Navigating the Tech Industry as a Female African Webflow Developer

Hello World!

My name is Gabrielle, and this is my first blog article ever! (yay, so go easy on me, mkay). In honor of International Women’s Day, I have written this piece based on an interview I had with a fellow female Webflow developer, to brag about her badass, one-woman operation and shed light on her journey in hopes of inspiring other aspiring female developers on a simlar journey. I met Jenna on Twitter sometime in January and we’ve interacted a bit online since then. It was an absolute pleasure to have finally met her virtually and get to know one another through sharing abit about our journeys as women in tech.

In recent years, we’ve seen the low-code tech space gaining more and more popularity resulting in an increase in demand for developers. Despite the boom, there still exists a significant gender gap within the industry. But amidst the disparity, there are trailblazers who are breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations of female developers. In this article I share highlights of the interesting conversation I was honored to have with one such trailblazer - an African female independent designer and Webflow developer who crafts beautiful, strategic websites that are bound to make you say ‘’holy moly’.

We’ll delve into her journey, her experiences as a woman in tech, and her advice for aspiring developers who hope to follow in her footsteps.

I’m keen to know a bit about yourself and how you got started in the low-code tech space as an African, female independent designer and Webflow Developer.

J: I went to the University of Cape Town (UCT) and didn't know - like many others - what I wanted to be or do for the rest of my life. I was kind of just figuring out my way. I went on to do a BA in Media and Writing and sometime in the first year I discovered that there were some more specialized courses/majors that I could go into. One of which was called Interactive Media at the time, and it was more focused on Web Design. It really like just scratched the surface but I learned the fundamentals of CSS and HTML5 and what I thought was decent design back then (haha). That's when I realized that there are people that design websites; it was never something that occurred to me before.

My first job outside of university was as a Junior Front-End Developer for a company called bOnline and that was a very short stint; it lasted four months and after that I ended up going to Travelstart, Africa's leading online travel agency. There I took up a role as a Digital Designer which then transitioned into a Marketing Coordinator role – I worked there for just over 3 years. Thereafter I moved into a Marketing Manager role at an exclusive travel experience company.

Then COVID happened and I was working two days a week and I felt like it was now or never if I wanted to take a leap of faith on myself and try to start my own thing. I discovered Webflow in December 2020 through some friends and started playing around with it and I've never looked back. I was lucky enough to get my first international client in June of 2021, and it's just sort of snowballed from there.

I saw on your portfolio that you hold the Professional Partner tag. Can you briefly share your experience up to attaining the position?

J: I applied in June last year as it seemed like a good goal to have for 2022. I had around eight goals that I wanted to achieve and that felt like quite a natural one to add to the list.

After starting out on my own and getting a few good international clients, I felt confident that I was in the space that I could apply. The application process was pretty chilled. You need to submit three sites for assessment - which I did and got approved :) Since then, I’ve had a fair share of enquiries through the program itself and it’s definitely given me some more exposure.

What challenges have you faced as an African, female designer and developer in the low code tech space, and how have you overcome them?

J: One challenge, specifically as an African or as a South African developer, but I would say it probably relates to Africa as a whole, is the disparity between budgets international clients tend to have versus that of local clients. Local client budgets are often a lot lower. You end up in a bit of a predicament of knowing what you’re worth and what you’re capable of closing with an international client but also feeling drawn to wanting to work with someone on your home turf.

At the end of the day, it’s about weighing up your goals and who you feel passionate about working with and finding the sweet spot.

Then in terms of general challenges, is the ebb and flow of being a freelancer. A recent example in my journey is that I decided to take November and December off last year. I'd had a really good year and I was getting married in November and had a lot of family visiting. I felt like I didn’t have time to 100% commit to client work.

I decided, you know what? I'm just going take a break. I deserve it. And so that's exactly what I did. But then came the new year and I had a couple of leads paired with some work with existing clients, but I had no new clients. So the past two months have been somewhat quiet. I’ve had some work but I haven't taken on any new, bigger projects.

That's mentally quite a challenge, where you go through phases of being busy, busy, busy, then phases where it's extremely quiet and you start to doubt yourself. You start to question what you're doing, whether you're actually doing the right thing. Am I good enough?

I think that's one of my recent challenges that I've really struggled with.

But at the end of the day, I've realized you just need to keep going and there are always things to do. It's just about finding the motivation to actually do it, and to continue and know/trust that the work will eventually come your way.

How do you stay up to date with the latest design trends and developments in the low code tech space?

J: To be honest, I wouldn't say I’m very good at this. I kind of just tred along haha but I think my biggest resource of finding out what's new and trending is through Twitter. I follow incredible designers and developers and people in the no-code or low-code or just Webflow space. And I think that's always my go-to, to see what’s happening. I also use sites like Land-book to gain inspiration, but there aren’t too many blogs that I follow consistently.

It's definitely something I can be a little bit more proactive with. I have moments where I feel a bit overwhelmed because there is so much going on and there are always new tools coming out and new ways to approach your builds. And while those are all incredible, it can feel like there's a lot going on. Especially when there are these new platforms coming out that are getting a lot of praise. Framer is an example that’s getting a lot of attention lately. So then you see that and you think, oh my gosh, should I be learning Framer now? Are people going to be using Webflow less? Do you need to consider learning and using another tool? I try to not get too involved in all the noise around me. I like to cherry pick when I feel like I want to start learning new things or discovering new things, or if I'm in a situation where I'm having a challenge with a build, then there are occasions where you need to physically go looking for that solution.

As an independent designer and developer, how do you approach project management and communication with clients?

J: I think one of the beautiful things about what I do is it just being me. And the experience that I've had with clients is exactly that, they love that they've got one point of contact and they're not having to deal with a full agency team. When it comes to the project management side of things, I try not to overcomplicate things too much. I give clear timelines of deliverables and set out milestones all within a Notion client dashboard - this houses everything to do with a project from admin documents to brand assets. Communication usually happens through Slack or emails and I’m quite flexible about things. If clients have a certain way that they're happier in dealing with the project, then it's easy for me to adapt. But yeah, it's generally just a very flexible, open process. And so far, so good.

What are your goals and aspirations for your career in the low code tech space?

J: I find this to be quite a difficult question. Purely because, you know, while I was always on this journey to where I am, it was a path that I didn't ever anticipate. So it's definitely changed my mindset that we don't know anything. I don't know where my journey is going. Maybe I'm going to continue on this path, doing what I'm doing for many, many years. Or maybe my path is going to completely diverge and I'm going to be, I don't know a gardener one day. For now my goal is to just continue doing what I do and to continue learning, growing and developing :)

I don't really have any like big audacious goals, I want to continue building incredible relationships with clients and to continue learning about different industries. The learning never ends and if I specifically focus on Webflow, there's always something to learn; you never know everything. To sum it up, for me it's to make sure that I'm not stagnant in what I'm doing and to not get too comfortable but to always keep pushing my boundaries, challenging myself, and to continue to grow as a developer and a designer.

…

My key takeaway from this conversation with Jenna is that if you block out the noise and take a chance on yourself, the possibilities are endless. To the young women on a similar path or aspiring to someday achieve a succesful career in tech, don’t let your fears prevent you from doing what you want and remember that wherever you go, there is magic.

You are Woman, and So You Can!

Happy International Women’s Day.