Jesse Karoki

Product designer with a BA in Design from the University of Nairobi and hands-on experience designing complex, multi-sided systems across fintech, agritech, and platform products. At MFS Africa/Onafriq, I worked within a distributed 60-person product org, owning design across merchant onboarding, a B2B design system, and high-stakes payment flows — environments where clarity, edge-case thinking, and tight developer collaboration were non-negotiable. I design by reasoning through systems and constraints first, with a strong bias toward documentation and handoff quality.

Mid-Level Product Designer at MFS Africa / Onafriq (2023-04 – 2024-10)

Part of a 5-person core design team supporting a 60+ person product and engineering org across South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK. Promoted from Associate Designer in Q1 2024.

• Led end-to-end redesign of the merchant onboarding journey using a Jobs-to-be-Done framework. Conducted a design sprint and unmoderated usability testing (Maze); the redesigned flow reduced average onboarding time from ~48 to under 30 minutes.
• Owned evolution of the B2B design system ("Onafriq UI") in Figma — component libraries, variant generation, and documentation. The system was implemented directly as a React/TypeScript component library, improving design-to-development handoff consistency across three product squads.
• Designed and prototyped a high-fidelity bulk payments feature in ProtoPie, simulating complex transaction states for stakeholder review with finance and compliance teams. The prototype was used directly in user testing sessions.
• Led accessibility audits using axe DevTools and embedded WCAG 2.1 AA requirements into the design system, helping the flagship web app reach compliance across core user flows.

UI/UX Designer & Front-End Developer (Contract) at Nairobi Digital Agency (2022-11 – 2023-03)

Supported 2–3 project teams simultaneously in an agency Agile environment, reporting to the Creative Director.

• Designed and developed responsive websites for SME clients in agri-tech and retail, handling UX architecture, interaction design, and frontend implementation.
• Built a React-based dynamic product configurator for a packaging client, enabling real-time customisation and quote generation — a tool that directly became part of their sales process.
• Executed full brand identity projects from discovery to final asset delivery, including motion graphics for social campaigns.

Bachelor of Arts in Design in Graphic Design, UX/UI, and Design Thinking – University of Nairobi (2017 – 2022)