Build journal
Back where I started
IT support, branding, websites, internal tools, photography, marketing… I wore almost every hat at VIGILUS before coming back.
Ndiaga Ndiaye10 min read
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Build journal
IT support, branding, websites, internal tools, photography, marketing… I wore almost every hat at VIGILUS before coming back.
I went back to the company where I started as an intern.
At first, I was figuring out why computers and software refused to cooperate. Before long, there were websites, logos, badges, banners, photos, motion graphics, social media and internal business tools.
My job title didn't always tell the full story of my workday. 😂
These days, I'm more likely to ask why a website isn't showing up in Google, how to explain a business in a few words, or how to communicate consistently across Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone.
Come to think of it, my work hasn't changed that much.
Something isn't working. I try to understand why. Then I try to make it better.
The problems have simply grown a little. 😅
On May 4, 2026, I returned to VIGILUS as Head of Digital Communications.
It wasn't exactly a return to square one.
To explain why, let's rewind.
I joined VIGILUS as an IT support intern.
Initially, the job was easy to explain: help colleagues, troubleshoot problems, maintain equipment and understand the software people used.
IT support teaches you something important: a brilliant idea isn't enough. The problem has to be fixed.
It also has a small downside. When something stops working, everybody suddenly knows where to find you. 😅
The role taught me to listen and to understand a business through the problems people encounter every day.
But I was also the kind of person who looked at a repetitive task and wondered whether a simple tool could make it disappear.
A page that needed rebuilding? Interesting.
A communication asset to design? Why not.
A website idea? I'd already be thinking about how to build it.
I wasn't officially a digital project manager yet.
I just wasn't particularly good at staying inside one job description.
During that first chapter, I worked on a project for Carré d'Or, the real-estate activity that later became VIGILUS Properties.
The brief included the logo, brand guidelines, website, communication materials and digital marketing strategy.
Development, graphic design and marketing in one assignment. Some might call those three jobs. I mostly saw one computer and a very long to-do list. 😄
I learned that a logo doesn't live only inside Illustrator, and that a website is useless if visitors can't understand what the business offers.
Right after that mission, I became Digital Project Manager at VIGILUS.
A serious-sounding title. It suggests planning meetings, specifications and progress reports.
My actual workdays rarely fitted neatly inside it.
I built websites, created staff badges, business cards, roll-up banners and other communication materials, and participated in developing internal tools such as Pékhé, Deggo and VFM.
I wasn't only tracking progress on a spreadsheet. I was also helping build things alongside the teams.
Then there were the responsibilities you don't necessarily expect under “Digital Project Manager”: photography, social media graphics, the occasional motion graphics project, and community management.
In theory, a developer, graphic designer, photographer and community manager are four different people.
In practice, I might move from a website to a badge, from a feature to a social post, and from a camera to an edit.
I was a digital Swiss Army knife. The only tool I was missing was the ability to clone myself. 😂
There was a downside to being versatile: when you can do a lot, it's tempting to try to do everything yourself. I had to learn to prioritise, work with others and decide what mattered most.
But that experience also taught me to see the bigger picture.
A developer thinks about functionality. A designer thinks about clarity and identity. A communicator thinks about the message. A salesperson thinks about the customer.
I learned to switch between those perspectives.
My path later took me into marketing and sales responsibilities, reinforcing a simple idea: a well-made tool or beautiful design matters only if it solves a real problem.
There's an important detail about my first years at VIGILUS.
The name VIGILUS Group already existed. So did the ambition and the way the business presented itself.
But it would be misleading to picture the organisation as today's multi-country ecosystem, with so many subsidiaries and distinct brands.
The operational reality was much smaller than the word “Group” might suggest. Much of the group identity still existed on paper and in communications rather than across a large, established structure.
Activities that are now part of the bigger picture — including Mobility, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire — developed more recently.
That context matters.
We weren't maintaining a huge digital ecosystem.
Often, we were building the foundations: websites, visual identities, communication assets, internal tools and ways of working.
Looking back, that's what made the experience so useful.
I wasn't simply learning software.
I was learning how to create something in a place where a great deal was still being built.
And how to be versatile enough to see an idea through to a usable result.
I left VIGILUS in May 2024.
That ended the first chapter, not my appreciation for what I'd learned there.
I wanted to tackle other problems and build software that people depended on in their daily work.
At PROSEN, where I worked in IT management, things became very practical.
I helped build and maintain business tools including JOTALI for attendance, patrol rounds and field operations tracking; DOOLÉ for HR and scheduling; and invoicing tools.
Product demos are often lovely.
The data is clean. Everybody clicks the correct button. Nobody loses their connection.
Then real life begins.
A manager needs a schedule. Someone needs to record attendance. Another person needs a document right now.
In those moments, nobody cares how elegant your architecture is if the essential feature doesn't work.
That experience taught me more about real users, permissions, reliability, maintenance and all the cases that don't fit into a perfect demo.
