Evidence should change the decision.
Research, behavior, and feedback matter only when they alter a priority, challenge an assumption, or improve what the team chooses to build.
About
A designer’s eye.
A product leader’s remit.
I’m Farzan Balkani, an independent product, customer experience, and AI consultant based in Dubai. I help leadership teams connect what customers need with what teams can build–and what makes a business stronger.
16+
Years building digital products
8+Years in senior leadership
I’ve worked at both ends of the scale: founding products from zero and leading experience across large digital ecosystems.
That combination shapes how I work. I care about the details of an interaction, but also the priorities, team structures, and decisions that determine whether a good idea reaches customers.
My perspective comes from working at both ends of the problem: setting direction across large organizations and staying close enough to delivery to see where an elegant strategy breaks against real constraints.
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What I believe
Clarity is a leadership
Clarity is a leadership
responsibility.
A strategy must survive delivery.
I stay close to prototypes, architecture, and implementation because real constraints expose what a presentation can hide.
The system should outlast the consultant.
The useful outcome is not dependency on one expert. It is clearer ownership, stronger judgment, and a repeatable way for the organization to move forward.
Experience
The path here.
2024–Present
Digikala
Design Director – AI Commerce & Product Experience
I lead 20+ designers and researchers across 10+ internal teams and four subsidiaries, with product and experience direction across 15+ multidisciplinary squads. My remit includes AI shopping, multi-brand design systems, accessibility, and AI-enabled design operations.
2019–2024
Alibaba Travels
Design Director; Chief Experience Officer from March 2022
I owned end-to-end customer experience and the company-level NPS program. During leadership transitions I also served as interim CPO, overseeing product priorities, roadmap alignment, OKR governance, and product manager resource allocation.
2024–Present
Fractured Light Studios
Co-Founder & Product Director · Part-time venture
I lead product strategy, game design, monetization, and AI-assisted production. The studio has launched five commercial mobile games with 500K+ downloads across the portfolio.
2018–2019
Farabeen
VP of Product & Co-Founder
I launched a C2C commerce platform with 500+ sellers and $100K+ GMV in its first year without paid acquisition, and built a language-learning product reaching 150K+ downloads.
2012–2018
Sariina
Senior Lead Designer & Board Member
I led design and delivery across more than 40 e-commerce products and contributed to B2B platform strategy and the wider product portfolio.
Beyond the org chart
Still close to the work.
I learned that seniority can create distance from the work precisely when judgment needs contact with reality. That is why I still prototype, inspect interaction details, and occasionally contribute directly to implementation.
My studio work and working prototypes keep that muscle active. They make me a more practical advisor: ambitious about the direction, but honest about scope, trade-offs, and what it will take to ship. I work fluently in English and am a native Persian speaker.