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.

Let's talk See how I work
Years in UX & product
15+
Focus
AI-first PM
Based in
Amsterdam, NL
Side projects
Always shipping

Who I am

Built from design. Wired for product.

I started in graphic design, wandered through editorial, found my home in UX, and eventually crossed over into product. That journey — nearly two decades of it — is why I think differently to most PMs. I bring the designer’s instinct for human behaviour and the strategist’s obsession with outcome to the same table.

At Backbase, I lead the product direction of backbase.io, the developer-facing knowledge hub we’ve been turning into an AI-first platform. Over the past year and a half I’ve been building the systems behind the scenes: knowledge retrieval, AI-driven findability, and the operational infrastructure that makes AI products reliable rather than just impressive. Real work, not demos.

I started 82 Degrees back in 2009. Originally a design studio, now the home for selected freelance AI product engagements and the side projects I build because I can’t help myself.

This is how I work

I help teams build AI that actually ships.

  • 01

    Direction & 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.

  • 02

    Team rhythm & 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.

  • 03

    Outcomes, not outputs

    Take features from prompt to production with guardrails, evals, and the signals that actually tell you it's working — so AI stops demoing well and starts delivering.

Things I build for fun

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.

  • 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

    Forest: Puzzle Books

    A small line of themed word search puzzle books, self-published on Amazon KDP in multiple languages. A fun playground for procedural generation, cover design, and the joy of a tidy physical product.

    On Amazon
  • Handmade

    28º Handmade Wallets

    Elstic wallets cut, sewn, 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

Where I've been

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
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

82 Degrees Digital

Mar 2009 – Aug 2016 · Amsterdam
  1. Mar 2009 – Aug 2016

    Design & Consulting

    Founded and ran 82 Degrees Digital for 14 years — a full-service design studio delivering visual, UX, and product design for local and international clients. Owned everything from ideation to execution: hiring, operations, budgeting, client acquisition, and building user-centric solutions end to end.

Selected Backbase engagements

2016 – 2026 · Global
  • 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

82 Degrees Digital

2009 – 2016 · Amsterdam

Freelance & 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

Contact

Let’s talk.

Have an AI product challenge, a fuzzy roadmap, or an idea you want to pressure-test? Reach out — I’d love to hear from you.

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