I’m a seasoned product manager with 12 years of experience in web, e-commerce, SaaS, business applications and mobile technology projects. I carry passion for technology, intellect, a strong customer focus, and lots of energy.
Throughout my career, I made sure that the team I am in shipped a great product or delivered an outstanding service. I take holistic responsibility for the product, from the little details to the big picture.
I take my role very seriously as I know that the Product Manager defines success and makes decisions accordingly. If there's one thing i've learned about my past experiences, it’s that you need to lead with your vision and research, not with authority. RIP Dr. W. Edwards Deming: The Father of the Quality Evolution
One reason product management is such an appealing career is that I get to sit at the intersection of technology, business, and design. I am used to wear many hats and learn multiple points of view.
My mechanical engineering degree help me form effective relationship of mutual respect with engineers. And they can’t fool me, I trust my intuitions on how long an engineering work should take.
I am a big believer in MVP. I am also scrappy and self-sufficient. As an action-oriented person, I try to take care of what I can myself, whether that’s gathering data, opening up Sketch 3 and creating mock-ups, fixing typos in the product, configuring the server, fixing SEO of the project etc…
I hold a B.Sc in Engineering from Yildiz Technical University, a MBA from San Francisco State University and Project Management Certificate from University of California, Berkeley and a bunch of other certificates related to tech industry.
I’m currently living in the Bay Area and pursuing new opportunities and can be reached either through this profile or by phone at +1 (415) 390 5451
Sr. Product Manager @ Webrazzi (TechCrunch of Turkey) is the leading web source focusing on digital markets, startups, investments, technological developments and events in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
■ Moved out-dated Webrazzi TV infrastructure to JW Player Platform using product management techniques such as: The model of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), dogfooding, A/B Split Testing
■ Doubled audience reach, viewer engagement and most importantly ad monetization income.
■ With the help of the new infrastructure content got delivered fast and to every device and connected screen. Collected actionable analytics directly from the web, mobile and OTT viewers.
■ Researched small business CRMS and selected Insight.ly as the solution to go.
Successfully completed and delivered all necessary steps including: Importing contacts, vendor information, implementing business logic and doing internal training, onboarding and most importantly change management.
■ Relaunched SosyalMedya.co’s (sister brand) Social Media Certificate training program. Partnered with one of Istanbul’s respected University. Increased brand awareness and helped company gain an additional income source.
■ Introduced NewCo.co Istanbul to Turkish Startups. This has given me the opportunity to juggle responsibilities like marketing, advertising, event planning, management, and recruiting. From November 2014 to September 2015 (11 months) Istanbul, TurkeySr. Product Manager @ JustMatic is an iOS mobile app. A social news reader that presents you with hundreds of topics. You pick the ones you like then read, share and collect.
■ Gained deep familiarity with both Android and iOS platforms; an understanding of common practices, interaction patterns and the strengths and weaknesses of each of the platform.
■ Successfully led fundraising efforts for the product, raising 300K from a private investor.
■ Came up with goals, use cases, requirements, wireframes, internationalization and security functional and technical specs.
■ Designed UI/UX and managed development team to implement the app. Built initial prototype / minimum viable product.
■ Developed app website and backend along with an engineers using Wordpress, mySQL, PHP, jQuery, CSS, Twitter Bootstrap.
■ Achieved 12,000 free downloads in the first month with 50% retention rate by utilizing segmented social media ads, pr and growth hacking tactics.
■ Became number one free news reader in Turkey in two months. Also #2 in Bolivia, #5 in Madagascar, #9 in Azerbaijan and Algeria, #10 in El Salvador & Yemen. From October 2012 to November 2014 (2 years 2 months) Istanbul, TurkeyCountry Manager - Turkish Operations @ SoftCom® (An Ingram Micro Company) is a group of global web hosting brands that provides cloud hosting and Internet services.
■ Strategic decision maker for entire market—products, technology, personnel, inventory, budgets, and marketing. Managed 3 departments spreading over 25 employees.
■ Executed and managed “daha.net” going from zero to Turkey’s 7th Cloud Solutions brand in less than twelve months using Microsoft Solutions such as SQL Server, IIS, Hosted Exchange, SharePoint and more.
■ Promoted daha.net on various TV Channels, tens of printed media and online blogs with the help of a PR agency.
■ As a growth strategy, completed due diligence and managed merger & acquisition of five hosting companies.
■ Successfully developed, sold and managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) projects to Vodafone Turkey and Vodafone Egypt as Value Added Services (VAS).
■ Created CepOfis.com – A SaaS Solution utilizing Microsoft Exchange and partnered with Samsung and HTC. In 2008 and 2009, each Samsung and HTC phone sold in Turkey came with a free trial of CepOfis.com advert.
