Darinka Burovska
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Berlin, Germany
Toptal member since June 3, 2021
Darinka is an experienced product manager and owner focusing on SaaS B2B and B2B2C products. She leverages design thinking and data analysis to design a product strategy and roadmap that incorporates scalability and product growth. Darinka also actively communicates with all internal and external stakeholders and ensures all expectations are properly met. She has worked on the whole product management cycle, from product discovery to product delivery.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Data Visualization
- Data-driven Design
- Design Thinking
- Product Discovery
- Product Roadmaps
- Product Strategy
- Story Mapping
Work Experience
Product Discovery Coach
Freelance
- Worked with product leaders to define the research roadmap, plan, and evaluate the right user problem.
- Helped senior leaders iterate on their initial idea and prototype until they reached the right product-market fit.
- Worked with product managers to understand user problems, pain points, and needs with various discovery techniques.
Mentor and Coach | Product Management
Brainster
- Led, structured, and conducted modules for the product management academy, focusing on iterative product development, product discovery, feature instrumentation, product data analytics, and innovation management.
- Conducted live and remote lessons with around 25 students per lesson, with a total of around 50–80 students at a time.
- Analyzed students' projects, exams, and projects and provided further feedback for additional studying.
Senior Product Manager
Moss
- Worked with the senior executives, design, engineering, and sales team to define and build product strategy and roadmaps.
- Conducted focused user research, implementing several research techniques, including user research, explorations workshops, user survey, focus groups, brainstorming, etc.
- Instrumented data to track user behavior, user analytics, and feature usage to analyze user data and identify points for improvement.
Product Owner
FactoryPal
- Developed a data-driven product analysis for C-level executives and operational managers in a B2B environment, which included conducting market research and designing a product strategy for a new data product, i.e., product vision and roadmap.
- Achieved product adoption of 85% by leveraging a customer discovery process, conducting user interviews, holding exploration workshops, and implementing other methods to ensure that customer needs are adequately met.
- Contributed to the achievement of the company and product OKRs by leveraging product data analysis and funnel analysis.
Product Owner
Yilu (a Lufthansa Company)
- Contributed to the achievement of all company and team OKRs by defining the roadmap, designing and prioritizing high-impact features, communicating directly with B2B clients, and tracking team progress towards yearly and quarterly goals.
- Increased the conversion rate in the core user flow by 30% by analyzing data about current user behavior and conducting user interviews and A/B testing.
- Improved team productivity and collaboration by encouraging and facilitating Scrum ceremonies and team-building activities and showing transparency with metrics and KPIs.
Product Owner
Allocate Software
- Increased our market share to 90% by introducing and designing a flexible-shift scheduling feature, allowing healthcare professionals to maximize their utilization across different hospitals.
- Increased the distributed team delivery success by facilitating constructive and positive communication and collaboration across different departments and locations, including the UK, EU, Australia, and the US.
- Organized knowledge-sharing events and presentations within the product community of employees and customers.
Project History
Employee Engagement in Healthcare
Led the product development and strategy to build an employee engagement product in an industry where employee engagement is low and challenging and increased the retention rate by 15%.
The project included developing a product strategy and roadmap for an employee engagement product, including leveraging user research and a design thinking model, preparing user stories for development teams, and collaborating with employee engagement, product marketing, and design teams.
We also analyzed the existing product feature, spotted points for further product improvement, and presented the product to new and existing customers.
Cash Flow Forecasting and Analytics Module
Conducted more than 20 user interviews with CFOs, CEOs, and financial managers to understand the key points in driving financial decisions and cash flow forecasting, and developed PoC for a simple cash flow overview and basic financial KPIs.
A cash flow forecasting module for founders and financial managers that enables them to have a detailed breakdown of their expenses and income and contributes to more informed financial decision-making. It also features key financial KPIs, charts, and trends.
Platform for Seamless Travel Experience
Designed and developed a product strategy for a seamless travel platform, increasing the user base by 15% in 6 months and the online bookings by 25%.
Yilu is a travel platform supported by Lufthansa, where travelers can book all of their needed services while traveling in one place and with one flow. The services include airport transport, accommodation, activities, lounges, parking, and shopping.
Digital Optimization for Process Manufacturing
Increased the overall process efficiency by 5 to 7% (overall equipment effectiveness or OEE) and employee satisfaction and product adoption by 15%, and developed a successful PoC for different industries that enabled product scaling
Analyzed current process parameters and recommended the best machine parameters per specific product using ML. Provided data analytics and visualizations of key process KPIs, graphs, and trends to understand the process in detail and easily identify bottlenecks.
Education
Master's Degree in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Management
University of Nottingham - Nottingham, UK
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering - Skopje, Macedonia
Certifications
Innovation of Products and Services: MIT's Approach to Design Thinking
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (via Emeritus)
Data Product Manager
Udacity
Product Management for AI and Data Science
Udemy
Leadership for Young Leaders
Crispy Coaching
Agile Product Owner
Scrum.org
Skills
Tools
Jira, Google Analytics, Asana, Trello, Office 365
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Agile, Scrum, Requirements Analysis, Agile Project Management, Design Thinking, B2B2C, Data-driven Design, Data Product Management, Kanban, Software Testing, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Iterative Design, Iterative Development
Industry Expertise
Hospitality
Platforms
ProductPlan
Other
Product Development, Engagement Strategy, Product Roadmaps, User Stories, Story Mapping, Communication, Backlog Grooming, Product Owner, Business Analysis, Backlog Management, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Product Ownership, Product Management, Project Management, SaaS, Stakeholder Analysis, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Digital Product Management, Travel, Web & Mobile Applications, Business to Business (B2B), Web Applications, Feature Analysis, Focus Groups, MVP Design, Product Coach, Product Design, User Experience (UX), User Surveys, Websites, Iteration Management, Market Research & Analysis, Web App Development, User Interface (UI), Website Redesign, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Software Implementation, Business Acceptance Testing, Project Planning, Business Proposals, Pitch Decks, Investor Presentations, Project Review, Miro, Software Design, Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management, Lean, Product Discovery, Market Research, Product Strategy, Company Strategy, Customer Success, Stakeholder Engagement, User Interviews, Funnel Analysis, Instrumentation, Stakeholder Management, Conflict Resolution, Software as a Service (SaaS), B2B, Strategy, Edtech Design, Stakeholder Interviews, Startups, Consumer Applications, Monetization Models, Business Models, Go-to-market Plans, eCommerce, Operations, Quality Assurance (QA), IT Operations Management (ITOM), Scrum Coaching, Business to Consumer (B2C), eCommerce UX, Mobile Applications, Enterprise SaaS, Mobile Apps, UX Design, End-to-end Implementation (E2E), Marketing Plans, Databases, Big Data, Agile Deployment, Data Analysis, Data Visualization, QA Testing, Growth Strategy, User Research, User Needs, User Requirements, Metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Data, Growth, Google Drive, Teamwork, Product Vision, Value Proposition, Design Workshops, Discovery Workshops, Scrum Master, Feature Prioritization, Presentations, Roadmaps, Competitive Analysis, Competition Research, Customer Journey, Market Research Analyst, Innovation, Customer Research, Complex Problem Solving, Creative Problem Solving, Creative Process Development, User Personas, User Journey Maps, Design, Value Proposition Design, Consumer Behavior, User Behavior, User Segments, Market Segmentation, Customer Segmentation, Product Strategy Consultant, Software QA, SQL, WordPress, Team Mentoring, Coaching, Agile Coaching, Module Development, User Feedback, Feedback Review, Human Resources (HR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Client Portals, Client Management, Business Planning
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring