Semen Arslan is changing how teams build products in today’s fast-moving tech world. Named one of the Most Influential Product Leaders Revolutionizing Markets in 2025 by Insights Success, Semen is known for her smart thinking, strong leadership, and deep care for people and progress.
Semen didn’t take the usual path to success. She started as an open-source developer while still in university. Her early work included writing code, testing systems, and leading projects in Turkey’s Open Source Linux project. She introduced new systems to speed up development and helped other volunteers join and grow. This early experience shaped how she thinks: always improving, always helping others.
Her curiosity soon led her to Agile methods—ways of working that focus on teamwork, quick feedback, and fast results. She became a strong voice for Agile in Turkey, teaching others, giving talks, and even helping big companies change how they work. She also earned awards and taught at university, proving that her ideas were making a real difference.
Over the years, Semen worked in many roles: QA, Agile Coach, Scrum Master, and Program Manager. But it was in Product Management where she found her true calling. She joined METRO.digital in 2019, a tech company known for innovation, and took charge of important products like APIs and the main product page. Her work made it easier for users to shop, find products, and enjoy better online experiences. Her A/B testing and feature updates led to big gains in sales and customer satisfaction.
Later, Semen led pricing systems across 20 countries. She helped reduce cloud costs, saving millions of euros, and is now leading efforts to build a stronger internal team. She believes in making teams strong and independent. Even during her parental leave, her team kept delivering results—proof of the healthy culture she built.
Semen is also big on trust, feedback, and clear communication. She knows that strong teams come from honesty, respect, and shared goals. She uses different leadership styles depending on each person’s needs—sometimes guiding, sometimes coaching, and always supporting.
Outside her main job, she’s also helping shape company-wide tools to track and improve team performance. She built a performance scorecard and used change management models to roll it out across teams.
She’s also a data lover. She uses numbers to find problems, fix them early, and make better decisions. Her reports are clear, useful, and always backed by data.
At home, Semen is a proud mom of two young children. With the help of her family, she balances work and motherhood with joy and care. She also finds time to keep learning—reading, giving talks, and exploring new topics like AI/ML and team design.
Semen Arslan proves that great product leaders aren’t just good at building tools—they build people, too. Through her work and her heart, she is truly shaping the future of product management.
