Andreas Gerolemou · Amsterdam
AI-first Product Manager
I bridge customer insights with business strategy — and turn AI capabilities into products teams actually rely on. From first prototype to measurable impact.
- Years in UX & product
- 15+
- Focus
- AI-first PM
- Based in
- Amsterdam, NL
- Side projects
- Always shipping
About
Customer insight meets business strategy.
I’m a Senior Product Manager in fintech with 15+ years in UX and product leadership. I bridge customer insight with business strategy — driving digital innovation, leading global cross-functional teams, and delivering impactful solutions with measurable results.
My focus today is AI products and transformation. The last 18 months I’ve been leading the evolution of Backbase.io into an AI-first knowledge hub — retrieval-augmented generation, role-aware delivery, and the quiet engineering that turns AI demos into products teams actually rely on.
I founded 82 Degrees in 2009 as an independent studio; it’s now the home for selected freelance AI product engagements outside of Backbase, and for the side projects I ship when no one’s paying me to.
Stanford Online Product Management (XPROD110, 2024). Based in Amsterdam.
What I do
Three ways I help teams ship AI.
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01
Strategy & discovery
Translate customer insight and business strategy into a prioritised AI product roadmap. Sharp theses on where AI actually earns its keep, tested against real users and honest evals — not wishful thinking.
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02
Teams & delivery
Lead cross-functional, globally distributed product teams. Set the operating rhythm across design, engineering, data, and QA — so shipping AI stops being a heroic act and starts being a cadence.
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03
Impact & measurement
Take features from prompt to production with guardrails, evals, and the KPIs that matter. Boring, rigorous, compounding — exactly what AI products need to stop being demos and start delivering results.
Side projects
Things I’m building on the side.
I learn fastest by making. A few of the things I ship when no one’s paying me to.
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AI · RAG
Poetry Cove
A companion for reading poetry. Discover poems, ask what they mean, and explore poets through chat — grounded in a large public-domain corpus with a vector index under the hood.
poetry-cove.com -
Publishing
Word search puzzle books
A small line of themed word search puzzle books, self-published on Amazon KDP. A fun playground for procedural generation, cover design, and the joy of a tidy physical product.
On Amazon -
Handmade
Handmade wallets
Leather wallets cut, stitched, and finished by hand in Amsterdam. Sold on bol.com. A reminder that the best product work still begins with caring about the details.
On bol.com
Experience
A 17-year trail of product work.
From independent studio, to global design leadership, to AI product management — in reverse order.
Backbase
Oct 2016 – Present · Amsterdam-
Apr 2025 – Present
Senior Product Manager — AI Knowledge Hub
Leading the transformation of Backbase.io into an AI-first knowledge hub. Retrieval-augmented generation, role-aware delivery, and the surrounding guardrails, evals, and measurement that make it production-grade.
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Apr 2023 – Mar 2025
Senior Product Manager — Showcase
Led a multidisciplinary team that built a unified demo platform for Backbase’s product portfolio. Owned product, QA oversight, design leadership, and engineering management for the squad.
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Jan 2021 – Apr 2023
Lead Principal UX Consultant
Built and led a 10+ person global UX team across EMEA, North America, Latin America, and Asia. EMEA Chapter Lead. Mentored UX and product teams; standardised practices across professional services.
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Jul 2018 – Jan 2021
Principal UX Consultant
Partnered with 20+ banks and financial institutions on five continents to ship digital banking products. Led user research, usability testing, and tailored UX programmes for enterprise clients.
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Oct 2016 – Jul 2018
Senior UX Consultant
On-site UX delivery for priority implementations. Ran training and design-system education for client teams new to enterprise UX.
Selected client engagements
2016 – 2026 · Backbase- Tech CUStrategy consulting, user research
- Standard Bank GroupStrategy, consulting
- Hellenic Bank CyprusUX, consulting, implementation
- Stanbic Bank KenyaUX, consulting
- Standard Bank South AfricaUX, consulting, implementation
- I&M Bank KenyaUX, consulting, training
- Rabobank AustraliaUX, consulting, training
- Caixa Geral de DepósitosConsulting
- Unitel MongoliaConsulting, training
- Royal Bank of CanadaConsulting, training
- Banque de LuxembourgUX, consulting, implementation
- Latitude Financial Services AustraliaConsulting
- C. Hoare BankImplementation, consulting
- GLS BankConsulting, implementation
- RaiffeisenConsulting
- Arab Bank Corporation BahrainTraining, consulting
- National Industrial Credit Bank KenyaConsulting, training
- Siam Commercial Bank ThailandConsulting
- Finovate 2018 (Best of Show)UX concept
- North Carolina State Employees’ Credit UnionImplementation, user research, consulting, training
- National Bank of BahrainConsulting
- Capital Bank of JordanImplementation
- ÍslandsbankiConsulting
Studio 82 Degrees
2009 – 2016 · independent studio, AmsterdamFreelance & contract work across UX, branding, web, print, and visual communication for a mix of agencies, cultural institutions, and enterprise clients.
- WelboConsulting, UX
- Alpha DentalBrand, website, photography
- BloemenBlosBrand, website
- Caesar GroepVisual communication
- C3 AmsterdamVisual communication
- De Lach van BovenkerkBrand, website
- e-Learning FabriekInstructional design
- MagionVisual communication
- the MuzesBrand, website, visual communication
- Nederlandse SpoorwegenVisual communication
- PixelFlakesConsulting, visual design
- Publicis GroupeStorytelling, concept, consulting
- Quint Wellington RedwoodVisual communication
- SamsungVisual communication
- Universiteit van AmsterdamVisual design, consulting
- Vereniging van Openbare BibliothekenVisual communication