I also continued building KAMIT Digital Solutions, my own company, around a persistent idea: useful software should solve real problems.
In short, I left with a toolbox.
The next two years taught me just how many things were missing from it.
In the spring of 2026, former colleagues and a former VIGILUS executive got back in touch.
A return became a real possibility.
What interested me wasn't only coming back to a familiar company. It was returning with a different perspective to a group that had changed too: what used to be largely a vision and a brand identity was now taking shape through distinct activities, subsidiaries and markets.
On May 4, 2026, I was back.
This time, the challenge was no longer mainly about establishing the first tools and communication assets for a growing organisation.
It was about helping build a coherent digital presence across several brands and countries.
Senegal. Côte d'Ivoire. Sierra Leone. Mobility. Properties. Security and business services.
My developer brain had a sensible thought: we're going to need a very good system for organising all this.
For once, it was absolutely right.
The most interesting part of my job is also what makes it funny to describe.
One part of my work may concern corporate guarding. Another might involve fire safety, technical maintenance, car rentals, real estate or payment equipment.
Try fitting that into one sentence at a family dinner.
Good luck. 😅
But the variety has taught me to treat each business as its own world.
Someone looking for security officers at an industrial site doesn't have the same questions as a traveller renting a car in Dakar.
A person searching for a furnished apartment shouldn't have to read three pages about the Group's structure before seeing available properties.
So I've worked with the teams to make our digital presence clearer, more useful and easier to discover.
That includes VIGILUS Facilities for services in Senegal; VIGILUS Group and VIGILUS Côte d'Ivoire for corporate information and local offerings; VIGILUS Sierra Leone for the English-language market; VIGILUS Properties for real estate; and VIGILUS Mobility for vehicle rental.
Of course, websites are only part of the work.
There are campaigns, brochures, newsletters, videos, event materials and countless small corrections that will never make a glamorous LinkedIn post.
A broken link. An unclear form. A poor image. A page nobody can find in search. A sentence that needs to be rewritten three times before it actually means something.
Digital communication isn't only about finding a clever slogan.
It's making sure the experience behind the slogan lives up to what it promises.
In my first progress report to management in June 2026, our work already included eight redesigned websites and two revamped applications.
There were also brochures to update or create, event materials, campaigns and video projects.
Written down, it looks wonderfully organised.
In reality, a redesigned website isn't a folder you close forever.
Content changes. User journeys need simplifying. Search performance needs attention. New offers appear.
And sometimes you finish a page, take another look and finally think of a better way to explain it.
That's useful.
It's also an excellent way to make sure the work never feels quite finished. 😄
One lesson stayed with me: the number of deliverables matters less than what they help people do.
Can a visitor understand the service? Find what they need? Contact the right team?
That's the real test.
In July 2026, I was in Freetown for the official opening of VIGILUS Sierra Leone.
It was a defining moment in this second chapter.
Suddenly, many tasks that normally lived in separate browser tabs converged around a single event: the website, brand visuals, English-language content, institutional video, photography, event coverage and social-media storytelling.
An opening ceremony has one inconvenient difference from a website project:
You can't ask the guests to come back after the next deployment.
The materials have to be ready. The images have to be usable. The message has to be consistent. And the work needs to capture what actually happens.
I was reminded of something I learned in IT support: when the moment arrives, a good theoretical plan isn't enough. Things have to work.
In Freetown, digital communication was no longer just what people saw on a screen.
It was part of the experience happening around us.
I could end with an impressive sentence about cross-functional synergies and digital transformation.
But I've already spent enough time removing sentences like that from brochures. 😂
The lessons I value are more straightforward.
IT support taught me to listen before fixing things.
Carré d'Or taught me to build a consistent identity, from a logo to a website.
Digital project management taught me to turn needs into results without staying in one specialty.
Websites, badges, photos, motion graphics and community management taught me to be creative, technical and practical all at once.
Taking part in tools like Pékhé, Deggo and VFM taught me to build alongside other people around real business problems.
Sales responsibilities taught me that features and beautiful materials don't sell themselves.
Business software at PROSEN taught me that reliability beats a perfect demo.
And multi-country communication now keeps teaching me how to balance one identity with very different local realities.
I still make mistakes, learn from colleagues and change my mind when there's a better way to do something.
But I understand more clearly why all those seemingly unrelated jobs ended up pointing in the same direction.
Physically, yes, I've returned to a familiar organisation.
Professionally, not at all.
The intern who tried to get a computer working hasn't disappeared. He's simply become someone who also tries to make websites, products, campaigns and teams work together.
I left in 2024.
I came back in 2026.
And maybe that's the simplest way to explain it:
I came to VIGILUS wearing an IT support hat. I left with a Swiss Army knife. And I returned to a group that had grown up too.
Computers probably still break down, of course.
Luckily, I'm no longer necessarily the first person people call. 😉
This post is part of my build journal: the projects, detours and lessons along the way. I also explore why I keep building my own products in Another project?.
