30 , we went up to 200 and 300 students or people joining all together to assist to events and he make it .
Today we have a lot of user groups in Ghana throughout running all these technologies together as a community .
Wow , that's an incredible growth story . How many MVPs in Ghana now in Bizz apps ?
Okay , in Bizz apps we have four . So yeah , we have four , and then I think one couldn't renew we are having five . One couldn't renew this year . So actually , no , we have four , but in all now , in all , we have six MVPs instead of eight . Now we have six .
Yeah , wow , this is so good , such a good story to hear of the growth . It's interesting because in Nigeria , there's been a massive growth at a similar time as well , right , isn't that incredible ?
Nigeria is just like . I don't know how the people are over there . The mindset is all together and one they said there is a community event instead of here in Ghana . You see 30 people there , you see like 300 people . You'll be like what ? And in all those things , attending all those events , you are not losing anything .
So that's why we try to encourage people to join . But I believe Ghana is far better than the French country because the French country are the West in terms of the communities , especially in Microsoft technologies . The French communities are the West . So when I started this one and I feel that we were growing a bit , Ghana is somehow going .
And since I speak French perfectly and I joined my colleague and we were like let's create a user group for Togo , which would you suggest , the neighbor country . And then we started running the events over there . But it wasn't easy and some people , even when you tell them to come for the event , they're like are you going to pay me ?
I'm like dude , you're just coming to learn this is for you . But first of all , Microsoft technologies are not that much into the French countries . So it's difficult to bring all together , those communities or race people .
But when I was about to be nominated as an MVP , I was approached by Mr Lee Stott from Microsoft , who was a semi , to create a French community , together with the Microsoft Student Learner Ambassador , where I can help boost the French community , to create French content , to help boost the people in French to be able to relate to Microsoft technologies .
So if this is the technology itself , the professional are not that much into the Microsoft in French communities . We are targeting the student first because when you put it in the manner of the students , once they grow and enter the job market they will start pushing all those ones in order to start getting involved .
So my thing now is to push much , much of the French people . And then now you have one other community in Gabon that you all run every Saturday events and push people to come and join . So far so good . From , let's say , from three attendees to 15 attendees .
We are saying that you are trying and it's growing and let's see how , by the end of the year , it should be .
Hey , thanks for listening . I'm your host business application MVP Mark Smith , otherwise known as the NZ365 guy . If you like the show and want to be a supporter , check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy . Thanks again and see you next time .