Hello there! My name is Rasim Nadzhafov.
I’m a Project/Product Manager, PMO Lead with experience in advising top companies in various fields. I have 7 years of successful experience in Agile (Scrum Master, Product Owner) and traditional Project/Product Management, and 11+ years in the IT Industry overall. I believe I can strengthen your PM team and bring more projects to successful delivery. I have relevant experience with managing remote/distributed teams. Having a technical and business background helps me fill the gap between the business and technical worlds. I adapt to the context of your industry and propose the symbiosis of creative thinking, technologies, and vast experience for the benefit of your brand. I define and convert client’s business needs into different tangible deliverables: technical requirements, functional specifications, user stories, user cases, workflow & data model diagrams, wireframes, prototypes. Moreover, I provide a whole and in-detail product vision. I facilitate all Agile/PM activities, develop transparent communications, and liaise between business and technical personnel to ensure a mutual understanding of processes. I have workflow automation knowledge. I deeply understand the development life cycle and monetization mechanisms in IT industry products: Web, E-commerce, Fintech, Healthcare, Social, CRM, B2B, B2C, eLearning, Mobile, SaaS, Betting, and Gaming.
I manage multiple international products with several teams of up to 50 people, set up workflows from scratch & optimizing existing processes in a company. Also, I manage client expectations, empathize, solve conflict situations. I worked with The USA, The UK, Europe, South Africa, LATAM clients. I engaged in milestones, sprints, updates, features, and resource planning & estimation via planning poker, design thinking methods & other plannings. Work with project documentation. PMP knowledge helps me to organize all interrelations, dependencies in projects, as well as Gantt chart. Roadmapping, features, stories, and task decomposition based on Gherkin are on me. I conduct Agile, UX/UI, & SEO trainings for teams.
Mostly I work with Waterfall and Agile frameworks: Scrum, Kanban. I’ve passed professional scrum master training. Build an Agile environment from scratch and implement Scrum/Kanban frameworks with all related things like team coaching. High Jira & Atlassian products proficiency, as well as other task tracking apps. I have experience in BA and in making all kind of weighed data-driven decisions, and design thinking methods: A/B testing, User Testing, Analytics, Market Research, Competitor Analysis, etc. I know well Magento and many other CMS. In addition, I have SEO and marketing knowledge.
By the way, for 4 years, I’ve been running my own development company with distributed teams. During this time I received a lot of entrepreneurial and top management experience.
In my PM path, I acquired 4+ years of experience in UX/UI design which allows me to make an effective & detailed wireframe/prototype of any complexity. Also, I was in a leading role as Creative Director/Lead PM in the field of web-products and managed an entire creative department where I got extensive design knowledge and all its trends. Also, I learned a lot about PM mentoring at that time.
FYI, I have a passion for game design and in general, for game dev, I’ve been watching this industry and follow the market with all its trends.
?Methodologies I know:
Agile frameworks – Scrum, Kanban, Customized Scrumban, SAFe. Also, Design-thinking, Shape Up method, Feature Driven Development, Behavior Driven Development, Fixed scope – Waterfall.
⚙️My tools:
⌚️Planning, tracking, and estimation: Jira, Trello, Asana, Redmine, MeisterTask, Lucidchart, Ghantt chart, Hello Focus, Roadmap Planner, ProductPlan, Roadmunk, Microsoft Office, MS Project, Google Docs, Evernote, Google Calendar, planning poker apps, time trackers (WebWork, Hubstaff, etc).
?UX/UI Design: Moqups, Balsamiq Mockups, Axure, Figma, Photoshop, Adobe XD, Flaticon
?Analytical: Google Analytics, HotJar, Usertesting, Google Trends, Typeform, Inspectlet, Amplitude, Geckoboard, GoodData, Google Forms, IdeaScale, Helio, Lookback, Optimizely, Usabilla
?SEO: Hrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console, GeoClever, Keyword Planner, Key Collector.
?Documentation: Confluence, Gitlab, Wiki, etc.
?Repositories: Gitlab, Bitbucket, Github, Jenkins.
?Server/Hosting management: cPanel, Vesta, ISPConfig.
?Communications: Slack, E-mail, Telegram, Whatsapp, Viber, Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft teams.
