Tchesco Ayih's Inspiring Journey: From Computer Repair to MVP in Ghana and Bolstering Tech Communities

Mark Smith: 0:37
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.

Tchesco Ayih: 1:22
Thank you very much, Mike. Thank you for having me here.

Mark Smith: 1:26
Good to have you on the show. Tell me how excited were you when you got your MVP.

Tchesco Ayih: 1:34
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.

Mark Smith: 2:08
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.

Tchesco Ayih: 2:22
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.

Mark Smith: 2:59
How did you get into technology?

Tchesco Ayih: 3:02
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.

Mark Smith: 9:22
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.

Tchesco Ayih: 9:56
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.

Mark Smith: 12:46
I like it. Do you use any design tools outside of Power Apps?

Tchesco Ayih: 12:52
Okay, any design tool like for designing apps or what?

Mark Smith: 12:57
Yeah, like Figma, like Adobe XD, any type of you know designing type tools that.

Tchesco Ayih: 13:04
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.

Mark Smith: 13:19
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?

Tchesco Ayih: 13:34
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.

Mark Smith: 14:37
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?

Tchesco Ayih: 14:58
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.

Mark Smith: 17:51
Wow, that's an incredible growth story. How many MVPs in Ghana now in Bizz apps?

Tchesco Ayih: 17:56
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.

Mark Smith: 18:17
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?

Tchesco Ayih: 18:29
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.

Mark Smith: 21:17
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.