BeReal. logoCurrently an Extern @BeReal.
Ogheneyoma Akoni portrait

I’m Ogheneyoma Akoni, early-career creator

I have hands-on experience and a growing portfolio. I’m shaping my career by learning through real projects.

Work samples

A concise collection of projects that show practical skills I have developed and the kinds of work I’m pursuing as I start my career.

  • BeReal Product Management Externship
    BeReal Product Management Externship
    BeReal. logo

    BeReal. · ✅ Verified by Extern · ⏱️ In progress

    BeReal Product Management Externship

    Discover how product teams at social apps like BeReal design for authenticity while driving user growth. In this externship, you’ll explore what keeps users coming back— benchmarking competitors, analyzing engagement features, and designing your own growth-driven app feature. You’ll learn how to balance product innovation with BeReal’s unique mission of real, unfiltered connection. Perfect for those interested in product management, UX strategy, or social media innovation, this experience gives you a hands-on look at how product teams grow platforms without losing their core values.

    DesignUI/UXProduct Management
  • AI Policy & Legislation Tracker (Tracker)
    AI Policy & Legislation Tracker (Tracker)

    Built an AI policy tracker covering all 50 U.S. states, categorizing legislation by policy area, risk, regulatory approach, and implementation status. Analyzed legislation against the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, comparing approaches to risk, transparency, accountability, and oversight. Identified regulatory trends and policy gaps across jurisdictions, translating legislative data into comparative insights and visualizations.

About me

I have hands-on experience and a growing portfolio. I’m shaping my career by learning through real projects.

I am Ogheneyoma Akoni. I have some work experience and I am exploring where to focus my career next, building skills and collecting projects that show what I can do.

Externships

BeReal Product Management Externship

BeReal.

Experience

AI Researcher

The University of Southern California - DILL LAB · January 2025 - March 2026

AI Product Manager

CRITmetic | AI Literacy & EdTech · May 2024 - January 2025

Technical Product Manager

Guest 365 Inc · May 2023 - December 2023

Support Engineer - Dynamics Clients pod

Microsoft · August 2022 - March 2023

Education

University of Southern California - Viterbi School of Engineering

Master of Science, Computer Science- Artificial Intelligence · Class of 2025

The University of Texas at Dallas

Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering · Class of 2022

Skills

Early-career experienceProject-based learningBuilding a portfolio

✅ Verified by Extern · ⏱️ In progress

BeReal Product Management Externship

Discover how product teams at social apps like BeReal design for authenticity while driving user growth. In this externship, you’ll explore what keeps users coming back— benchmarking competitors, analyzing engagement features, and designing your own growth-driven app feature. You’ll learn how to balance product innovation with BeReal’s unique mission of real, unfiltered connection. Perfect for those interested in product management, UX strategy, or social media innovation, this experience gives you a hands-on look at how product teams grow platforms without losing their core values.

DesignUI/UXProduct Management

Overview

The externship examined how social apps balance authenticity and growth by benchmarking competitor features, analyzing engagement mechanics, and designing a growth-oriented feature concept for a photo-first social product. Work combined comparative analysis with a feature design that addressed tradeoffs between stickiness and unfiltered sharing.

BeReal Product Management Externship

What I've accomplished

I produced a stage-by-stage BeReal user journey table that listed five distinct stages and documented what users do, think, and feel at each step, plus observations about friction and delight.

Project breakdown

I mapped the BeReal experience from onboarding to daily return, listed five journey stages, described what users do, think, and feel at each stage, and produced a user-journey document showing stages, behaviors, and emotions.

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AI Policy & Legislation Tracker (Tracker)

Built an AI policy tracker covering all 50 U.S. states, categorizing legislation by policy area, risk, regulatory approach, and implementation status. Analyzed legislation against the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, comparing approaches to risk, transparency, accountability, and oversight. Identified regulatory trends and policy gaps across jurisdictions, translating legislative data into comparative insights and visualizations.

View all work

Responsible Recommendation Systems for Vulnerable Users

Evaluated recommendation systems across TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter/X, examining how existing safeguards address risks to children and other vulnerable users. Analyzed how algorithmic recommendations can amplify harmful or sensitive content, assessing gaps in platform protections, transparency, and user control. Developed responsible recommendation-system practices to strengthen user safeguards, transparency, and protections for vulnerable communities.

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Caltech ML Safety Reading Group & BlueDot AI Governance Program

Participated in AI safety and governance reading groups, contributing to community discussions on alignment, interpretability, scalable oversight, and frontier AI risks.

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