SKITE
A platform to help African creators monetize knowledge and skills.
Industry
Creator Economy
Client
Samuel Obinna
Service
Product Design
Year
2025
Overview
Skite is a platform designed to help creators across Africa, monetize their knowledge and skills. It combines tools for selling courses, products, and one-on-one sessions, with built-in hosting for webinars, chats, and calls. Skite eliminates the need for creators to juggle multiple platforms like Stripe, Calendly, WhatsApp, and Google Drive.
The Problem
Creators currently rely on a patchwork of tools such as webinar software, payment processors, messaging apps, and cloud storage to deliver their content and manage communities. This fragmented experience leads to:
Lost revenue due to drop-offs during platform switching
Manual work (like adding users to communities)
Poor creator-user experience and brand consistency
Project Goals
Based on early market signals, competitor analysis, and the founder’s vision, we identified the following core objectives for Skite:
Unify Creator Tools
Bring product and course sales, classes, virtual calls, payments, chat, and community hosting into one seamless platform.
Simplify Creator Workflow
Replace the need for juggling multiple platforms (e.g., Stripe, Google Drive, WhatsApp, Calendly) with a single, intuitive creator dashboard.
Empower Creators to Monetize
Enable creators to easily set prices, host paid calls and classes, and add paywalls to private DMs or groups.
Deliver a Familiar Yet Focused UX
Replicate the ease of chat platforms like WhatsApp and community structure like Slack or IG Channels while tailoring it specifically for paid educational content.
Research & Insights
To design something creators would love, I needed to understand their world. I interviewed five creators in fields like crypto, forex, tech, and self-help, plus over ten learners who’d taken paid webinars or joined online communities. I also studied the funnels of creators like Tayo Aina, a Nigerian YouTuber who’s nailed monetizing his audience through courses and webinars.
The insights were eye opening. A crypto educator shared, “After my webinar, I’m stuck manually adding people to a WhatsApp group, sending Google Drive links, it’s a mess.” A forex coach added, “WhatsApp doesn’t feel like my space. I want to own my community and scale it without losing control.” Learners echoed this, often abandoning courses because the process felt clunky or untrustworthy.
Competitors Analysis
I analyzed competitors like Selar, Klas, and Coachli. Selar excelled at digital product sales, while Klas offered a polished experience for hosting live classes. Coachli focused more on 1-on-1 coaching workflows but lacked flexibility for group offerings or broader creator communities. Despite their strengths, none of these platforms provided a true all-in-one experience. Skite’s opportunity was clear: to combine course sales, live sessions, community building, and monetized chats into one cohesive ecosystem.
Userflow
With a clear picture of the pain points, I mapped out user flows for two key personas: creators and learners. For creators, the flow needed to be intuitive and flexible, letting them set up classes, products, or paid calls in minutes. For learners, it had to feel as familiar as Slack or Discord but tailored for education.
Sketches & Wireframes
After mapping out the flows, I drew sketches that visualized the platform's key features to enhance usability for both creators and users. From these initial sketches, I created low-fidelity wireframes, which provided a more structured representation of the platform’s layout and functionality. These wireframes were shared with the founder for early feedback. The founder requested a UI similar to Slack, focusing on chat and community while still highlighting products, courses, and classes. Based on this, I iterated the design by streamlining navigation and enhancing chat-focused features to align with both user needs and the founder’s vision before moving to high-fidelity designs.
Design System
Once we aligned on the wireframes and project direction, I created a modular design system that reflected Skite’s vibrant, confident brand.
Final Designs
The following designs showcase the solutions implemented to solve the identified user pain points and meet the project goals.
Creators Dashboard
Creators Dashboard where creators can track sales, manage products, and access their channels, DMs, groups, and classes.
Chat
Chat interface with a user who has purchased direct messaging access. Includes the user’s profile, along with a dedicated media and links tab for easy reference to shared content.
Creators Channel
Every creator automatically gets a personal channel to share updates and communicate with users who’ve purchased their products or booked a session.
Class
Class View displays upcoming sessions, with tabs for classwork, group chat, and a list of enrolled students.
Calls and Video Conferences
The creator teaches in real time, with a chat panel for engagement. Up to 3 students can be brought on stage to speak or ask questions.
Products
View showing all digital products and courses created by the creator. Organized for easy access, updates, and tracking.
Lessons Learned
Working on Skite taught me how to design with empathy for users who are stretched thin. Creators don’t just need tools, they need solutions that feel like an extension of their hustle. I learned to balance familiarity with innovation, drawing inspiration from platforms like slack and discord while building something uniquely suited to education.
