The field of product management has experienced significant evolution, with increasing importance placed on effective leadership, data-driven decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration. As industries increasingly embrace agile methodologies and data-centric approaches, product managers must adapt to meet the growing demand for innovation, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. This has led to a shift in the role, with professionals in the field taking on broader responsibilities that span technical, strategic, and operational domains. Agile principles, in particular, have transformed the way products are developed, tested, and scaled, ensuring teams can respond to changes quickly and effectively.
Semen Arslan, a Senior Product Manager, has continuously embraced new challenges throughout her career. Her journey from open-source development to product management reflects the multifaceted nature of the profession. With experience spanning roles such as QA, agile coaching, and product management, Semen has built a broad perspective on organizational growth and team dynamics. Her expertise in leveraging frameworks, driving process improvements, and fostering collaboration has shaped her into an influential leader in the field.
METRO.digital, the company where Semen currently applies her expertise, is a prominent player in the tech industry, with a focus on delivering cutting-edge solutions that streamline business operations and enhance customer experiences. The company’s commitment to innovation and agile practices aligns perfectly with Semen’s career philosophy, which emphasizes continual learning and the transformation of teams and products through strategic leadership and effective management.
Let’s delve into learn more:
From Open-Source Developer to Product Management
Semen views her career path as a tree rather than a ladder, having taken on various roles driven by her passion. This approach has afforded her a broader perspective and a growth mindset throughout her career. Her journey began with an interest in Open Source. While still in university, she volunteered as an open-source developer and later joined Turkey’s Open Source Linux Distribution project as a developer. Her growing interest in organizational effectiveness led her to transition into QA, where she proposed a project for Google Summer of Code. This project resulted in the development of a test framework for the Linux distribution. Semen also improved the release cycle by introducing daily releases and enhancing the volunteer onboarding process with a mentoring program. Furthermore, she introduced a bug review system and built a volunteer test community, giving talks across Turkey to attract more contributors.
In addition to Open Source, Semen discovered a new passion for Agile methodologies in 2008. Her interest in Agile grew over time, and she explored various aspects of it, including No-estimates, OKRs, Scrum, XP, and scaling frameworks such as SAFe and LeSS. Over the years, she delivered numerous talks on Agile and, in 2017, developed a no-estimates system on Jira with an intern to predict the timeline of similar products. Although few companies in Turkey were adopting Agile at the time, Semen sought to work with the best. She continued her career at a startup that employed a “waterfall-ish” Agile approach due to its reliance on legacy systems. Frustrated by this limitation, she made the decision to transition to a company that practices true Agile methodologies. And she joined one of Turkey’s largest telecom companies, where she worked alongside Thoughtworks on Agile transformation, gaining extensive knowledge through XP training and coaching. Seeking international experience, Semen became a Scrum Master at another telecom company with U.S. and Canadian clients, leading nine teams. This role allowed her to scale Agile and earn her SAFe Practitioner certificate, ultimately advancing to Program Manager.
Semen considers herself framework-agnostic, believing that while SAFe is comprehensive, companies should adapt it to suit their specific needs.She holds a CMMI certification but does not advocate for its full implementation, as it can be slow and rigid. However, she values CMMI’s focus on quality assurance, particularly regarding non-functional requirements that Agile teams often overlook. During her time at Netas, Semen received the Agile and Digital Transformation Award in 2017. She contributed to several initiatives, including teaching Agile Product Management at Bahçeşehir University from 2016 to 2018, creating a “Minimum Viable Success” system for children, delivering talks on Agile globally, blogging on Management 3.0, and participating in the Agile Turkey and JavaDay Istanbul committees.
Semen’s discovery of OKRs further shaped her thinking, leading her to focus on metrics that could improve team and product performance. Her passion for Product Management grew during this period, and as a Program Manager, she excelled at planning. However, she was eager to pursue product excellence and customer satisfaction, which led her to fully embrace product management. Her journey into product management began at GE Aviation, where she gained valuable experience in product insights and analytics.
Transforming Products and Teams through Strategic Leadership
Semen’s career at METRO.digital began in 2019 as the product manager for APIs and the main product page. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing all product data, including names, images, descriptions, variants, and recommendations. She played a key role in redesigning the main product page by conducting user interviews, running regular tests, and implementing A/B experiments. This process led to the addition of new features, such as product recommendations, which significantly contributed to boosting cross-selling and upselling efforts.
