HelloI am Kaan Rafael Bali 👋🏻
Senior Product Manager
Snr. Product Manager who builds structure where none exists, and stays composed when others don't.
// About me
The person behind the product
Comfortable operating at every level of a room, from staff engineers to C-suite. Worked directly with CEOs, GMs, and Operations Directors on brand and CX strategy at Havas CX. Ran weekly cross-functional rituals with staff engineers and senior leadership at mrge. Defined requirements and acceptance criteria directly with engineering, no business analyst layer in between. Coordinated multicultural teams across 17 countries for Unilever without losing a shared plan.
Default response to a gap is to build the fix, not escalate it. mrge had no onboarding documentation for a genuinely complex product: wrote the framework that cut ramp-up time from six months to one. A water-consumption calculator for Finish and National Geographic sat unclaimed because nobody wanted the research: spent a month sourcing the inputs personally and handed development a working model.
Steps outside the job description when the situation calls for it. Advised Havas CX senior leadership on organizational restructuring. Took on customer segmentation analysis at mrge that wasn't part of a PM's remit. Managed a well-construction project from site targeting through completion while volunteering in Cambodia: same structured, research-first approach, entirely different domain.
Product Strategy · CX & Service Design · Data Governance · AI & Trust Architecture · Technical PM
12+ Projects
7 Sectors
6+ Years
// Featured works
Here are my highlights
Internal AI Product Strategy: Governance and Trust Architecture
An internal strategy for taking AI from demo to production: every metric defined once and certified before a model can query it, and a tiered approval model that keeps a human on the final call.
FREENOW
AI Product Strategy (case study)
Cutting Onboarding from Six Months to One
A documentation framework at mrge that took team onboarding from six months to one, built while owning three core API products for 20+ platform partners.
mrge
Product Manager
Global Campaign Operations Across 17 Countries
Email marketing for 30+ Unilever brands across 17 countries, run by a five-person team. The fix was not more people. It was a standard way for work to arrive.
Unilever (via Havas CX)
CX/Project Manager
// Stacks & Experience
Where I'm good and where I learned from
What I work with
20 tools across 6 disciplines · 14 brands worked with
ClickUp
Miro
JiraDelivery
Perplexity
NotebookLM
Gemini
ChatGPT
ClaudeAI
Looker Studio
GA4
SQLData
Odoo
SalesforceSystems
Canva
Affinity
Illustrator
FigmaDesign
MCP Servers
Cursor
GitBuild
mrge
Product Manager
07/2022 - 03/2024 · Berlin
API productsB2B SaaSContinuous discoveryMiro
Cut team onboarding time by 83% with a documentation framework
Owned the end-to-end lifecycle of three core API products (billing, publisher, and advertiser) for 20+ large-scale platform partners. Defined requirements, acceptance criteria, and edge cases directly with engineering, without a dedicated business analysis function.
Havas CX
CX/Project Manager
01/2021 - 04/2022 · Istanbul
CX designJourney mappingCampaign opsResearchRan Unilever email campaigns across 17 countries and 30+ brands
Led CX design and product implementation for ING Bank's in-app insurance feature, delivered Hyundai's Contactless Purchasing platform across all dealerships in 6 months during COVID-19, and managed delivery across 4+ clients in parallel.
VML (WPP)
Business Manager
08/2019 - 01/2021 · Istanbul
Digital strategyUI designGTMAnalyticsManaged 20% of the branch's revenue and drove a 70% engagement increase
Lead digital consultant across 6+ enterprise clients in financial services, pharma, automotive, and consumer electronics. Designed UI for AXA Insurance web services and led go-to-market strategy for the Ford Ranger Raptor launch.
Self-initiated
Projects & Tech Exploration
2024 -Ongoing · Personal
AI-assisted developmentRAGData architectureClaudeFounded TIMEDEX, a structured watch reference and comparison service
Designed and implemented the full TIMEDEX product stack: UX concepts, database schema, AI-driven data extraction pipeline, and a multi-phase business roadmap. Also authored an internal AI product strategy for a leading European mobility platform.
Gezer Spa
Business Development & Operations Manager
02/2025 - 05/2026 · BerlinFreelance
Business developmentOperationsDigital workflowsDirect bookingRan end-to-end operations for a three-location wellness chain and its 30 staff
Led business development, operations, and digital transformation for a wellness chain across three locations in Berlin and Austria. Introduced digital workflows to streamline operations, built direct booking strategies to reduce third-party platform dependency, and directed post-renovation re-openings alongside branding, marketing, and partnership development.
// Services I provide
I can help you with these things
// Good words
Some good words from people I've worked with
He always mastered his area of work comprehensively and confidently, often had new ideas and found optimal solutions.
David Reed
CEO, mrge
// How it works
No agencies - just me, fully in on your product
Hire me today
I take on only a small number of projects at a time, so your work always gets my full focus.
// Not ready for a call?
Read how I think first.
How I work
No proposals out of nowhere. No long contracts before you know if we’re a fit.
