Ask most people what it means to work in tech, and you’ll hear the same answer: “You have to know how to code.” That mindset has quietly kept thousands of capable, creative people out of the industry because they’ve been made to believe they don’t belong.
I studied Computer Science. I understand how code works. But I’ve built my entire career in tech without writing a single line of production code; I chose a different path, one focused on people, product, storytelling, and growth.
And here’s what I’ve learned so far: you don’t need to be a developer to make a real impact in tech. You just need to understand how value is created, how users experience products, and where your skills help close the gap.
African tech is evolving fast. But for it to grow in a healthy, sustainable way, it needs more than engineers. It needs people from different backgrounds, with different strengths, who understand the bigger picture of how products get built, adopted, and scaled.
Behind every successful product is more than clean code. There are researchers figuring out what to build. Marketers shaping the message. Operations teams are making it deliverable. Designers create clarity. Support teams keep users engaged. These roles are just as critical as engineering.
Here are just a few of the high-impact roles in tech that don’t require a software background:
- Product Marketing
Product marketers shape how products are positioned, communicated, and adopted. They translate features into benefits, run go-to-market strategies, and build feedback loops between users and teams.
- Product Management
PMs work at the centre of tech teams, translating business goals into product requirements. They align engineering, design, and marketing, ensuring teams are solving the right problems for the right people.
- Content Strategy and Copywriting
From onboarding flows to FAQs to landing pages, content is how users understand and trust products. Great content teams clarify complexity and help products grow.
- Community Management
Tech communities in Africa are powerful. Community managers grow trust, run engagement, and often become the reason users stay. It’s one of the most underrated growth channels for startups.
- Customer Support
Customer support teams work directly with users to improve retention, solve problems, and feed insights back into the product. In fast-growing startups, these are the people who spot what’s broken before anyone else does.
- Growth and Performance Marketing
Growth teams run experiments to drive acquisition, engagement, and retention. They work with data, user funnels, and creative messaging to scale reach without wasting budget.
- Technical Recruiting and Talent Ops
Building a good team is harder than building an MVP. Recruiters and talent teams are the reason startups attract, close, and retain top talent. They’re often the first point of culture.
These are just a few of the possibilities. The truth is, every product that succeeds is backed by a combination of roles that extend far beyond engineering. And many of those roles are open to people from all kinds of backgrounds: communications, business, psychology, operations, law, economics, even hospitality.
My Journey: Technical Background, Non-Technical Impact
I didn’t fall into tech accidentally. I studied Computer Science and understood the structure of how systems work. But I realised early on that my strength wasn’t in writing code, it was in understanding people, shaping strategy, and helping products grow.
That decision led me into product marketing, where I’ve helped launch platforms, scale user adoption, and drive ecosystem growth across fintech, HR tech, and Web3. I’ve worked with engineering teams and community leads, led go-to-market campaigns, and shaped messaging for products used by hundreds of thousands of users.
Today, at Propel, I lead marketing for a platform that connects tech communities across 24 African countries with access to work, financial tools, and support. I work at the intersection of product, talent, and opportunity, and I do that without coding.
Africa’s tech ecosystem is growing, but we’re still telling a narrow story about who belongs in the room. We focus heavily on engineering and design, and while those roles are vital, they’re not the whole picture. If we keep overlooking non-technical contributors, we’ll slow down the ecosystem’s growth and keep excluding people who could be shaping better products, better stories, and better outcomes.
We need to build a generation of African tech leaders who understand that strategy, communication, and execution are just as valuable as code. We need to show upcoming talent that their skills are needed, even if they’ve never touched GitHub. And we need to normalise the idea that being in tech doesn’t mean being behind a screen writing software.
Furthermore, you can shape African tech as a strategist, a storyteller, a researcher, a marketer, a recruiter, an operator, or a community leader. What matters is your ability to solve problems, understand people, and contribute to building something meaningful.
About the Author
Adetola Durojaiye is a Senior Product Marketing Specialist, startup advisor, and ecosystem builder with nearly a decade of experience driving growth and market adoption for digital products across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. He leads marketing at Propel, where he supports tech communities across Africa with access to work, finance, and long-term career support. He has helped scale fintech, HR tech, and Web3 platforms to hundreds of thousands of users.