Abdullah Faruk Çiftler
Head of Product
İstanbul, Turkey | ciftlerabdullah@gmail.com | +90 506 631 68 42 | LinkedIn | Portfolio
Open to remote and relocation opportunities
Profile
Product leader with a software engineering background. I built backend systems and APIs before moving into product, and I still ship what I design: LLM tools, ML models, analytics engines. Over six years across engineering and product. Currently Head of Product at Cloud4Next, taking a B2B FinOps SaaS platform from zero to launch.
Professional Experience
- Leading a new B2B FinOps SaaS platform (cloud cost visibility, optimization, reporting) from zero to launch: strategy, positioning, MVP scope, roadmap and go-to-market.
- Built the delivery plan across five sprints and two teams (fullstack and AI), scoped from a large feature matrix rated on impact, differentiation and effort, sequenced against the FinOps Foundation Inform → Optimize → Operate model.
- Authored the engineering-ready specs: conversational FinOps assistant (intent taxonomy, role-based access matrix, human-in-the-loop gates on high-risk actions), authentication architecture (OIDC SSO, TOTP, step-up auth), navigation IA and the GA4 event taxonomy, all under KVKK/GDPR data minimization constraints.
- Ran competitive and pricing analysis against Cloudability, CloudHealth, CloudZero, Vantage and Finout; positioned the product on conversational AI, fast time-to-value and transparent flat-rate pricing.
- Contributed to investor and management meetings: product narrative, market sizing, demo storyline and roadmap defence.
- Led ML initiatives for PRD automation, roadmap intelligence and delivery analytics, used by 15+ PMs and POs across product teams.
- Built a Python engine that automates Jira sprint reporting: cut manual reporting work by around 70% and gave leadership a weekly view of delivery risks.
- Owned the Insider platform integration architecture across iOS, Android and web, working with Power BI, SAP Finance and Dynamics 365 on CRM segmentation and omnichannel campaigns.
- Ran chatbot initiatives end to end, and led the rebuild of the fraud engine that screens millions of transactions every month.
- Owned the roadmap of an event discovery app. Personalized recommendations and a redesigned onboarding lifted 30-day retention by around 20%.
- Ran user research and A/B tests on discovery and notification flows; weekly engagement grew by double digits.
- Led backend API integrations and the move from a monolith to microservices for payment workflows, bringing average transaction latency down by about 30% while keeping flows compliant with regulatory requirements.
- Founded and later exited an event management SaaS. Handled architecture, go-to-market and daily operations; the platform served events with thousands of attendees in total.
- Built .NET and PHP APIs and microservices for legal-tech platforms. Report generation got about 40% faster after query and pipeline optimization work.
- Built ASP.NET APIs and Dockerized environments for e-commerce clients.
Also: jury member at Medeniyet University Project Evaluation Committee since 2024.
Skills
- Product: Product Strategy & Roadmapping, MVP Scoping, PRD Automation, Agile/Scrum/Kanban, A/B Testing, User Metrics, Stakeholder & Investor Communication, Market & Competitor Research
- FinOps: Cloud Cost Management (AWS/Azure/GCP), FinOps Foundation Framework, FOCUS, Rightsizing & Commitment Optimization, Chargeback/Showback, Unit Economics
- AI/ML: LLM Integration (OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama), Conversational AI & Agent Design, Scikit-learn, Pandas, NumPy, Model Evaluation, Predictive Analytics
- Engineering: Python, TypeScript, C#, Node.js/NestJS, Vue.js, .NET Core, RESTful APIs, OAuth2/OIDC, RBAC, ETL & Data Pipelines
- Data & DevOps: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, MS SQL, Docker, Nginx, GitHub Actions, CI/CD, Linux
- Tools: Jira, Confluence, GA4, Power BI, Figma, Miro, Postman, Swagger, Notion, Git, Insider
Independent & Side Projects
AI roadmap and PRD automation SaaS. A SaaS for product teams that I build solo, from backend to deployment. ML models handle story-point prediction (around 80% accuracy within one point), sprint forecasting and PRD scoring through LLM pipelines with OpenAI, Gemini and Ollama. Stack: NestJS, MongoDB, Vue, Docker, Nginx, plus Jira and Confluence integrations. Live at stratezy.net.
Product consulting. Independent consulting for startups such as Postuby and New Mind: product documentation, SRS specs, UX feedback and funding guidance for technopark companies.
Indie game studio. A small studio I run on the side. Two puzzle games shipped so far: Sequences, which mixes number-completion puzzles with a procedurally scaling RPG progression system, and GuessFour, a logic-deduction game. zortproductions.com.
An ML-powered smart plug that classifies devices and optimizes energy use. TÜBİTAK-funded, published as a conference paper.
Education
Istanbul University, BSc in Econometrics (2024 – Present)
Yıldız Technical University, Electrical Engineering coursework (2016 – 2021; left to work in industry full time)
Languages & Certifications
Languages: Turkish (Native) • English (C1) • Arabic (B1)
Digital Product Management Specialization, Komünite (Nov 2024)
ENHANCER Entrepreneurship Training, ICMPD (Aug 2022)
References available upon request.