Small business owners in Nigeria and across Africa are juggling sales, inventory, and expenses—often all by themselves. But many of them still rely on memory or notebooks to track these essentials.
This is the story of how I designed MISA-Booking, a simple voice-first bookkeeping solution tailored for these hardworking entrepreneurs—like Nana and Tola—who just want to focus on running their business, not learning complicated tools.
Meet Nana. She runs a small kiosk that sells provisions in a busy neighborhood.
And Tola? He operates a roadside POS business in a fast-paced market.
Their daily challenge isn't a lack of sales—it’s keeping track of them.
And they’re not alone. Many small business owners across Nigeria face these same problems.
The estimated timeline for the design phase of this project was 24 weeks. After completing the design, we waited for the development team to begin implementation. Once the initial version was built, we took it to market for testing and gathered feedback from usability testing. Based on this feedback, we have continued to iterate and refine the design, and the iteration process is still ongoing.
How might we help small business owners like Nana and Tola manage their sales and inventory easily, even while on the move?
I set out to design a voice-powered experience that works just like talking to a friend—quick, smart, and helpful.