Hello, I'm

Tariq Iftikhar

Product Owner & Builder — Manchester

Open to roles in Manchester & remote

Product Owner with a background spanning digital, technology and operations, turning real business problems into practical digital products. I've taken products from discovery and requirements through development, testing and live delivery, with measurable commercial and customer outcomes. PSPO I and PSM I certified.

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Impact

Numbers that matter

£82K
Approx. annual revenue recovered
30K+
Customers served by platform
~10/week
Google reviews generated after automation
5,000+
Appointments handled per month

Experience

Where I've worked

Digital Operations → Product Owner

2016 – 2025

Brazilian Waxing Company — Manchester

Owned the direction and continuous development of a bespoke booking and payments platform serving 30,000+ customers across multiple salon locations. Worked directly with business owners, salon staff, customers and developers to identify operational problems and turn them into practical digital solutions.

  • Owned and prioritised the ongoing development of the platform, balancing customer needs, operational problems, commercial impact and technical feasibility
  • Worked directly with developers through regular delivery catch-ups, reviewing progress, discussing blockers and explaining the business problem and purpose behind upcoming work
  • Translated business and user needs into documented requirements, user flows and UX prototypes, giving developers clear context before agreeing the approach and estimating development effort
  • Managed an evolving product roadmap covering booking, payments, customer communications, therapist tools, reporting, CRM functionality and platform improvements
  • Gathered requirements and identified opportunities through conversations with owners, managers, staff and customers, as well as directly observing how reception and salon teams used the system day to day
  • Managed the development of complex booking and payment journeys including real-time availability, multi-treatment bookings, cross-salon rescheduling, automated reminders and multiple payment methods
  • Worked with third-party services including Stripe, integrating online payments, in-store card payments, card-on-file, phone payments and Apple Pay into the wider booking journey
  • Personally carried out acceptance testing before releases, reproducing issues, feeding findings back to developers and involving salon staff in testing where appropriate
  • Used real business outcomes to evaluate improvements. Changes addressing no-shows, cancellations and duplicate bookings contributed to approximately £82,000 in annual revenue recovery, while automated post-appointment messaging increased Google reviews from almost none to around 10 per week
  • Continued evolving the platform as the business matured, introducing therapist iPad tools, operational reporting, appointment-capacity improvements, CRM functionality and resilience measures for a live system handling 5,000+ appointments per month

Product Delivery Approach

The platform was developed within a small, highly collaborative team, working directly with developers, salon management and end users. Delivery was iterative, allowing priorities to respond to customer feedback, operational needs and technical changes. As the platform matured, my approach to roadmapping, prioritisation and measuring outcomes became increasingly structured.

I later formalised this practical experience by achieving Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) and Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) certifications.

Freelance Project Manager

2015 – 2017

Chapter One — Part-time / Freelance

  • Led end-to-end setup and launch of a mobile QR-based booking system
  • Delivered marketing campaigns to improve customer engagement and conversion

Products

Things I've built

Apply or Not

applyornot.app
Open

An AI-powered SaaS tool that analyses your CV against any job description and gives you an honest match score with a clear recommendation on whether to apply. Built to save job seekers time by helping them focus on roles where they're genuinely competitive.

  • Conceived, designed and built the full product end-to-end — from problem identification through to launch
  • Integrated AI to provide personalised, actionable feedback on CV-to-job fit
  • Focused on honest, no-fluff recommendations — telling users when not to apply is just as valuable
  • Developed go-to-market strategy through Reddit community engagement and authentic founder storytelling

PO Simulator

In development
Coming soon

A hands-on simulator for aspiring Product Owners who want real practice, not another multiple-choice quiz. Built after identifying a gap in the market: every PO course teaches vocabulary, none teach judgment. Scenarios are grounded in real-world situations sourced from active PO communities, evaluated across dimensions like stakeholder empathy, business alignment, and strategic thinking.

  • Identified the problem through first-hand job hunting experience and research across PO forums and communities
  • Scenario-based learning using the Double Diamond framework — users practice discovery, definition, development and delivery
  • AI-powered evaluation rubric gives scored, coaching-style feedback rather than pass/fail answers
  • Roadmap includes user story writing, epics, backlog prioritisation, and stakeholder management exercises

BoutFinder

boutfinder.com
Open

A match-making platform built specifically for amateur boxing clubs in England. Designed to help clubs find and arrange bouts for their boxers while staying fully compliant with England Boxing's strict matching rules around weight, age, experience, and grade.

  • Identified a real gap — club coaches spending hours manually searching for suitable opponents across different clubs
  • Built matching logic around England Boxing's official rules to ensure every suggested bout is compliant
  • Designed for club coaches and matchmakers, not just individual fighters
  • Mobile-first design built around the core workflow of finding, vetting and agreeing a bout

Case Studies

Work in depth

Booking Platform
Product Design & Ownership

Brazilian Waxing Company — Booking Platform

End-to-end development of a multi-location salon booking and payments platform handling 5,000+ appointments per month. Introduced upfront Stripe payments, automated reminders and self-service rescheduling, helping significantly reduce no-shows and recover lost revenue.

UX Research Product Strategy Product Delivery Stripe Integration
Read case study

Skills

What I bring

Product Ownership

Product Roadmaps Prioritisation Product Discovery Requirements Definition UX & User Flows Product Vision Acceptance Testing Stakeholder Management

Product Delivery

Agile Principles Iterative Delivery Developer Collaboration Release Management User Testing Continuous Improvement

Tools & Technology

Figma Google Analytics Stripe API Integrations WordPress Excel

Certifications

PSPO I

Scrum.org — 2025

PSM I

Scrum.org — 2025

The Product Owner Profession: Unleashing the Power of Scrum

Coursera — January 2026

Beyond Work

Places I've been

When I'm not building products, I love to travel and experience different cultures. Here are a few moments from the road.

Maasai warriors performing traditional jumping dance in Kenya

Kenya

Arch of Constantine viewed from the Colosseum in Rome

Rome

Burj Khalifa lit up at night in Dubai

Dubai

Get in touch

Let's talk

I'm currently looking for my next Product Owner role — but I'm also open to conversations about building products. If you have an idea and need someone who can take it from brief to live, get in touch.

Email LinkedIn