I’d like to tell you something impressive about myself here. How successful I am, how much my colleagues admire me, how I solve impossible problems and overcome extraordinary challenges.
But I won’t.
First of all, that’s what LinkedIn is for.
Second, this is my personal corner of the internet, and I’d like to keep it that way.
When I write about myself, I’ll try to be honest. Maybe 80% honest. The remaining 20% is reserved for me, my family, and the conversations that happen away from screens.
Anyway, this is one of those texts I’m writing without much planning. Whenever I do that, I think of Holden Caulfield, who remains my favorite fictional character despite all the competition he’s faced over the years.
My name is Emrah. I’m a Turkish product manager living in Berlin.
I moved here in 2022, which means I’m no longer completely new to the city, but I still occasionally feel like a confused tourist who somehow ended up signing a rental contract.
I’m married and have a wonderful daughter. The two of us are still working on our German, which continues to be a humbling experience. My wife, on the other hand, has already mastered the language and found a job. Some people are simply better at life than the rest of us.
For most of my professional life, I’ve worked in project and product management. I genuinely enjoy building things, solving problems, and helping teams turn vague ideas into something useful.
Recently, however, life took an unexpected turn. I left my previous job and found myself with something I hadn’t had in years: time.
Since then, I’ve been learning German, exercising, losing weight, reading more books, and generally living a much calmer life.
What I discovered is that while I enjoy having less stress, I apparently need to create things. Not because someone asks me to, but because I feel restless when I don’t.
That’s one of the reasons this blog exists.
It started as a place to write about product management. Over time, it became something broader and, hopefully, more interesting.
Here you’ll find book reviews, reading notes, thoughts on living in Germany, occasional travel stories, and from time to time, posts about product management and technology.
In short, this blog is a collection of things that occupy my mind.
If any of them happen to occupy yours as well, welcome.
This is an AI image. I am not that handsome but the image reflects my daily life. It is not boring as it seems.