?CMS I know:
Magento 1/2 (CE&EE), Opencart 1/2/3, Shopify, Prestashop, WordPress (+WooCommerce), Joomla, Bigcommerce, Drupal, WIX.
?My qualities:
Continuously self-developing, ethical, empathetic, adaptable, hard-working, responsible, proactive, sociable, creative, enduring, attentive, purposeful, and resourceful.
MY EXPERIENCE
I worked from scratch with a Low Code Platform that gives the ability to business managers to easily create their own sophisticated business & analytics apps without involving the IT department. Also, my second team developed and launched a unique woman health & tracker app on App Store and Google Play.
My duties:
– Translate high-level product requirements into feature specs;
– Interact closely with a development team by leading product development and customer integration activities;
– Define the technical product strategy and roadmap;
– Conduct presentations and demonstrate the product to stakeholders;
– Project timeline and risk management;
– Agile-preaching with all related activities;
– People management;
– Work with the documentation;
– Conduct discovery phases, researches, and estimations for various projects
– Interviewing, technical screening, cooperation with a recruitment team;
– Participation in testing, verification of features;
– Performance and budget management;
– Troubleshooting and problem-solving;
– Conduct knowledge sharing
I’m in charge of the full cycle of product & project management with all kinds of proactivity. I manage company products that operate in 35 countries around the world: B2B CRM, games, and all related betting/gambling software products for online, self-service terminals, and land-based distribution channels. Also, I lead the 3-rd party integrations. Besides, I make industry research, develop UX and detailed wireframes, lead brainstorms, cooperate with stakeholders from Austria & partners from all over the world, invent new functionality which cover all the business needs and testing products. I optimize all work processes and the value of each user story by prioritizing them.
– I manage several teams. 15 specialists from Ukraine and a few from Austria/Germany: Front-End (React/Knockout JS), Back-End (Java: Spring/Ninja), and UX/UI.
– I have integrated Agile into the company – Scrum/Kanban and continuously improve all workflows. Also I manage Jira and implemented notifications through slack and customized useful bots
– Product\Release planning and support
– I participate in some pre-sales jointly with top management
– Testing products, tasks, and functionality
– I participated as an exhibitor in the world’s biggest exhibition in the gaming industry ICE London 2020. I represented the company and all its products developed under my leadership/management to existing partners and to new potential b2b clients from all over the world
– I develop, prepare and conduct my own various trainings for teams on such topics: Agile (Scrum, Kanban), UX Design, BA, Release Management, SEO
– I’m involved in the corporate site SEO and research-based copywriting (English & Russian) and I have top results without investing in a promotion.
– I help the Head Office with recruitment
– I introduce and implement new ideas to improve productivity and to increase company income
Bastard Studio is the outsourcing company founded by me and my partners are currently and permanently engaged in this business. In the past I was engaged in full management of the studio: implementation of projects, conduct negotiations with clients, calculate budgets, search, hire and train remote employees, сonclude contracts & partnerships with companies. Also, I’ve been in charge of the creative direction. The company is a fully automated business with passive income for my side.
– My knowledge of UX/UI-design and its trends helps me to create an easy and comfortable workflow for any complexity projects for small and big brands. In such a wide range from landing page to dating service.
– I successfully coached UX/UI designers and PMs by my personal method to reborn them into high-level specialists of the creative sphere.
– I write research articles based on my experience, analytics and the experience of users who gave me feedback. You can find these articles in a blog of Bastard Studio and in my self-brand/personal blog Rasim.pro.
Achievements:
– I advised about the creation of promotional & corporate sites, E-Commerce and positioning in some issues of the brand such major brands aggregator as Global Spirits — a world leader, international alcohol holding with a portfolio of brands such as Vodka Khortytsa, Morosha, Pervak, Khor, Leaf, Shustoff, etc, Wine Oreanda and Mikado.
Also, I worked with Case Library – unique book-like case brand which I helped to develop from scratch., MigVapor – one of the biggest vape products provider in the USA, Capezio – legendary world manufacturer of dance products.
