Product Engineer
Optifeed · AI Product Feed Optimization
Built a product workflow that moved validation from about 1 month to 1 week, alongside AI-assisted prototypes and an internal Rails lead-generation tool.
About Erdeniz
At several companies, I was the first person hired to focus on product. In an early-stage company that means building the product function from zero, so the team gets faster at telling a good idea from an expensive one.
My Career Timeline
Past
Associate Product Manager
Tedaarik · AI Supply Chain Procurement
Built a targeted MENA investor pipeline, coordinated 10+ Qatar Web Summit meetings, and shaped and delivered the positioning, information architecture, and UX direction for a pre-launch waitlist page.
Co-Founder
Kaptanos · AI Construction Procurement
Led customer discovery and advisory-board building, then stopped the project before customer PoC when co-founder strategy diverged.
Business Analyst
Mfatech · EV Charging Mobile App
Scoped 30+ mobile screens and managed backlog clarity for a 6-engineer team. The product shipped and later reached 10,000+ users.
Product Manager
Capital Collective Investment
Defined the MVP, PRD, and Figma prototype for an AI stock screener with 69 financial parameters, and handed it off to a three-engineer team. The project was cancelled after handoff.
Product Manager Intern
Kidokit · Edtech Mobile App
Worked on the product's first paywall and website positioning during a period when company revenue grew 7×.
Business Development Intern
SAKO Global Logistics · Freight Forwarding
Brought in 10+ B2B customers for a freight forwarder, including major Turkish food companies.
Education
B.A. International Relations
Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University
B.A. International Trade & Logistics
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University
Web Design & Coding
Bartın Technical High School
Where I start
Find the riskiest assumption, then test it with the cheapest thing that gives a real answer.
01
Understand the product today
I look at the product, its customers, company goals, existing data, feedback, and the realities of the team building and selling it.
The result is a shared understanding of what is working, what is unclear, and where the main uncertainty sits.
02
Choose the problem that deserves focus
I separate symptoms from the underlying problem.
The bottleneck may be the product itself, the target segment, onboarding, positioning, pricing, activation, or the way value is communicated.
03
Decide the first move
I turn the evidence into one practical priority.
That may be a product change, a clearer segment decision, a prototype, a messaging test, a focused product slice, or a decision not to build.
What happens next
The first 30 days create a clear direction. I then help turn that direction into clear scope, a testable solution, engineering decisions, launch preparation, and the next learning loop.
From there, the work continues through the full product cycle: building with engineering, shipping, learning from real customer feedback, and deciding what to improve next.
Detailed view
See what I bring to a company in practice →When I'm useful
- You have a product idea, but do not know what to validate firstI run discovery, define the smallest useful scope, and build a working artifact myself to test the direction before engineering commits significant time.
- You have a product in development, but the product side needs stronger ownershipI work alongside engineering on backlog decisions, sprint scope, trade-offs, edge cases, and product questions that emerge during the build. Product ownership does not stop at handoff.
- You are preparing to launch and need a clearer path to marketI connect product readiness, positioning, go-to-market, rollout, analytics, and early customer feedback so the team can launch with a clear plan and turn what it learns into the next product decision.
I build those prototypes with coding agents like Claude Code and Codex. The judgment still comes from customer evidence and from what engineering can realistically ship.
Where I do my best work
Company size matters less to me than how the team operates. I do my best work where context is shared openly, decisions move quickly, product has meaningful ownership, and customer and engineering access is direct.
That can be an idea-stage startup, a scaling company, or a larger product organization. The common ground is transparent communication, trust, and a willingness to test assumptions and change direction when the evidence requires it.
Outside product, I write and direct short films. Film & Directing