Frederik Goossens
Verified Expert in Design
Creative Director and Designer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since August 7, 2017
Frederik is a senior product manager, experienced designer, business analyst, researcher, and data scientist with years of experience in AI and blockchain technology. He holds an MBA from Cambridge and has over 13 years of experience managing teams for most of his career. Frederik has worked in more than 10 countries and regions for MNCs, agencies, and startups and founded his own agency.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Product Owner, Artificial Intelligence
BNP Paribas
- Owned product development for an LLM-powered smart coding assistant.
- Collaborated with the tech team to define the roadmap and set KPIs.
- Led workshops and planned user research sessions with engineers.
- Facilitated Agile ceremonies following the Scrum methodology.
Director, Product
Merlaz
- Started the company based on the pillars of creativity, business, and technology with a core focus on AI.
- Created a new product using generative AI to optimize and convert voice recordings.
- Designed and managed the development of product features around voice manipulation and consistent image creation.
- Worked on the product management and strategy for Real Messenger as well as the music for their advertising.
- Contracted as an AI product owner for a smart coding assistant at BNP Paribas (2024).
Associate Director, Product
Real Messenger
- Managed a team of user researchers, product designers, developers, and AI experts.
- Defined the product vision and roadmap for Real Messenger.
- Collaborated with the tech team to make decisions on machine learning implementation for optimizing user experience.
- Conducted market research and competitive analysis to strengthen our positioning and USPs.
- Managed and co-delivered the branding and design guidelines.
Academic Consulting Project Member, Research and Data Analysis
UFC
- Consulted on a project for UFC as part of my MBA studies at the University of Cambridge.
- Pitched various ideas to expand their business, where the concept of expanding to certain locations in Africa (in terms of training) was chosen as the project.
- Analyzed relevant data from African countries to support the decision about where to open the next performance institute.
Head, User Experience and Research
CoinFLEX
- Hired and directly managed a team of seven employees, with responsibilities ranging from business analysis to user research, design, and coaching.
- Covered the APAC, US, and EMEA regions as an agile team and revamped the entire cryptocurrency platform.
- Contributed to problem framing, customer journeys, personas, affinity maps, interviews, focus groups, observations/insights, workshops, wireframes, and prototypes.
- Worked on AMM+ and created the profile dashboard, design system, wallet, and history.
Manager, User Experience and Research
HSBC
- Line-managed 13 designers, overseeing projects, providing coaching, and enhancing the team's performance.
- Produced strategic solutions and creative concepts to improve the financial management customer experience in Hong Kong and the UK.
- Drafted and governed the initial Global Voice guidelines and led the design of chatbots for customer queries regionally (the UK, HK, the US, Mexico, India, and the UAE) through working with NLP vendors and data engineers.
- Designed the go-to-market strategy targeting Malaysian millennials through market analysis, customer research, running workshops, personas, prototyping, and pitching.
- Managed content, defined acceptance criteria, and supported user acceptance testing through behavior-driven development (BDD).
- Worked as a technical business analyst at HSBC in 2017 before transitioning to digital product designer and manager in 2018.
Lead, User Experience and Business Analysis
Toptal Client
- Provided business analysis and content management services.
- Defined requirements for a voice user interface (VUI) and produced an example dialog flow for the AI assistant.
- Created UI/UX designs and graphical data representation for an Internet of Things (IoT) security platform.
Senior Consultant, User Experience
WPP
- Served as a consultant with a focus on business analysis and UX.
- Captured and analyzed the client's business requirements.
- Visualized, defined, and presented research results, concepts, and solutions.
- Planned, managed, and coordinated the UX delivery process across the project lifecycle.
- Collaborated with clients and stakeholders to ensure activities, deliverables, and timelines aligned with expectations.
- Worked on several digital transformation projects for multinational clients in the Hong Kong (CN) and Sydney (AU) finance industry.
Senior Specialist, Business Analysis
BT
- Served in a UX and business analysis management role within the BT consumer team, which is part of the largest digital transformation program ever undertaken by BT.
- Translated business goals into feasible digital solutions through business analysis, defining and prioritizing requirements, and specifying process flows.
- Managed the definition of the technical requirements and followed up on the UX and design team for some of the core modules of My BT (customer-facing) and a completely new customer support system (back-office).
- Identified product ideas and improvements through user research and stakeholder meetings.
- Collaborated with tech teams throughout the software development process to ensure delivery of a usable, feasible, and viable product.
Consultant, UX, Research, and Business Analysis
Springbok
- Worked on user experience design and research with a core focus on banks and financial institutions.
- Defined and prioritized the product backlog. Worked on wireframing and prototyping.
- Identified ideas and UX improvements through user research and stakeholder interviews.
Startup Lead, Strategy and Operations
Noovigo
- Created a web service to collect premium used clothing from consumers and a web shop where we sold high-quality 2nd-hand clothing.
- Developed and defined the product concept, strategy, and vision.
- Analyzed customers, products, markets, and competitors.
- Produced the user experience and product requirements documents.
- Analyzed and assessed vendors, including eCommerce systems, CMS modules, and payment solutions.
- Provided technical support during the product's development process.
- Oversaw the CMS and content management (OpenCart and WordPress).
Education
Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Technology
University of Cambridge - Cambridge, United Kingdom
Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Degree in Design and Management
Antwerp Management School - Antwerp, Belgium
Bachelor of Science Degree in Commercial Science
Ghent University - Ghent, Belgium
Certifications
Human Centered Design
Hyper Island
Foundations in Design Thinking
IDEO U - Online
Certificate in Business Analysis Practice
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT - UK
UX Certified
Nielsen Normal Group - UK
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Scrum Alliance - UK
Skills
Tools
Rally, AI Tools, Jira, Confluence
Industry Expertise
Marketing
Languages
Python
Other
User Experience (UX), Research, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Management, User Interface (UI), Product Management, Data Science, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Mixed Reality (MR), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Excel 365, ChatGPT, Large Language Models (LLMs), Data Analysis, Data Analytics
Experience
- User Experience (UX) - 10 years
- Blockchain & Cryptocurrency - 10 years
- User Interface (UI) - 10 years
- Product Management - 10 years
- Data Science - 10 years
- Research - 10 years
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) - 10 years
- Mixed Reality (MR) - 10 years
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