Mariana Alfafar
Product Owner with 10+ years of professional experience
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Sobre
I’m a product owner with a strong focus on users and teams, leading cross-functional initiatives at the intersection of business strategy, data, and technology. I translate complex technical concepts into clear business value, bridging engineering, design, and stakeholder teams with structured thinking and a strong orientation to measurable impact.
Currently deepening my knowledge in AI implementation and LLM-based product development, with a focus on operational efficiency and transformational use cases. I thrive in dynamic, collaborative, and purpose-driven cultures. My background enables me to build strong bridges between users, business, and technology.
Outside of work, I'm a health and behavioural science enthusiast and a finance nerd. Forever a wannabe dancer, I find freedom in long backpacking trips, solo or with the people I care about.
Experiência
Critical Techworks BMW Group Lisbon, Portugal
Product Manager & Owner - Navigation & Search (My BMW and MINI app) July 2024 - present
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Optimised the Navigation & Search experience for millions of users, focusing on retention mechanics and reducing time-to-value in search journeys
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Collaborated closely with design, engineering, and BMW stakeholders to align business goals, UX, and technical requirements, reducing friction between the app and the in-car experience
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Defined detailed product specifications and acceptance criteria translating business and UX requirements into actionable engineering tasks
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Strengthened communication and coordination across teams, increasing autonomy,
accelerating decision-making, and bringing greater clarity to information flows
Key competencies: leadership, coaching, prioritisation, stakeholder communication,
complex ecosystems, user experience, discovery, Scrum, Jira
Product Hub Remote, the Netherlands
Product Manager January 2023 - June 2024
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Facilitated the development and implementation of ROI-driven product roadmaps and product strategy for product leaders and their teams in a consulting environment
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Drove product delivery for an internal B2B SaaS platform, owning backlog management, prioritisation, and end-to-end delivery cycles
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Facilitated workshops, alignment sessions, and coaching moments to elevate product capability in scaling teams
Key competencies: product strategy, discovery, prioritisation, data analysis,
mentoring, coaching
Beerwulf, The Heineken Company The Netherlands
Product Manager & Owner September 2021 - April 2022
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Owned the full delivery lifecycle from spec to release, coordinating QA and stakeholder sign-off while managing a prioritised backlog aligned to OKRs
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Led a Scrum team of 8 engineers to deliver high-value features and measurable outcomes
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Applied structured analytical frameworks to identify funnel bottlenecks, formulated hypotheses, and ran data-driven experiments that improved conversion and retention,
communicating insights and recommendations clearly to business stakeholders to drive decision-making
Key competencies: product strategy, OKRs, prioritisation, discovery, leadership, data analysis, conversion and retention, UX research, e-commerce, Scrum, Jira
HarlemNext The Netherlands
Product Manager December 2019 - July 2021
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Managed the first data-driven iterative development product version
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Worked across agile development teams composed of 50 + developers to support refinement, prioritisation and quality assurance
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Led and developed a cross-functional team of 4 (designers, copywriter, data analyst),
providing direction, feedback, and creating space for individual growth
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Responsible for functional design documentation for complex operational applications to serve the engineering team
Nike The Netherlands
Product Designer (Project) September 2017 - July 2018
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Optimised internal operational tools used by warehouse employees. Conducted user research to understand workforce needs, reducing friction in daily tasks
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This foundation in UI systems and component-level design informs my approach to product specifications and engineering collaboration today
Onefit The Netherlands
Product Designer November 2016 - July 2017
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Responsible for product usability and user experience
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This foundation in UI systems and component-level design informs my approach to product specifications and engineering collaboration today
Hyp Portugal
Co-Founder; Full-stack Designer + Dev July 2014 - August 2016
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Responsible for diverse products' design and strategy
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Head of client and team communication
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UX/UI design and frontend development (HTML and CSS)
Stratio Portugal
Web Designer November 2013 - March 2015
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Responsible for website design, banners, and graphical elements
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Development using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript
Formação
Education
@University of Coimbra, Portugal
- MBA Marketing & Business
Strategy Faculty of Economics
- Bachelor Design &
Multimedia Faculty of Science and
Technology
@Yildiz Technical University, Turkey
Semester in Computer Engineering
(Erasmus Program)