– Strong partnership with several marketing and development companies such as Lead Point, BBF Media, Zlodei, СaseStudy, Shturman, Navix, Lidery Mneniy, Lapitsky Media Network, Troyash
– I’ve set up fully automated for my side business with passive income
– Several clients have left feedback about working with me in their video reviews on our website.
– I led major projects of famous brands such as MigVapor and Capezio and helped them develop E-Commerce on Magento 1 and 2 platforms (Community and Enterprise) in the US market. The income of my clients is constantly growing.
– I manage several teams. 35+ specialists: Front-End, Back-End, and UX/UI. I follow each stage of product development so that it is of the highest quality and effective. No detail passes by me. I work very closely with Front-End developers and Web designers on the appearance, design, details, wireframes, UX/UI.
– I collect reports for clients, I watch productivity in teams
– Release Planning and Post-Release Project Support
– I help HR with IT staff recruitment
– I constantly come up with new ideas to improve efficiency and implement them in the company
– The job was 6-months temporary contract until projects closure
My achievements:
– I created a completely new JIRA workflow that increased productivity and efficiency for the entire company.
– I conduct trainings in various fields, such as SEO, JIRA, UX/UI
– I have organized monthly meetings among developers and designers
– I have been trained as a Magento Solution Specialist
I personally have successfully led more than 80 projects of the company, except internal projects. I conducted consultations and brand development for major high-level brands, different products, and projects. I led & supported a multitude (up to 20) of company projects, control the work of PM’s, work with designers, SEO & PPC specialists, Frontend & Backend developers. Worked with clients, supported a high level of service, and conducted negotiations with top managers. Crisis management of the company and large projects. Conducted trainings for teams and trained/coached project managers. Experience in managing company up to 50 specialists.
I successfully managed several company teams and led a large number of projects, up to 20.
Daily negotiations with customers, both online and in person. Also, I was involved in pre-sale processes.
I engaged in a development and creation of high-detailed wireframes/prototypes. The construction of logical and the correct UX-architecture, which effectively leads a user to a target action. Development of the simplest user journey flow on a website, depending on a target audience of a client. Control the construction of visual communications of an end-user with the product. I led internal projects. Release and post-launch support.
Experience in managing teams of up to 15-35 people.
I have experience in developing (managing and wireframing) online builders, e-commerce products, social networks, corporate sites, web services, marketplaces, dating sites, mobile apps. Projects implemented on the local & international market.
I used methodology: Waterfall and Agile: Scrum, Kanban.
In the workflow, we used: Jira, Trello, Slack, etc.
I know HTML, CSS, a bit PHP, and JS and I used it
I worked with the frameworks: Yii, Laravel, AngularJS, React.
I worked with CMS WordPress, Opencart, Magento, etc.
A few achievements:
When there were sharp mass dismissals of incompetent project managers in the company without transferring projects, I took all their crisis projects on my own, and in total, I had more than 20 projects with unfriendly customers and burning / already burnt deadlines. I’m successfully closed all projects, worked in overtime until late at night.
Also:
I cut company costs and relieved the stress from the dev department by attracting & integrating outsourcing.
I managed a few company products simultaneously, but the main product was Expat Laws Foundation,
The meaning and the goal of this product: Any Internet user can read actual laws for foreigners and easily find lawyers in any country in his language.
– Delivery Map Service is the second product that is based on the volunteering of Internet users and their recommendations regarding the institutions which deliver something to your home/any address.
– The third product was similar to some kind of Political Exchange Platform with petitions aggregator (parser).
– I was involved in the process of developing a business plan, naming, hiring teams, scrum integration, interfacing service functionality / wireframing-prototyping
I managed 3 outsource teams and cooperated directly with CEO and stakeholders, made marketing and customer-based researches, led brainstorms, product backlog, sprint planning, sprint reviews, daily meetings, retrospectives, collect reports.
-Testing products interface and functionality.
– Searched and conducted negotiations with potential partners
I worked with customer reputation, data research (include mining & entry), call center, search customers and partners, the conclusion of contracts, working with the different CRMs. Also, I was involved in developing and researching sales scripts for a call center. The job was on the basis of a short-term contract.
– I worked with many famous CIS bloggers (Youtube, Twitch, Instagram, VK).
