Product & Design Lead

Martin's
Resume

Product Lead and technical product strategist with 15+ years of experience transforming complex business domains into intuitive digital products. Equally comfortable speaking with executives, designers, developers and end users. Combines deep technical knowledge, UX expertise and modern AI-assisted development workflows to help organizations deliver better products faster.

See selected work →martin.christov@gmail.com
Portrait of Martin Christov
Portrait2025
01

Skills

What I bring

Product & Leadership

  • Product strategy
  • Roadmapping
  • Client & stakeholder management
  • Team coordination
  • Discovery & requirements
  • Turning complexity into simplicity
  • Asana
  • Notion
  • Trello

Technical

  • React
  • Next.js
  • React Native
  • TypeScript
  • Architecture & technical direction
  • API architecture design

Design & craft

  • Strong UX judgment
  • Design direction & collaboration
  • Wireframing
  • Figma
  • Design systems

AI-accelerated delivery

  • Claude Code
  • Lovable
  • AI-assisted design system, prototyping & implementation
02

Experience

Selected roles

  1. 2023 — Present

    Product Lead — Akvo

    Worked alongside the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and international stakeholders to define, design and coordinate the implementation of the Global Plastics Hub — a platform supporting global collaboration around plastic pollution initiatives.

    • Led product discovery workshops with UNEP stakeholders to uncover requirements, align priorities and shape product direction.
    • Translated complex policy, environmental and organizational requirements into intuitive digital workflows.
    • Coordinated designers and developers throughout the delivery process.
    • Balanced user experience, technical feasibility and project constraints when defining product solutions.
    • Collaborated closely with engineering teams to ensure consistent implementation and product quality.
    • Facilitated communication between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders.
    • Drove iterative product improvements through continuous stakeholder feedback.
    • Leveraged modern AI tools to accelerate research, specification writing, UX exploration and implementation.

  2. 2019 — 2021

    Technical Product Lead — Akvo

    • Owned the front-end and UX of Akvo's Monitoring & Evaluation platform, used by a Dutch NGO's global partner network to win government and EU funding.
    • Rebuilt a complex product from scratch with a much-improved design and functionality, working hand-in-hand with the in-house designer.

  3. 2017 — 2018

    Sofia

    Lead Front-end & UX — Sensika Technologies

    • Led a complete redesign of a mature media monitoring platform, dramatically simplifying user workflows without sacrificing functionality.
    • Established a scalable design system that improved consistency across the platform.
    • Shipped a few apps with React and React Native.

  4. 2017 — 2018

    Dubai

    Lead Front-end — Bookanyservice.com

    • Led front-end for an "Amazon for services" marketplace: a high-performance PWA plus a cross-platform iOS/Android app.

  5. 2015 — 2016

    Sofia

    Fractional Product Lead & Technical Consultant — StartupCommando

    • Founded a studio helping startups and companies ship products. Ran client discovery, designed UX/UI, coordinated a small team, and delivered across sectors — from clinical cancer-research software to a fintech POS and a think-tank's digital platform.

  6. 2012 — 2015

    Sofia

    Co-founder & Product Lead — GymRealm

    • Co-founded a B2B SaaS for gym management. Owned product and UX, ran user interviews, managed the team, and helped raise multiple rounds — turning a dated interface into an above-industry-standard product.

  7. 2008 — 2012

    Freelance Product & Front-end — Independent

    • Worked with dozens of international clients across multiple industries.
    • Learned requirement discovery and how to communicate with non-technical stakeholders.
    • Developed the ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar business domains.
03

Languages

I SPEAK OR STUDY
04

About

MY CONTEXT

If we end up hopping on calls, you'll often see me with Andalucía, Istanbul or the Balkans in the background. I enjoy good coffee, different tea cultures, and Mediterranean breakfasts — be they Turkish, Levantine, Egyptian or Moroccan. I spend a lot of time busying myself with questions of history, politics and religion. And I reread The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion every summer.