Ilja Zelenov

Ilja Zelenov

Product Owner  ·  Product Manager  ·  Project Manager

Professional Experience

Freelance Web & SEO Consultant

Freelance project work for SMBs in close collaboration with clients.

Services:

  • SEO optimization (on-page & technical)
  • Technical website optimization and performance improvement
  • Online shop rebuild and migration
Product Management Bootcamp Trainee

Intensive Product Management Bootcamp covering modern concepts, methods, and tools. Developed a FinTech app prototype (Figma) as capstone project, focusing on user research, product strategy, and data-driven design.

Skills Acquired:

  • Product Strategy & Discovery
  • Product Design & UX Design
  • Team & Backlog Management
  • Product Analytics & Monitoring
  • Jobs-to-be-Done Framework
Senior Product Owner

Senior PO for d.velop sign – a legally compliant e-signature solution for SMBs and enterprise clients. Responsible for roadmap, backlog, and feature releases within a 12-member cross-functional team (Scrum/Kanban).

Responsibilities:

  • Requirements defined and validated as user stories and test cases; ~70 user stories per quarter
  • Feature prioritization based on strategic OKRs and stakeholder interviews (Development, UX, Customer Success)
  • 90% resolution rate for support requests (~100 tickets/month); established agile team framework
Senior Product Specialist

Solution engineering, training, and pre-/post-sales support for the German automotive market in a B2B SaaS environment.

Responsibilities:

  • 100+ training sessions for sales and partners (product onboarding, SaaS training)
  • User guides and RFP handling for enterprise clients and tenders
  • Technical point of contact for enterprise customers
  • Interface between Sales, Development, and Customer Success

Achievements:

  • CMS and CRM rollout as part of the SaaS portfolio for the DACH market
  • Self-service platform reducing support requests by 50%
  • Digital rollout for Toyota Germany – ~250 dealerships nationwide
  • Measurable improvement of CSAT through systematic feedback management
Product Owner (MarTech)

Ownership of a proprietary product portfolio for SEM advertising campaigns with a budget exceeding €1M. Planning and delivery of product roadmap, releases, and sprints across all markets.

Responsibilities:

  • Stakeholder interviews and requirements analysis
  • OKR definition and tracking for the product team
  • A/B testing and performance monitoring
  • User satisfaction measurement and tool selection

Achievements:

  • Ownership of trivago's central SEM management software – used globally for multi-million euro advertising spend
  • Migration of a monolithic application (>1M lines of code) to microservices – improved reliability and release speed
  • Complete redesign of the application – more efficient workflows, clearer structure, modern UX
  • Successful integration partnerships with external platforms
Software Quality Assurance (QA)

Quality management with emphasis on automation and efficiency improvements. Led test and release management and oversaw test, staging, and production environments.

Achievements:

  • Bug reduction of 25% through refinement of the test framework
  • Real-time monitoring to accelerate bug detection
  • CI/CD implementation to automate build and deployment processes
Online Marketing Working Student

Managed and optimized advertising campaigns in Google Ads and Bing Ads to improve visibility and conversion rates.

Achievements:

  • Reach increase of 30% alongside a CPA reduction of 15% through structured campaign optimization
Online Marketing Working Student

Supported SMBs in improving online visibility through SEO and content strategies.

Achievements:

  • Significant increase in organic SEO traffic through consistent on-page and off-page optimizations

Certifications & Awards

Product Management Certification

Intensive Product Management Bootcamp covering modern PM concepts, methods, and tools.

Generative AI Mastermind Certification

Advanced certification in Generative AI application and integration.

Key Talent Award for Outstanding Performance

Recognized for exceptional performance and contributions to company success.

Innovation – Core Value Ambassador

Selected as ambassador for innovation and company core values.

BOLD Mentorship & Immersion Program

Participated in Google's mentorship program for emerging leaders.

Education

Information Science and Language Technology (B.A.)

Bachelor of Arts focusing on computational linguistics and information systems.