– We negotiated with customers and created advertising integrations, commercials, prerolls, and postrolls.
– I developed websites for a few of the most popular Media Ad Networks in CIS.
– Supervised contractors: designers, copywriters, animators, web designers, and SEO-experts
– Worked on advertising projects, promo campaigns and integrations with partners and clients from different companies.
– PR-management of Yuri Khovanski, Vladislav Kopcev (Firamir), Karina the Streamer (Sharishaxd), Eugene Lapitsky, Nick Khabuliani, also wrote PR articles. SEO management.
– I was engaged in international (Europe, CIS, The USA) freelance work in the field of creating websites on the CMS Opencart and WordPress, other CMS, and developing CSS/HTML layout.
– I optimized websites for SEO and was engaged in link building
– I wrote articles: regular copywriting, SEO articles, advertising texts and a series of full-fledged PR articles
– Work and make changes/edits on HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP
– Hosting and domain management
– During my work on a freelance, I got a lot of experience and expertise in many IT and business-related fields and I gathered specialists from IT and creative direction and became their manager.
– Founded an outsourcing team of remote IT and creative specialists
Humanitarian aid:
I worked in the American Caritas project – OFDA with internally displaced persons. These people affected by the war in the South-East of Ukraine. Psychological assistance, registration, and support for newcomers and socially vulnerable IDPs. Communication and assessment according to various criteria to determine the necessary assistance (finances, supplement, aid) to affected families or an individual. Housing monitoring. Preparing for the winter program. Market pricing monitoring and research. Working trips and business trips to work with immigrants throughout Ukraine, including front-line zones such as Mariupol and the rest of the Donetsk region. I worked in the mobile team, and on the hotline of Caritas Ukraine. Called for the purpose of monitoring or alerts, invitations to those who received a cash grant. Setting up and updating company iPads, as well as other equipment.
I significantly strengthened my skills and knowledge of psychology: behaviorism, physiognomy, and the psychology of manipulation. I came up with an idea and began to engage in information management: notification through social networks about new projects, which significantly increased awareness among the affected population (IDPs) and reduced the same type of calls to the organization’s hotline. This freed up many social workers to more efficiently accept IDPs and not create crowds.
We helped more than hundreds of thousands of victims of the humanitarian crisis and military conflict in Ukraine.
I worked with Rasim for about one year, and enjoyed our collaboration very much. He has a very professional approach, is highly reliable in every aspect, and has great communication and collaboration skills, effectively applied in our multi-regional team. As a project manager, he kept the project running and ensured that we achieved more than expected during this time. In addition, I can't remember a colleage with shorter response times in my career.
I have known and worked with Rasim for over one and a half year and consider him to be highly professional, dynamic and proactive as well as imaginative and resourceful. I have often been impressed with the creativity and alacrity he displays when tackling difficult problems and tasks. I can honestly say it is a pleasure to know and work with Rasim.
I ordered design, development, and SEO optimization of many websites, also branding, and other design solutions from Rasim. In every case, I received good support, adequate price, and high-quality work. Also, we both worked on a few interesting projects with famous bloggers. I'm very pleased to work together with Rasim - he is an experienced professional with a high level of empathy, who finds optimal and creative solutions for any request or even a whole IT/PR project and perfectly organizes the work of his teams.
It was a great time when we started to deal with Bastard Studio under Rasim's governance. In 2018 Rasim developed the website landing page www.arsani.art for our Arsani Auction House. It was a creative work and client-oriented relation all the time. So in two years Arsani auction CEO decided to make a language localization for that website and we contacted Rasim with an ask for help to assist with that. So Rasim reacted operatively and we got an immediate support on this request and now thanks to Rasim and his team we have a website that is understood on 3 languages. With Best Regards,
I got my basic blockchain certification from The State University of New York & University at Buffalo. I've conducted discovery phases and led blockchain projects.
I've got Algorithms and Machine Learning certificates by grading Standford University courses.
I've passed professional scrum master training and earned specialization. I've successfully implemented Agile frameworks from scratch in several companies. Also, I've conducted trainings for development teams.
I've got C1-C2 level certificates and can speak/write English fluently
I've earned Google Marketing certification
Jira certification by its developer Atlassian.