Arda Soysal

ARDA SOYSAL •-• - • https://www.linkedin.com/in/ardasoysal/ EDUCATION Carnegie Mellon University Master of Science in Software Management GPA: 3.95/4.00 Mountain View, CA Aug 2017 - Dec 2018 Koç University Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Istanbul, Turkey Sep 2008 - Jun 2013 EXPERIENCE Freelancer Istanbul, Turkey Jan 2020 - Present • Consulting a children video entertainment mobile application with their product strategy, analytics and user research. Managing the development team to ensure the product backlog is implemented according to the roadmap. • Conducted user interviews to discover the pain points and urgent needs to create user stories, personas and storyboards for a language learning mobile application Exact Founder, Mountain View, CA Aug 2018 - Dec 2019 • Founder of a personalized social networking platform for travelers, photographers and content creators. • Responsible for the ideation, validation, user research, market research, product roadmap creation, project planning and low-fidelity prototyping of the product development life-cycle. • Attended industry events and meetups to pitch the benefits of the product to potential customers and partners. Bolster, Inc. Product Manager Intern, Mountain View, CA Jun 2018 - Jul 2018 • Created a brand new tiered SaaS pricing model for the A.I. powered Brand Monitoring & Protection solutions. • Conceptualized the ideation of marketing content and wrote the scripts for animated explainer videos. • Conducted competitive analysis and generated product reports for potential customers to support the PoC process. Forte Consultancy (Subsidiary of EY) Project Management Consultant, Kosovo Mar 2016 - Aug 2016 • Consultant to BNP Paribas in Pristina, Kosovo and Paris, France for a multi-dimensional compliance project. • Managed the implementation phase by defining the scope, prioritizing action items, redesigning processes, preparing impact analyses and leading daily client meetings to keep track of the project progression. • Reported directly to C-level executives such as the CEO, CTO and Head of Compliance to address concerns, resolve issues and manage overall expectations. Accenture Senior Business Analyst, Technology Consulting, Istanbul, Turkey Jul 2013 - Mar 2016 • Consultant to UniCredit Bank and Allianz for five large financial services projects. Collaborated with multiple stakeholders; credits, sales, marketing, treasury and engineering to successfully deliver business and IT projects. • Responsible for delivering value throughout the entire product life-cycle in an Agile environment, from defining new business requirements to carrying out multi-phase change management projects according to company strategy. • Led an engineering team of 4 as part of a data migration/ conversion analysis and implementation of 400,000 customers by using SQL under the scope of a multidisciplinary digital transformation project. Mars, Inc. Marketing Associate, Istanbul, Turkey Feb 2013 - Jul 2013 • Collaborated with global advertising firms and market research agencies; BBDO, OMD and Nielsen, for content creation, target marketing, online advertisement strategies, market insights and focus group studies. LEADERSHIP • Performed as the Project Manager of a multi-disciplinary project for a leading aviation company at CMU. Managed the project by collaborating with machine learning engineers, designers, and product managers to implement the newly designed User Interface by employing Microsoft Azure. • Elected as the Engineering Faculty Representative at Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey, for 1000 engineering students. Persuaded school executives to decrease the requisites for obtaining track and minor studies, and reorganized course electives to optimize student schedules. • Served as a Tutor/Volunteer for 40 primary school students in Istanbul, Turkey. Teaching recycling and nature, encouraging teamwork with role-plays, and creating game and competitions.