WezDev
Product platforms · Manchester
I design and ship multi-sided products. Listings, providers, events, permissions, reputation, one system. Not a brochure site. AfroFind is live.
The work
Manchester teams do not need another marketing site. They need a product several kinds of people can actually use, without five logins and a rewrite in year two.
A website is a page. A marketplace template is a listing grid. A product platform is the shared object model underneath: users, businesses, events, bookings, reviews, and payments that stay consistent as you add a category. When those pieces are separate products, you get five tools and no trust graph. When they share one model, discovery can grow into operations without a rebuild.
Greater Manchester is full of operators who outgrew a brochure: hospitality groups, service businesses, community organisers, and founders around Spinningfields and MediaCity. The search is not “web design Manchester”. It is a product customers, operators, and admins can all use without forking the data. That is the work I take on.
Customers search and book. Businesses claim and manage listings. Providers run a calendar. Admins verify, hide, and package commercial access. If those journeys share one identity and one object model, you can grow. If they do not, you rewrite. Permissions are not an afterthought on a platform. They are the architecture.
Search, listings, events, reviews, and bookings look like features. They are engines that categories activate. AfroFind did not ship a new app per vertical. Categories turn engines on. That is the difference between a marketplace MVP and a platform you can still own in two years.
TypeScript, Next.js, and production-minded backends. Shared models, actor journeys, verification, and the boring work that has to exist before scale. I work from Manchester, remotely with UK and Africa-facing teams, and I start from the hard parts, not a theme.
Proof
A live UK discovery platform for African and Caribbean businesses, providers, and events. Listings, bookings, and reputation share one model. Tap a listing to see it on the platform.
Platform · marketplace
Live listing: Enish Brixton
Hard part: Listings, providers, events, and trust cannot each be a separate product.
Outcome: A live UK discovery platform with one shared object model for businesses, bookings, and reputation.
Actors
Select an actor. Same data, different job. That is the product, not four microsites.
Customers
Customers search businesses, providers, and events, then book and leave reputation other people can use. If discovery is a separate site from bookings, they bounce. On a platform they stay in one product.
Businesses
Businesses claim a listing, publish what they actually offer, and grow from being found into running the operation. They need a different permission set from a guest, not a second codebase.
Providers
Independent providers need a calendar and a public reputation without pretending to be a full organisation. The object model has to treat them as first-class, not a bolted-on category.
Admins
Admins verify, hide, resolve claims, and package commercial access. That governance layer has to exist before the marketplace is large. Trust is not a v2 feature.
Hard parts
These are the AfroFind problems that show up on every serious platform. They are also the conversation I want before a brief.
Listings, events, providers, and organisations cannot each be a separate product. One model for users, businesses, bookings, reviews, and payments. Categories activate engines rather than fork them.
Customers, businesses, providers, organisers, and admins need different permissions and flows. Map those journeys early or you will paint permissions on afterwards.
Verification, claims, visibility, and commercial packaging have to exist before the thing is large. A marketplace without governance is a directory that decays.
What you hire
01
Different actors, different permissions, one product. AfroFind lists UK African and Caribbean businesses for the people trying to find them. MOMO Lens handles sales, mobile money, and reconciliation for merchants.
FAQ
Wez Kambele is a software engineer based in Manchester, working as WezDev. He designs and ships multi-sided product platforms, including AfroFind, a live UK discovery marketplace for African and Caribbean businesses, providers, and events.
Manchester, United Kingdom. Remote collaboration is normal. UK and Africa-facing product work is a natural fit.
No. A website publishes content. A marketplace or product platform has multiple actors, shared data, permissions, and usually bookings or payments. AfroFind is a platform: listings, providers, events, and reputation share one object model instead of five disconnected tools.
No. Manchester is where I am based. Most platform work is remote. Being able to meet in the city is useful. It is not a requirement.
Read Work with me, then send a short brief on Get started: what you are building, who the actors are, and what has to work in production. A clear problem statement beats a long pitch deck. You can also email contact@wezdev.co.uk.
Not in the agency sense. This page is for teams who need a multi-sided product, not a WordPress brochure or a generic web-design engagement. If you need a marketing site, I am usually not the right hire.
Related: AWS infrastructure in Manchester · Production SaaS in Manchester · Work with me
Next
Tell me who the actors are and what has to hold in production. I will tell you whether I am the right engineer for it.
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