During her time in this role, Semen also led the team’s transition from an external outsourcing model to an in-house team. Although she and a team lead went on parental leave during the final phase of this transition, the team’s strong maturity and technical proficiency allowed them to continue successfully and complete the internalization process. This outcome highlighted the value of building a self-managed and autonomous team.
Upon returning from parental leave, Semen shifted her focus to the pricing area. Her team now manages pricing business logic across 20 METRO countries, providing data via APIs to over 20 METRO applications. Her initial focus was on FinOps, where her efforts to reduce infrastructure costs resulted in millions of euros in annual savings. She continues to scale these efforts. Semen is now leading the internalization phase for the pricing team, leveraging her experience to develop a team-building framework and establish clear communication structures with both engineering and business leaders.
Her strengths in quality, planning, stakeholder engagement, and proactive risk management have been crucial in delivering critical projects on time, spanning multiple countries. Outside of product management, Semen contributes by taking a portfolio-wide view, working alongside METRO communities to enhance team performance, metrics, and Agile practices.
Effective Team Building and Leadership in Product Management
In previous roles and at METRO.digital, Semen has focused on internalization efforts for many years. They recognize that team building differs significantly from product management, applying situational leadership to adjust their approach based on the maturity of the team and individual members. Depending on the context, they utilize a range of leadership techniques, including directing, mentoring, coaching, supporting, or delegating, tailored to the team’s or individual’s development level.
Semen places a strong emphasis on building and maintaining trust within the team, considering it an ongoing priority. They believe that a lack of trust can negatively impact both team dynamics and overall product performance. To ensure continuous improvement, they facilitate regular feedback and conflict resolution sessions, conduct retrospectives, and take action to address any areas that could enhance the team’s effectiveness.
Driving Change and Team Performance through Strategic Leadership
Semen has approached improvements as a personal passion, enjoying the process of tackling challenges head-on. Known for their resilience and persistence, they have consistently demonstrated an ability to move forward regardless of obstacles. This commitment has earned them the nomination as a METRO Momentum Maker for their “never stop, no fear” mentality.
When implementing change, Semen typically applies John Kotter’s change management model, a process that includes creating a sense of urgency, forming a coalition team, implementing incremental improvements, gathering feedback, achieving quick wins, and pushing forward. They also focus on managing resistance by reducing political factors and addressing confirmation bias within the organization.
Recently, Semen developed a vision and strategy for a Team Performance Scorecard system, transforming it into a product ready for scaling and adoption across all teams within the company. This achievement was made possible through the application of the change management model.
Data-Driven Approach to Risk Mitigation and Continuous Improvement
Semen is a data-driven professional who consistently seeks out historical data to identify areas for improvement and proactively address potential risks. Upon joining any new team or product, she prioritizes understanding the available metrics and how they can be leveraged to generate insights or drive enhancements.
For example, her initiative on FinOps cost reduction began with a thorough review of cloud billing metrics, which formed the foundation for subsequent improvements. In all of her reports to senior management, Semen ensures that data supports her findings, making the reports concise and impactful while highlighting risks, issues, mitigations, and opportunities for improvement.
Semen also understands the importance of efficient collaboration when working with data. She recognizes that a significant portion of the effort may go into preparation, but she values this process as it leads to effective and mutually beneficial outcomes.
Balancing Family Life and Professional Responsibilities
Semen has two young children, a 3-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, often referred to as “Irish twins.” Balancing personal and professional life can be challenging, but Semen is fortunate to have the support of both sets of parents, who assist with managing household responsibilities. This support allows Semen to dedicate quality time to spending with the children, engaging in play, and nurturing them.
Balancing Introversion and Extroversion in Professional Growth
Semen considers herself an ambivert, balancing both introverted and extroverted traits. Depending on her current interests, she often immerses herself in books, training sessions, and creating presentations, which reflects her more introverted side. On the other hand, to engage her extroverted nature, she actively submits proposals to relevant conferences, shares her knowledge through talks, and connects with experts from other organizations. This approach not only allows her to grow personally but also contributes to the development of her company.
One of her recent areas of interest has been Team Topologies and operating models for innovative fields like AI/ML. Semen has shared her insights on this subject by delivering two talks, and her expertise in this field led her to become a Team Topologies . Through these endeavors, she continuously refines her knowledge while fostering professional growth and collaboration.
Advancing in ML/AI Innovations and People Management
Semen’s new passion lies in developing operating models for ML/AI innovations, and she aims to advance her career in this field. While she is skilled and passionate as an individual contributor, her next career step involves challenging herself as a people manager.
Read Also:
Credit: insightssuccess.com
