Open to opportunities

Jens Rusitschka

@jensrusitschka

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Product Manager and builder turning fuzzy requirements into shipped, AI-enabled software.

Germany

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a Product Owner/Product Manager role where I can own backlog-to-release, stay close to engineering, build AI-supported prototypes, and lead discovery + UX decisions—ideally in a team that values fast learning, stakeholder alignment, and clear prioritisation.

I’m a product manager and builder with 20+ years of experience turning fuzzy requirements into shipped software—staying close to engineering and taking full ownership from backlog to release. I build working prototypes myself, using AI-supported workflows to turn research, interviews, and user context into testable browser prototypes that speed up product discovery.

In recent roles, I’ve significantly accelerated time to market by ruthlessly prioritizing backlogs and keeping stakeholders aligned. For hey money (Allianz), I owned product direction and reduced time to market readiness from 12 to 4 months, while for edu-sharing (WLO) I shaped the conversational AI strategy and delivered a proof-of-concept assistant with MCP integration, backed by a reusable bot architecture and a Zero-UI transformation blueprint for the UX team.

I sit at the intersection of product strategy, UX, and AI engineering, so I can discuss feasibility and estimate confidently with engineers. As an interim Product Owner/Lead, I translated messy business needs into clear, prioritized user stories and ran agile ceremonies (refinement, planning, retros) to keep multidisciplinary teams moving, improve onboarding conversion (Temedica), and reduce customer contract cancellations (coliquio) through stronger product discovery and analytics.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

AI Product Engineering & UX

Current

Freelance

Oct 2024 - Present (1 year 9 months)

Built AI-supported workflows and coded browser prototypes to speed up product discovery and prototyping decisions. Developed an AI discovery system that turns interviews and user context into testable feature concepts, with React-based reusable UI components.

AI Prototyping Prompt Engineering React Browser Development Design Systems Research and Prototyping

Current

Product Manager & UX Designer

Current

Freelance

Jan 2016 - Present (10 years 6 months)

Provided consulting and delivery across product discovery, user research, and agile development. Focused on turning research and user context into structured, testable product work.

Product Discovery User Research Agile Development Prototyping

Senior UX Designer & Product Owner

SAP Hybris

Jan 2014 - Jan 2016 (2 years)

Delivered UX work for a YaaS e-commerce cloud software, including ownership of a design system/style guide to standardize interaction patterns across teams. Worked with developers to define components and rollout using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Design Systems UX Design HTML CSS JavaScript Interaction Patterns Style Guide

Redesign & UX Designer

CHIP Digital GmbH

Jan 2011 - Jan 2014 (3 years)

Owned backlog and led a small UX/frontend team, including direct reports. Owned the design system for the product family, standardizing components, patterns, and rollout across teams.

UX Design Team Leadership Design Systems

Interim Product Owner & Lead

coliquio

Interim Product Owner and Product Lead for a physician knowledge and experience exchange platform. Introduced an analytics platform concept that halved customer contract cancellations and led discovery with physicians.

Product Discovery User Research Stakeholder and Target User Alignment Product Ownership

Interim Product Lead

Allianz

Owned product direction for a fintech expense-management and budget-optimization app. Reduced time to market readiness from 12 to 4 months by prioritizing the backlog and aligning stakeholders.

product direction Release Management

AI Conversational Design & UX Transformation

Edu-sharing / WLO

Developed conversational AI UX and a Zero-UI strategy for the publicly funded education platform WirLernenOnline. Created a modular bot architecture (snippet system) and a reusable blueprint for Zero-UI UX transformation.

Conversational AI Zero UI UX Snippet System UX Transformation Blueprint Modular Architectures

Interim Product Owner

Temedica

Interim Product Owner for healthcare solutions and patient apps. Improved onboarding conversion by integrating a chatbot and supported discovery, prototyping, and agile rollout.

Interim Product Management Onboarding User Research Prototyping

Product Lead & Discovery Owner

CleverConnect

Led product discovery ownership for a talent and referral platform (Talentry). Managed a small engineering team and acted as the interface between management, engineering, customer success, and sales, delivering a mobile app with higher engagement than the web version.

Product Discovery Team Leadership Cross Functional Stakeholder Management