AI Product Manager Portfolio Case Study

Introduction

Project name: Hatua An AI agent that helps East African digital freelancers turn real platform proof-of-work and metrics into CVs potential employers trust. Made for freelancers who are looking to transition from freelance informal employment to formal roles - remote or in-person.

Role: Solo AI Product Manager / Designer / Builder Timeline: June – August 2026 (10 weeks) Status: 🟢 Shipped

Live demo link: Hatua CV App

GitHub repo: Hatua Github repo

1. The Problem

I have been a UI/UX designer for over 10 years on 99designs. In that time I accumulated a 4.96-star rating across 54 five-star reviews, won 91 design contests, completed 62 one-to-one projects, and kept a 47% repeat-client rate with 84% of client messages answered within 24 hours. When I started exploring formal remote roles, I discovered I had no framework to translate any of that into language an employer would trust. The data existed. I just didn't know how to assemble it.

That was the pain. Not a skills gap — a framing gap — and it wasn't mine alone.

I spoke to six freelancers in my network who are looking for opportunities to transition from the informal digital freelance economy to formal employment but find the transition challenging. I identified three sub-pains in order of severity:

  1. Framing/confidence — real data exists but users have no framework to translate it. Experienced, skilled, freelancers in design, with strong informal track record lack confidence that their real freelancing achievements are enough, even if visible, resulting in a confidence gap.
  2. Interview fluency — minimal formal interview experience after years of portfolio-only client acquisition. Many freelances lack real-life interview experience and this limits their readiness to join the formal employment world.
  3. ATS/trust — even well-framed CVs can fail due to formatting and keyword gaps. Freelancers lack the framework to translate platform metrics (ratings, repeat-client rate, response time, volume) into CV/interview language that formal remote employers recognize and trust making them invisible to potential employers.

This ranking was tested against real CVs, not assumed. The evidence confirmed framing as primary; ATS was a compounding problem, not the root cause.

Market context

In sub-Saharan Africa, entry level employment continues to remain a real problem. The International Labour Organization projects youth (ages 15–24) unemployment at approximately 10% regionally, with significant country-by-country variation. Over 10 million young people enter the African labour market annually, yet formal job creation only accommodates a fraction of these entrants. This forces many educated youth to start off their careers as online freelancers as placeholder jobs before gaining formal employment. Sub-Saharan Africa has an estimated 17.5 million freelancers, with regional job postings growing roughly 130% between 2023 and 2025.

However, most youth still prefer formal employment as the digital gig economy does not offer stability and career growth. Additionally, the freelance market these freelancers depend on is simultaneously contracting — client attrition, platform fee changes, AI-driven competition eating into commoditised digital freelance work.