Case Studies · Product · 2025

Hafrik

When you look at how diaspora communities, such as Nigerians living in China, actually function day-to-day, you realize they are stuck using a dozen different disconnected tools. They use one app for group chats, another random forum for finding trusted local businesses or housing, and totally separate, high-friction channels to figure out how to source goods and ship them back home.

As the Product Manager on this, the core question keeping me up was simple: Why should finding a community, a trusted restaurant, and a reliable procurement channel feel like three completely different, exhausting lifetimes?

Here is the story of how we tackled that, the decisions we made, and what it took to bring Hafrik to life.

Overview

Hafrik is a platform for Africans living, studying and trading in China, bringing together communities, business pages and events. The product was first built in 2021. I joined in January 2022 as the founder’s product designer and soon took charge of both the product and the brand.

My role

– Product direction: set what to build next from what users told us.

– Research: ran the product research and user interviews.

– Web app: led its creation.

– Mobile app: designed it myself, working alongside the product design team.

– V2: helped launch Hafrik V2 between late 2023 and early 2024.

– Product-market fit: drove the product towards it.

Where it is now (admin dashboard, 4 Oct 2026)

– 1,852 registered users

– 3,237 posts

– 33 business pages

– 15 communities

– 18 events

– 3.8M+ recorded visits

Since 2024, my company Nectrr has continued to work with Hafrik.

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