Mfonobong Umondia for Community Pros Yearbook 2025

Speaker: Mfonobong Umondia, Community Manager, She Code Africa

Mfonobong Umondia: Hi, it's Mfonobong here. This year, I learned that as a community manager, you can be deeply committed to building your community and still set boundaries, and also like, try not to burn out. So for context, I currently do lead like a community of over 60,000 people, and imagine having to do that, showing up every day, you know, doing a lot of things, answering questions. You know, that before now, I used to think that a good community professional just has to be there. You have to be there to fix everything, you know, you have to be there to respond to every query. You have to be there all year round when somebody needs you in the community. But having grown to in a space where I tend to manage lots of people, I actually realised that in order for me not to burn out, I had to create systems. I had to delegate a lot. I had to learn how to work with people that I'm delegating to. So it was a lot of having to put in structures, documents, and, you know, just build systems that work, whether you are actively involved or not, right? And it has really helped me a whole lot. So my lesson to other community managers in this space is that I need to understand that you are not the community saviour. I know that's how people make it seem, but you're not the community saviour. You're just the steward and you have to be able to take care of yourself so you don't burn out because a well-nourished, a well-supported community manager tends to build a well-supported community. So take care of yourself, take breaks if you need to, delegate, create systems, and just make sure you don't burn out in the process.

Mfonobong Umondia: What I think is next for community managers or community professionals in 2026 is ownership. Honestly, when I say ownership, I mean, creating and owning systems, data, the outcomes, you know, gone are those days where people just think that community managers are just there to drive engagement in the community, make sure the community doesn't stay quiet. Now, we're going into a more data-driven phase where every decision we make as a community manager or as a community professional is based on data. We're going into that phase where community is not just about, you know, coming up with activities to engage people. It's how do we interpret the current data that we have? The kind of events that we have? Is this something useful for our community? I feel like we are also going into a phase where, you know, community professionals become more intentional in building scalable communities. Sometimes it breaks my heart when I maybe pick up a community to manage. Let's just say I wasn't part of the initial creation process. And I tend to see a lot of gaps, a lot of loopholes, a lot of things that should have been done, but have not been done yet, simply because, you know, people just feel like, it's just, you know, create a platform, let everybody just, you know, come together, learn and grow. I mean, going into a phase where community professionals will need to pay attention to building intentional communities. What kind of community are you building? How are you building it? If I join your community as a total beginner, how will your community lead me from point A to point B? Can I be a part of your community and grow up the ranks in my career to be able to get to the leadership phase, you know, of my career. So these are the things that I feel like community professionals will really pay attention to the design, the creation of community, scalability, and also making sure that whatever community you're building, you know, people don't burn out. You know, sometimes we make that mistake of dumping a bunch of activities on our community members thinking that that's what they want. But in the real sense, they probably just need something else. So I see community professionals going into a phase where they take extra care, pay more attention to what community members actually want. And finally, I also see community professionals going into 26, 2026, which is a phase of what's the word now? Which is a phase of not just big numbers. So let me explain that. You know, sometimes communities will thrive on, oh, we have 100,000 community members, we have 200,000 community members. The numbers are great, trust me. But outside of that, what's the impact? How can you measure that out of 100,000 of community members that you're managing, the activities that you're creating is actually beneficial to them. You know, out of these 100,000, how many percentage have been able to get jobs? How many percentage have been able to move up the ranks at their work, you know, so, in 2026, I feel like community professionals are going to take extra care, pay extra care and attention to the calibre of people that they are accepting in their communities. You know, it doesn't have to be much, but then they also have to make sure that the number they are accepting also, you know, is able to get the value and they are able to defend and say, ok, out of this number of people we have in my community, this is what this section I've been able to do or this percentage have been able to do. So, I see community professionals move from just managing people and engaging people to building systems, to designing ecosystems, you know, that actually move the business into, in a people-forward way or in a people way. So like, we all know that every business thrives with people involved. So, I see the dynamic changing in a way that, you know, marketing and people come together and yeah, just create something amazing. Toodles!