Inside Accrue’s Growth to 400K Users: A Conversation with Frontend Engineer Victor Sanusi

Accrue recently crossed the 400,000-user milestone, a significant step in the company's journey to make moving money across Africa easier, but growth is about more than the numbers.

Behind every new user is a product that needs to work as expected for someone who is landing on Accrue for the first time, and delivering that experience takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work, from performance optimisation and security to testing, collaboration, and continuous product improvements.

To understand what this milestone looks like from an engineering perspective, we spoke with Victor Sanusi, a frontend engineer at Accrue, about what goes into building a seamless user experience, how the team ships quickly without compromising quality, and the journey for the next million users.

Accrue has grown to 400,000 users; what does this milestone mean to you?

I think one of the most important things is the experience people have when they first encounter Accrue.

First is appearance. When someone visits a website, their initial impression matters. Before they even understand what the product does, they have to like what they see. If a website doesn't look good or feel trustworthy, people may question whether the product itself works.

We pay close attention to performance optimisation because we want people to have a smooth experience, even when their internet connection isn't great. The website should load without unnecessary delays or elements jumping around the screen.

Mobile responsiveness is equally important. People access websites on different devices, so whether someone is using a phone, tablet, or desktop computer, the experience should remain consistent. Text should be readable, images should display properly, and the content should be easy to navigate.

Those are some of the principles we prioritise when building and improving our marketing websites. As more people discover Accrue, we want their first interaction with us to be a good one.

Your team often move quickly to meet customer needs and deliver new features. How do you balance shipping fast with maintaining quality, security, and reliability?

The most important thing is to make quality a priority, regardless of how quickly we want to ship.

Everyone on the team understands that moving fast doesn't mean delivering below quality. Keeping quality at the forefront makes it easier to balance speed with the need to deliver reliable products.

AI has also become a significant part of our workflows. Personally, and from what I've seen across the team, we've incorporated AI into different parts of the development process. It helps us move from an idea to MVP more quickly, but speed isn't just about how quickly someone can write code. There are processes in place to ensure that what we build is ready to ship.

We have testing across different parts of the product, including frontend, backend, and mobile. This includes unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests. These checks help us catch problems before they make their way into production.

We also have quality assurance (QA) from the product team, which provides another layer of checks.

All these processes help us maintain quality while still delivering on time. The aim isn't just to ship something quickly; it's to ship something that works as intended.

What's the fastest you've had to ship a feature or product improvement at Accrue?

We've had a couple of improvements that needed to go out within a day, particularly when there's a feature request from a business or a customer.

Looking strictly at the time it takes to go from an idea to building something, it could take just a few hours. But when you factor in testing, reviews, and the other steps required before something goes live, a day is a reasonable timeframe for some of those smaller improvements.

What makes collaboration between engineering, marketing, and product work well at Accrue?

I'd say effective communication is one of the biggest factors.

We use tools like Notion and Google Docs to document requests and provide context around what needs to be built. So, when marketing or product requests a feature, there's usually documentation explaining what we're trying to achieve.

It's not simply a case of someone saying, "We want to build this," without explaining why or what the feature should do. Having that context makes it easier for engineers to understand the request and figure out how to approach it.

We also have meetings where we discuss features, break them down, and determine what we can remove or simplify to ship an MVP first. Once the initial version is out, we can make smaller improvements over time until we get closer to the intended outcome.

Those conversations, along with clear documentation, create a good foundation for collaboration. They help us understand what other teams need, agree on priorities, and work towards delivering the right product.

Of the features you've worked on at Accrue, which is your favourite?

There are a few, but I'd say Accrue Passport is one of my favourites.

I particularly enjoy the interactions involved, from unlocking stamps to viewing them on the website and sharing them with other people. It's exciting to work on something where you can focus on the small details of how people interact with the product.

I also enjoy working on the marketing website. I like the small interactions and details that make the website look and feel good when someone visits.

Those are the two things that stand out for me.

What does building for a million users look like?

I think, at its core, it comes down to continuing to build for one user at a time. I strongly believe that if a team cannot build a product that works well for one person, it will struggle to scale that product to a million users.

As a team, we've developed a certain level of care, dedication, and attention to detail in how we approach our work. Whenever we build something, we think about the user and how the experience will feel.

This principle becomes even more important as our user base grows. We don't want one person to have an excellent experience while another struggles with the product. We want to maintain the same level of care for every user, no matter how many people use Accrue.

When you're not building at Accrue, what do you do for fun?

First of all, I like to eat. A lot. If you see me around, you'll probably find me eating. I also enjoy watching movies and anime, especially action thrillers. I like anything with a bit of adrenaline. I also watch medical and legal series.

I used to go to the gym a lot, but for reasons beyond my control, I've stopped.

Lately, I've also been getting into taking pictures and videos. I like capturing things around me and taking pictures of myself, too.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. 

Anything for you!