Shaalan.

Projects

Highlights from products I've worked on, from 0-1 launches to scaling global enterprise platforms.

AI / UX
Solving The 'Blank Page' Problem for Educators and Students

"It is not about AI; it is about decreasing cognitive load."

Pivoting from generic Chatbots to Agentic Workflows to solve user paralysis.

Key Insight

Users don't want a blank text box; they want a guided outcome.

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Product / AI
Grounded, Safe, Culturally Aligned, and Scalable AI for Education

"AI that can be managed, free from vendor lock-in. auditable, aligns with local curriculum and cultural values."

Building a $22M AI Pipeline by creating an enterprise-grade AI Orchestration layer.

Key Insight

To sell AI to governments, you don't sell 'magic'; you sell 'control'.

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Human <-> AI Collaboration
The 'Educator in the Loop' Patent

"AI unlocks the ability to keep the educator in the steering wheel."

Inventing a mechanism to establish an educator, AI, student collaboration loop that extends the educator's influence into the digital space and improves learning personalization and student outcomes.

Key Insight

True safety isn't just filtering bad words; it's keeping the human educator in the steering wheel.

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Product / Growth
The Self-Serve Pivot

"The transition from 'Sales-Led' to 'Product-Led' is not a UI update; it is an architectural inversion of how value is delivered."

Transforming a complex enterprise product into a self-serve SaaS engine to survive the COVID demand spike.

Key Insight

You cannot scale a crisis response with human capital; you must encode the 'Implementation Manager' directly into the product flow.

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Platform / Strategy
Killing the Zombies

"Focus is painful but profitable."

Rationalizing a 13-product portfolio to prep for a $4B acquisition.

Key Insight

You cannot scale a software company that acts like a services agency.

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Product / Strategy
Project Blue: The Turnaround

"Growth doesn't come from building more features; it comes from solving specific problems for specific people."

Saving a failing product by pivoting from 'Feature Factory' to 'Segment Focus'.

Key Insight

A product for 'everyone' is a product for no one. Focus is the ultimate feature.

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Product / Mobile
TeacherKit: 0 to 1.8 Million Users in 18 Months

"The customer is always right, except when they design the roadmap."

Building a global #1 education app from scratch and how democracy fails. Following the vocal minority and angering the silent majority, and how we overcame it.

Key Insight

Blindly building the #1 requested feature is the fastest way to kill your UX.

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