Hello Thrivers,

Technology now plays a central role in how we work, communicate, make payments and move money across borders, but as the systems behind these experiences become more sophisticated, the language used to explain them often becomes more difficult to understand.

This problem is particularly visible in fintech and crypto, where terms such as digital assets, blockchain infrastructure, stablecoins and cross-border settlements can make useful products feel distant from the everyday people they were supposedly created to serve.

Yet when a product involves people’s money, understanding is not optional. People are unlikely to trust a financial platform when they cannot clearly explain what it does, how it works or what risks may be involved.

For today’s THRIVE Influencer feature, we spoke with Josephine Inika, Marketing and Communications Manager at Polytope Labs, about what it takes to communicate complex technology without hiding behind technical language, exaggerated promises or industry buzzwords.

Let’s hear from Josephine.

My marketing journey began with content writing. I joined the industry as a writer, but because I was working with an early-stage company, my role quickly expanded beyond producing content.

I had to understand different parts of the business, including marketing, product, design, and the technology behind what we were building. It involved working cross-functionally and learning how the decisions made by one team affected the work of another.

At Polytope Labs, we work on blockchain research and development. One of the products, Hyperbridge, allows assets and information to move between different blockchains. The simplest way to imagine it is to think about sending money from one bank to another. In the traditional financial system, banks are connected in ways that make those transfers possible, but blockchains do not always communicate with one another easily. Hyperbridge helps create that connection.

There is also HyperFX, an on-chain marketplace designed around cross-border and intra-African transactions. The underlying technology may be complicated, but the work of marketing is to understand what it means for the people or businesses expected to use it.

My career has involved moving from writing to understanding products, and then from understanding those products to communicating them more clearly.

I am a writer, and writing naturally requires you to think about framing, grammar, punctuation, syntax and how ideas are arranged. I am constantly breaking things down in my mind, so entering a career where simplifying information became part of my work felt like a natural progression.

I am also naturally curious about how things operate beneath the surface. I want to understand how something works under the hood because, once I can explain it to myself, it becomes easier to explain it to another person.

That curiosity is part of what drew me towards fintech and crypto.

I usually begin by looking for something that already exists in the person’s daily life and connecting the new concept to it. That is why I enjoy using analogies.

When people can relate a complicated idea to something familiar, they are more likely to visualise how it works. The analogy may not explain every technical detail, but it gives the person a foundation upon which the deeper explanation can be built.

I also like showing people how something works in real time. A demonstration can sometimes communicate more effectively than several paragraphs of explanation because the person can see what happens after each action.

Visuals, diagrams and product demonstrations are useful for the same reason. They help people picture the process rather than expecting them to understand everything through words alone.

The first thing is to avoid overpromising.

Crypto has incredible potential, and there are exciting things being developed within the industry, but the communication still has to be grounded in reality.

I am careful about presenting my opinions as absolute truth. Instead, I explain the information or experience behind my position and acknowledge that it is possible for me to be wrong.

I also approach products and conversations involving heavy speculation with caution. When something is being promoted primarily through promises that it will increase by ten or one hundred times, that is usually a warning sign for me.

The biggest mistake is beginning with the product instead of the people expected to use it.

A principle I often return to is people before product because people are the ones who will give that product meaning.

You need to understand what people need before deciding which feature to build. You also need to understand their problems before you can communicate how your solution helps them.

When a company begins with the solution without investigating the problem properly, it is working backwards. The team may have a vague idea of what users need, but without deeper research, the final product may not address that need in a meaningful way.

One of the lessons I had to learn is that you cannot simply import a marketing strategy from another country and expect it to work in Nigeria or anywhere else in Africa.

In fact, a campaign that works in Nigeria may not work in Ghana, Namibia, Uganda or Kenya. Even within Nigeria, people in different locations may respond differently because culture, language, financial behaviour and trust vary across communities.

When you are marketing across several countries, you have to consider the cultural, social, linguistic and financial context of each market.

Trust levels also differ. The way consumers in Nigeria evaluate a financial product may not be the same way consumers in Rwanda evaluate it. Their experiences with financial institutions, technology companies and public systems may be completely different.

A referral campaign taught me that you cannot assume people will interpret a message in the exact way the company intended.

We launched a campaign encouraging users to refer other people to a product in exchange for a reward. From the company’s perspective, the message was that people who introduced new users to a useful product would receive something in return.

However, once the campaign reached external websites and online communities, it was reframed as an opportunity to receive free money.

That change in language completely changed how people behaved.

The experience taught me that companies need clear guardrails because they cannot assume every user will follow the rules in the way the team imagined.

I try to avoid misleading language and explain both what a person may gain and what they may stand to lose. The goal is to help the person make as informed a decision as possible.

The word “try” is important because the language that sells most effectively is not always the most transparent language. Marketing teams have targets, and there can be pressure to communicate in whatever way produces the strongest immediate result.

However, I try to lean towards transparency while still doing the work of selling the product.

Curiosity is one of the most important skills, and it can be developed.

You have to be curious about what you are marketing so that you continue trying to understand how it works. That may mean reading industry material, listening to podcasts, watching videos or using whichever learning method works best for you.

Artificial intelligence has also made it possible for people without traditional engineering backgrounds to experiment with building products and understanding how certain systems operate.

You do not have to become an engineer, but trying to build something yourself can give you enough context to ask engineers better questions. Instead of entering the conversation without any understanding, you already have a foundation from which to learn.

I also understand that modern marketing roles already demand a great deal. Sometimes it feels as though marketers are expected to write, design, analyse data, create content and perform several other specialised responsibilities at once.

Beyond curiosity, communications professionals need to ask questions, document what they learn and consistently expand their knowledge within the industry.

Josephine’s journey into marketing was not carefully planned. She explored software development, event management, UI/UX design and entrepreneurship before repeatedly finding herself drawn back to communication.

Her path into crypto followed a similar pattern. It was an industry she initially wanted to avoid, but it eventually became the place where her ability to understand and simplify complex ideas found a clear purpose.

Click here to connect with Josephine Inika and follow her work in fintech, crypto and technology marketing.

Till next time,

Team Thrive

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