Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play
“My Finances”
A mobile app for tracking personal finances. I went the whole way myself: first-version plan (MVP), design, development with AI tools, 145 automated tests.
Results in numbers
−70–90%
manual reporting and reconciliation at Alif Business, a digital bank for entrepreneursAlif Bank
+200%
participants in the “Refer and Earn” referral program in one month: friends can now be invited right from a money transferEskhata Bank
−25%
manual operational processes through automationAlif Bank
×2
share of customers who opened “Refer and Earn” and invited a friendEskhata Bank
>95%
releases shipped on time with no major customer-facing incidentsAlif Bank
14%
of the cashback budget saved: found purchases where the bank paid cashback with no return and changed the accrual rulesEskhata Bank
×2
faster onboarding of partner merchants to Alif BusinessAlif Bank
100%
of the quarter’s strategic initiatives delivered on timeEskhata Bank
Bank award
“Best Feature 2025” — Wake up bonus
Wake up bonus brings back “dormant” customers: anyone who stopped using the bank’s app gets a bonus once they start making transactions again. It was named Eskhata Bank’s best feature of the year, confirmed by a diploma signed by the Chairman of the Management Board.
2 PO
Mentoring two Product Owners
I help Product Owners from other teams grow on the business and technical side so they can run their products confidently on their own.
How I work: the “Refer and Earn” case
First understand why customers drop off halfway — and only then build.
Spotted the gap
Many customers accepted the program terms, but fewer than half invited even one friend.
Formed a hypothesis
The barrier was typing a phone number by hand: not everyone remembers friends’ numbers or wants to enter them in the app.
Tested it
We built invitations into money transfers: when sending money to a friend, a customer invites them to the bank right away. Participants grew by 200% in a month — hypothesis confirmed.
Shipped the solution
Added personal promo codes to share in messengers and social media, plus individual promo codes for partner companies, so we and our partners bring each other customers.
After: with invites in transfers, almost 20% of visitors invite a friend.
Opened the program section100%
Agreed to take part27%
Invited at least one friend19.1%
Visits to the program section grew 2.8×, the number of inviters 5.6×.
Experience
Click a role to see the details.
- Lead a team of 11: developers (back end, CFT core banking, iOS and Android), QA engineer, designer, business and data analysts, product development manager; a manager and the analysts report to me. We own everything that keeps customers with the bank: cashback, bonuses, “Refer and Earn”, in-app gamification and tailored terms for customer segments.
- Mentor two Product Owners from other teams, helping them grow on the business and technical side.
- On my own initiative introduced quarter-ahead planning — all of the quarter’s strategic initiatives were delivered on time.
- Relaunched “Refer and Earn” based on customer research: participants +200% in a month, inviters +425%, share of visitors who invited a friend up from 9.6% to 19.1%. Launched individual promo codes for partner companies to bring each other customers.
- Run the loyalty program’s economics: P&L and customer acquisition cost (CAC); decide which mechanics to keep, cut or scale. Cut the cashback budget by 14% by finding purchases where the bank paid cashback with no return and changing the accrual rules by purchase category.
- On my own initiative wrote the bank-wide internal regulation on cashback; aligned “Refer and Earn” with the operational risk team.
- Built pre-development customer research (Discovery): in-branch surveys, observing branch operations, Jobs-to-be-Done, hypothesis testing.
- Align priorities across development teams bank-wide so shared tasks get solved fast.
- Run joint projects with neighbouring products in our area (deposits, cards, partner programs) and bank functions: core banking system, mobile app, risk, legal, branches.
- Own the product side of the bank’s in-house loyalty platform, built to replace external solutions: cashback module, admin panel, database.
- Defend new product mechanics, their economics and new internal regulations before senior management and the Management Board; report results at quarterly business reviews (QBR) and post-implementation reviews (PIR).
- Led three Scrum teams (four in parallel at peak) of up to 21 people (developers, analysts, QA); a team lead and a manager reported to me.
- Delivered the integration of the core banking system with the Tax Committee, removing part of the manual work.
- Cut manual operational processes by about 25%.
- Over 95% of releases on time with no major customer-facing incidents.
- Ran several digital products in parallel: Alif Business (a bank for entrepreneurs) and a partner relationship management system (PRM); partner merchant onboarding became 2× faster.
- Led a team of 10 (developers and QA), delivering a working increment every sprint.
- Cut manual reporting and reconciliation by 70–90%.
- Besides management, took on selected back-end and front-end tasks — so I estimate timelines and risks more accurately.
- Reduced rework and post-release defects by working out requirements before development.
- Coordinated the development of an educational game and a mobile app against bullying; ran user research in 5 schools: 190 students, 10 teachers, 30 parents.
- Launched an environmental project from scratch to 200+ active participants across several regions.
- Social work: needs assessment, coordination of medical, legal and social services.
How I lead
The rules my team works by today.
Tasks and deadlines, not micromanagement
The team removes its own obstacles and comes to me when a decision is needed.
Delegate everything I can
So I can focus on what moves the results most.
Stand up for the team
I push for better conditions for my people — up to one-on-ones with senior management.
Grow people
I help everyone grow along their career path and mentor two of the bank’s Product Owners.
Agreements come with a result and a date
When working with other teams, “in progress” is not a status. By the deadline there has to be a concrete result.
Our own team T-shirt — the only one in the bank
I secured a branded T-shirt for the Loyalty team: “Loyalty builds value. Trust. Benefit. Relationships.” A small thing, but for the team it is a sign: they are valued, and the whole bank can see it.
My own projects
Live · tajhoney.tj
TajHoney
An online store for a family apiary: three languages, its own admin panel, loyalty and promo codes, Telegram login and order notifications. From spec to launch myself, with AI tools.
Open the siteLive
My own server
A home server that runs my projects — this website and TajHoney: Docker, disk encryption, publishing through Cloudflare Tunnel with no open ports, backups and monitoring.
Skills
- Management
- Multiple parallel projects and teams, Agile, Scrum and SAFe, release planning, risk management, delegation, people development, working with senior management.
- Product and economics
- Discovery, hypothesis testing, prioritization, metrics: monthly active users (MAU), retention, customer acquisition cost (CAC), new-to-bank (NTB) and new-to-product (NTP) customers, active customer base, product P&L, A/B testing basics.
- Tech
- Hands-on back-end tasks in Golang, SQL, Flutter (basic), architecture documents (ADR, C4), AI development tools, Jira, Notion, Figma, Miro.
- Languages
- Tajik — native, Russian — fluent, English — B2.
- Leadership outside work
- President of the International Students’ Council, RSHU, 2013–2017. Head of the Culture and Media sectors, Association of International Students, St. Petersburg, 2014–2017.
Education
- Second degree2026 — presentSoftware EngineeringTajik Technical University named after Academician M. S. Osimi
- Master’s2018 — 2020Social WorkTajik National University
- Bachelor’s2011 — 2018ManagementRussian State Hydrometeorological University, St. Petersburg
- CourseAI Product ManagerManaging AI products and implementing ML solutions
Contact
I’d be glad to hear from you — I reply by email, on LinkedIn or Telegram.
[email protected]t.me/im_melibaev
[email protected] · linkedin.com/in/manuchekhr-melibaev-bb4a3221b · t.me/im_melibaev