Sami Topal

A small hello from Barcelona

Hey, I'm Sami.

I'm a product manager who started out as a software developer. Today I lead the teams behind Registration and Check-In at Webex Events.

Before that, I spent five years at Turkcell, where the fizy app grew past two million monthly users and Dergilik learned to read aloud. At Türk Telekom, we relaunched a music app as Muud in three months.

I've never found a magic formula for products, only learning fast and improving as we go. Sometimes a little too fast: one morning during the Muud relaunch, I went to work in one red shoe and one black.

Sami

Say hello on LinkedIn · Barcelona

Sami Topal, smiling, chin resting on his hand
One red shoe and one black, on a morning during the Muud relaunch
one red, one black →
Selected work

01

Webex Events

Cisco Product Manager 2022 — present

4 works →
  1. Three screens of the Onsite app: choose QR code or search, scan the code, and the message You're checked in

    1.1Session check-in, from scratchA new product inside the Onsite app: attendees check into a session by QR code or by name. Launched in August 2023.

  2. The Webex Events platform with one event and all products in the left navigation, showing registration metrics

    1.2One event, all productsThe platform redesign: a planner creates one event and turns on Registration, Event App, Onsite and the rest inside it.

  3. A registration page built with Webex Events: event banner, dates, venue, and a ticket list

    1.3RegistrationBranded registration pages, tickets and checkout: the front door of the event.

  4. Onsite metrics: attendee check-ins, completion rate, badge prints and reprints, with an hourly chart by attendee type

    1.4The numbers on the dayCheck-in analytics: when the queue peaks, how many badges were printed, and who has not arrived yet.

02

fizy

Turkcell Product Manager 2017 — 2019

2 works →
  1. The fizy app showing the fizy Top 50 playlist

    2.1The fizy app, in new countriesI led the fizy mobile app as it went global, launched in new countries and passed two million monthly users.

  2. The fizy app playing a podcast episode with video

    2.2Podcasts inside fizyPodcasts published once in Podcast Studion, and heard in fizy too.

03

Dergilik

Turkcell Product Manager 2019 — 2022

6 works →
  1. The Dergilik audio player: the first version with only play and pause, and the later version with speed, skip and a continue-listening list

    3.1A magazine that reads aloudTurkish text to speech, shipped in three months. Over two million audio articles were listened to in the first eleven months.

  2. Dergilik search before and after: the old engine matched only exact titles, the new one matches prefixes and typos across articles, magazines and newspapers

    3.2Search that forgives typosA new search engine: prefix and fuzzy matching, scoring, and the full text of every issue.

  3. A Dergilik article with a Similar Articles row underneath, and notes on how it was built

    3.3Similar articlesA new way to keep reading: articles like the one you are on.

  4. Four variants of the Dergilik audio player tested side by side: baseline and variants A, B and C

    3.4Tested side by sideThe player grew through A/B tests and user feedback, one button at a time.

  5. The Podcast Studion launch visual: a phone playing a podcast, with the Podcast Studion, Dergilik and fizy logos

    3.5Podcast StudionA new product under a new brand: one place for podcasters to publish, and their podcasts arrive in Dergilik and fizy. Zero to one.

  6. Podcasts in the Dergilik app across four screens: featured podcasts, most popular, latest episodes, and my archive

    3.6Podcasts in DergilikAfter the platform, the app: popular podcasts, latest episodes and your own archive, next to the magazines.

04

Muud

Türk Telekom Product Manager 2015 — 2017

Open →
  1. The Muud app home screen with personal playlists

    4.1A relaunch in three monthsTürk Telekom Music became Muud, Turkey's first digital music service: a new brand and a new app, in three months.

05

Before product

Code, data, a startup Before 2015

Open →
  1. Price monitor
    Monitored faresTodayThis week

    Our fareMarket

    Route AChecked every hour▲ Up
    Route BChecked every hourNo change
    Route CChecked every hour▼ Down
    Route DChecked every hourNo change

    5.1Price monitoringA price-monitoring system for Turkish Airlines, and a web crawler and analysis system for a government agency, at Fdn Soft.