IWD Spotlight: Folashade Adegbite

Beyond Her Desk: How Folashade is Designing Pathways for the Next Generation

Behind every great product is someone quietly shaping the experience. At Interswitch, Folashade Adegbite does exactly that as a Senior Product Designer, crafting digital experiences that make payments seamless and intuitive.

But beyond her desk, she’s doing something just as powerful: designing pathways for the next generation of designers, especially women. Through mentorship, portfolio development workshops, and a thriving design community, Folashade is helping aspiring designers move beyond simply learning tools to building sustainable careers.

In this edition of our Beyond Her Desk: Give to Gain spotlight series, she shares the story behind her community, the lessons she’s learned along the way, and why investing in others might be the most meaningful work of all.

Q: Tell us a little about your role at Interswitch and the initiative you lead.

A: I’m a Senior Product Designer at Interswitch, where I design digital experiences within the payment ecosystem. My work is about translating complex systems into intuitive products that people can trust and use effortlessly.

But beyond my professional role, I’m deeply passionate about growing the next generation of designers, especially women. Through mentorship programs, portfolio workshops, design challenges, and structured growth sessions, I help designers move from simply learning design tools to building sustainable careers. We create a space where designers can develop not just their skills, but also their confidence and clarity. In many ways, I see it as building the ecosystem I wish had existed when I was starting my own journey.

Q: What first inspired you to start giving back?

A: Honestly, I give back because of what I received.

In 2019, when I was still finding my footing in product design, I had my first mentor, Ikenne Osueze, who took me seriously before I fully took myself seriously.

He shared resources, reviewed my work, gave me assignments, and helped me understand how to navigate the industry. That support eventually led to my first role as a Junior Product Designer at a fintech company.

I know what it feels like to have someone genuinely invest in you early in your journey. That experience lit something in me. I give back because I want others to experience that same belief and support.

Q: What has been the most challenging part of running a community initiative?

A: The biggest challenge is sustainability.

Passion is never the issue; I have plenty of that. But time and resources are finite.

Running a community alongside a full-time job, while also being a wife and mother, means many late nights and weekends dedicated to the work.

There’s also the emotional weight of being someone others look to for guidance while you’re still figuring out your own life. But every time someone sends me a message saying, “Designer Fola, your community changed the direction of my career,” I remember exactly why I started.

Q: Was there a moment that made you realise your impact could go beyond your professional role?

A: Yes, one particular mentorship session stands out.

I was speaking with an incredibly talented young woman. She had built beautiful work, but she kept saying, “I don’t think I’m good enough yet.”

And I realised the problem wasn’t skill. It was a belief. No one had told her she was already good enough to start. That moment changed something for me. I realised that impact isn’t just about products or pixels, it’s about people. It’s about making sure the next generation doesn’t have to doubt themselves as deeply or wait as long as many of us did.

That’s when I knew I had to do more than design. I had to invest in people.

Q: What does leadership look like when there’s no corporate title attached?

A: Leadership without a title looks like showing up consistently.

It’s checking in on a mentee with a quick voice note, even when your calendar is full. It’s creating spaces where people feel safe enough to be beginners.

At its core, leadership without a title is trust. People don’t follow you because of hierarchy; they follow you because they believe you care, they trust your experience, and they know you’re genuinely invested in their growth.

Sometimes the most powerful leadership is invisible. It’s woven into how people feel when they leave your presence.

Do they feel encouraged to take up space? Do they feel safe asking questions? Do they leave feeling bigger than when they arrived?

That’s leadership.

Q: Can you share a story of someone whose journey was transformed through your initiative?

A: One mentee from our Ladies in Tech Design Bootcamp came to me feeling completely lost. She had completed several training programs and was considering enrolling in yet another boot camp because she still didn’t feel ready. But the truth was, she already had the skills. What she needed wasn’t another course; she needed practice and direction.

So, we focused on building her portfolio. Around that time, I hosted a Portfolio Development Webinar with two other designers where we reviewed community members’ portfolios live and gave practical feedback.

She took every insight seriously and refined her portfolio. There were rejections along the way, but she kept going. And one day, she sent me a message, she had just received her first offer as a UI/UX Designer.

Her words were simple: "You helped me see what I couldn’t see in myself."

Moments like that remind me this isn’t extra work. It’s the work.

Q: What advice would you give to young women who want to make an impact?

A: Start before you feel ready and start with what you already have. Many of us wait for the perfect credentials, the perfect platform, or the perfect moment. But impact rarely begins that way, the community you want to start. Begin with a WhatsApp group if you can.

Q: If a young woman feels unsure about her voice or power, what would you say to her?

A: Your uncertainty is not evidence of inadequacy. It’s evidence of awareness.

The people who never doubt themselves are not always the most capable; sometimes, they’re simply the least self-aware.

Your voice doesn’t need to be loud to be powerful. It only needs to be honest. Speak from your experience. Ask the questions you think everyone else already knows the answers to.

Q: Why is it important for women in corporate spaces to give back intentionally?

A: Because representation without access is incomplete. You can be a symbol, or you can be a door. I choose to be a door.

There are brilliant young women across Nigeria and Africa who simply need someone to believe in them early enough.

When women with experience and access give back intentionally, we shorten the runway for those coming behind us. We make the journey less lonely and the path much clearer.

If those of us with platforms don’t extend them to others, we risk becoming part of the bottleneck. And I refuse to be a bottleneck.

Q: What kind of ripple effect are you hoping your work creates?

A: I hope the people I mentor go on to mentor others.

That’s the ripple effect I’m building toward, not followers, but multipliers.

If every designer I invest in goes on to support two or three more people, then this community becomes something bigger than me.

Q: Finally, what do you enjoy doing outside of design and mentorship?

A: I genuinely find joy in helping people grow, mentoring them, supporting their vision, or helping them build something from the ground up. But outside of that, I enjoy singing, dancing, and reading. I’m especially drawn to books that are both inspiring and practical, the kind that leave you thinking and growing at the same time.

And who knows? I’m sure there are still many other things I’ll discover along the way.

Outro

Folashade’s story is a powerful reminder that leadership doesn’t always happen in boardrooms or behind job titles.

Sometimes, it happens in quiet mentorship calls, late-night feedback sessions, and communities built with care and intention.

Beyond her desk, she’s not just designing products, she’s designing possibilities for the next generation. And in giving her time, knowledge, and belief to others, she’s proving the heart of this year’s theme:

When women give, we all gain.