Nneoma Orji.

After Covid, when the layoffs started, I was the one sitting across from people whose whole lives I could see in a file. I knew all of it and I still had to do what needed to be done. What I could not stop thinking about afterward were the ones who stayed, picking up everyone's work inside systems already on their last leg. That was the moment I started asking a different question entirely.

I came to Canada with years of experience and quiet confidence. The Canadian job market was not particularly interested. My first role here was as a Shelter Support Worker, and I sat with people carrying more than most ever will, listening the way I have always listened. The job title was new; everything else was completely familiar.

I have been gathering people toward solutions for as long as I can remember. When people asked me why I wanted to study medicine, my answer was always the same: I just want them to know I can feel their pain. At some point I understood that feeling someone's pain was only half of the work. The other half was building something that made the pain smaller. That is what brought me to product management.

The first time Buddi worked the way I had imagined, I did not celebrate. I sat very still and thought about what my first years in Canada would have looked like if I had this then. Buddi is for the person I was then, standing in front of a system that was not designed with them in mind.