■ Founded “SoftCom 360 – A Digital Agency” as a sister brand to daha.net. Acquired key clients. Services provided included Digital Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Web Development Services. Brand became profitable from month one. From October 2007 to October 2012 (5 years 1 month) Toronto, Canada AreaSr. Product Manager / Project Manager @ Founded in 1985, Nims & Associates began by serving the computing needs of a handful of small and medium size business clients in the San Francisco Bay Area
■ Sr. Product Manager with full responsibility for the strategic planning, development, sales, project development and customer service for the multi-million dollar consulting company with offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno and Las Vegas.
■ Gained extensive experience in the following areas: Technical Project Management, RFP, Need Analysis, Functional and Technical specifications.
■ Increased department’s P&L by 60% and hit a new financial record in the last quarter of 2006 while keeping spending costs at minimum. From April 2006 to April 2007 (1 year 1 month) Google Quality Rater @ Workforce Logic is a division of the Nelson Family of Companies, is an innovative workforce management company. Contracted by Google,Inc., WorkForce Logic provided quality raters to evaluate ‘query-page’ tasks.
■ Evaluated search tasks in the context of its language and location. Assigned a rating from the Rating Scale.
■ Assigned a Spam label to the rating when observed that the page has been designed using one of the Spam techniques described in the guide.
■ Managed EWQQ intranet to collect, aggregate, and respond to tasks. Rated each task based on the guidelines given.
■ Gained invaluable insights about SEO and how Google analyzes URLS. From March 2006 to September 2006 (7 months) San Francisco Bay AreaProduct Manager @ Specialized in auto dealerships, Egetech is an ecommerce services agency in Silicon Valley. Services include: Solution design, Technology selection, Website Optimisation & Technical Implementation
■ Created organization from start-up position to fully functioning technology consulting company in less than six months by formulating and directing all aspects of marketing and public relations, programming, operations, IT, staffing, and budget management.
■ Successfully programmed, designed and promoted customized e-Commerce sites for automobile and motorcycle dealers. Acquired and managed clients like Arlen Ness Motorcycles, San Francisco Honda.
■ Tripled San Francisco Honda’s accessories sale from $25 to $75K/month. At the time such number was unheard among any dealers in US. SF Honda got awarded for this performance by Honda USA.
■ Profitably sold company ownership after successfully managing it for four years and exceeding million dollars in annual revenue. From 2001 to 2005 (4 years) San Francisco Bay AreaCo-Founder & Senior Product Manager @ Wanna Swap? From idea to launch, single handedly created Qswap website which let consumers trade CDs, videos, tickets and used goods online. My involvement got mentioned in Business Week, San Francisco Chronicle and MSNBC.
■ Responsible for managing all parts of the product lifecycle, from ideation to launch. Wrote concept docs and PRDs, created initial mockups, and gathered metrics before and after product launch. Worked with developers in Turkey to deliver key projects that helped increase engagement.
■ Raised $100K from a private investor but the project didn’t survive the .com crash.
■ Completed all testing and usability stages by conducting internal dogfooding (qualitative feedback), and ran experiments to get quantitative feedback. From 2001 to 2005 (4 years) San Francisco Bay AreaAssociate Product Manager @ Since 1987, Langtech provides advanced IT and software solutions to many sectors including Venture Capital, Financial Services, Legal, Sports & Entertainment, and Small-Mid Size business.
■ Launched and led company’s web design and development department which became profitable from month one.
■ Designed and developed company extranet using Cold Fusion. Rolled out usage across 15 tech consultants and approximately 50 clients.
■ Established and rolled out better development practices for the company in order to improve productivity and product quality, including readability guidelines, timeline estimates, and regular bug triaging.
■ Designed wireframes and built prototypes for potential projects and successfully pitched and sold development projects to company client base. From 1997 to 2001 (4 years) San Francisco Bay AreaSr. Web Developer & Designer @ Turkcell Superonline is "#1 Telecommunications operator" and "Fastest Growing ICT Company in Turkey which is backed by Turkcell - Turkey's first GSM network with a market share of 52,4%
■ Managed web projects for many Turkish Fortune 500 company websites.
■ Helped developed & launched Yapı Kredi Bank’s first corporate website - one of the first nationwide private banks in Turkey, established in 1944, and positioned as the fourth largest privately owned and by asset size in Turkey.
■ In 1994 Internet was only accessible to a small crowd, but my career in Superonline helped me gain invaluable experience in coding, UI/UX design principles and project management. From 1994 to 1997 (3 years) Istanbul, Turkey
MBA, Business @ San Francisco State University, College of Business From 2006 to 2008 Certificate Program, Project Management Courses @ University of California, Berkeley From 2001 to 2002 Certificate Program, Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications, Certificate Program @ Heald College-San Francisco From 1999 to 2000 B.Sc, B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering @ Yildiz Technical University From 1989 to 1997 Kadikoy Anadolu Lisesi From 1982 to 1989 Timur Catakli is skilled in: Project Management, Product Management, Mobile Devices, Strategy, Start-ups, E-commerce, Strategic Partnerships, IT Project & Program Management, Program Management, UI / UX, Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing, Cloud Computing, Business Strategy, New Business Development