FORMEL Skin

Chief Product Officer

Data Action Mentor

Rocket-fuel your startup growth
With actionable 1:1 mentorship from Data, Analytics @AI Experts

Product & Product Analytics Mentor

Igor Voth

I was helping startups solve product development related problems.

As an Advisor, I could provide feedback and guidance to the founder or product team while staying out of execution. I helped identify goals and developed plans to achieve them. I brought a lot of expertise and could be involved on a monthly basis or spend 1-2 hours a week with the team.

As a Fractional CPO, I provided more hands-on support, dedicating up to 36 hours a week over the course of several months, focusing on filling specific strategic and execution gaps in a leadership team. I co-defined goals and focused on their achievement, offering efficient leadership and management.

Freelance Product Lead

Börse Stuttgart Digital Ventures GmbH

I oversaw the strategic product direction at Börse Stuttgart Digital Ventures including two product lines: the crypto custodian Blocknox and the trading app BISON. 
I was responsible for the product vision, product innovation, product design, product development and project management. 
As part of the executive team I was one of the key leaders in quarterly and annual planning, driving prioritization and OKR-setting for the company, product, project, design and growth teams.
After I joined I set up the entire product function at Börse Stuttgart Digital Ventures and scaled the product organisation including product, growth, project and design teams.
Since late 2019 we scaled our user base 10x and the trade volume up to 5,6 Bn end of 2021.

https://financefwd.com/de/krypto-app-bison-2021/

BISON App

As part of my role as CPO at Börse Stuttgart Digital Ventures I oversaw the product vision, product innovation, product design, product development and project management of the BISON App.

I helped startups establish a clear product strategy, define a product, set up the product team and agile processes and iterate until we get the product right.

Interim Chief Product Officer

Locafox GmbH

Through a management buy in, I joined the founding team of Locafox, took on a managing director role and retained responsibility for the product strategy and product management of Locafox POS, Locafox Marketplace and Locafox Data Platform. I led two product teams and a team of UX and UI designers.
We sold Locafox GmbH to a strategic investor in 2020.

Founder & Managing Director

I oversaw the entire product strategy and the product management at Locafox, which included the Locafox POS, the Locafox Marketplace and the Locafox Data Platform. I led two product teams and a team of UX and UI designers.

In January 2016 Locafox started a new project within the company, the Locafox POS https://www.locafox.de/pos/. I was responsible for building the product and a new business unit. With a development team of 4 engineers and one designer we build the product from scratch within 5 months and launched it in June 2016. I hired the first sales employees and the Head of SMB Sales. I set up the Customer Support and hired the first employees for it. Our lean team brought the product to a product market fit and turned the project into a growing business unit with more then 800 paying customers and 30 employees within 9 months after launch. I was leading the business unit with the departments product, sales, support and marketing until end of Q1 in 2017.

Director of Product Locafox POS

During my work as a product owner for the Locafox Marketplace our team was working on its redesign and a set of features around the presentation of local stores and offers in order to grow the user engagement and conversion rates.

Product Owner Web

As Director Client Services I was responsible for a team, the technology and processes
for the onboarding of retailers and product data onto the Locafox Marketplace. I kicked-off the department in 2014 and led it to a phase were it was operating without my supervision. Under my lead our team developed a very simple but powerful software solution, which significantly lowered the onboarding effort on the retailer side, by processing almost any data feed format. It helped us get significant traction in retailer onboarding and successfully onboard more then 300 retailers.

Director of Product Client Services

Infyouse UG (haftungsbeschränkt)

At Infyouse we developed a social buying tool where users could add products from any online store to a shopping list, share it with their friends and get feedback. Along with my role as Managing Director I was responsible for the Product, Strategy and Product Development.

Founder and Managing Director

admineo UG (haftungsbeschränkt)

Product Consultant

Mercateo AG

Team Lead Supply Management Manufacturers

Netto Markendiscount

Trainee

Freelance Product Lead | Ex-BISON App | Ex-Börse Stuttgart

Sharing real-world lessons on building great product teams that build great products

I’ve spent 10+ years leading and scaling product teams. As a PM, Product Leader, or founder. I’ve built products from scratch, failed, led others to PMF and growth, and scaled through hypergrowth. Along the way, I’ve navigated the toughest decisions in product development, leadership, and execution.

Now, I share practical insights on:

- Building high-performing product teams that execute
- The real trade-offs of product development (beyond frameworks)
- How to align product, business, and tech for real impact

I share hard-earned lessons from the trenches. Follow me for insights on leadership, strategy, and execution.

Every PM job description says “strategic.” 

Most days feel like JIRA babysitting. 

I saw this line in a JD the other day: 

"You’ll be responsible for the strategic development of our product – from the roadmap to the launch of new features." 

Sounds strategic. But it isn’t. Owning the roadmap ≠ owning strategy. 

Here’s what strategic PMs actually do: 

1. Discovery → Map the status quo and uncover key problems. 

2. Strategic bets → Define sharp responses to those problems. 

3. Roadmap alignment → Organize opportunities around those bets, not features. 

That’s product strategy. Not the backlog. Not the feature list. 

Strategy isn’t the roadmap. It’s the compass.

CPO @ Formel Skin | Building high-velocity product teams

Your product team is busy doing product discovery.

Nobody knows what to build.

You spend hours talking to customers.
You collect insights.
You hear about unmet needs.

But then what? How do you decide where to act?

Without strategy, discovery just piles up data.
You get stuck.

Here’s how to make discovery count:

1. Understand the company priority → anchor in the business goal.

2. Diagnose the current state → use discovery + data to find the drivers and root cause.

3. Define strategic bets → turn the diagnosis into coherent actions to respond to the challenge.

4. Expose unmet needs → let discovery surface the customer problems that explain today’s problems.

5. Design solutions & run experiments → test and scale what actually solves those needs.

Discovery fuels your strategy. It’s the lens that makes strategy sharper.
Strategy tells you where to look.

Every roadmap is full.

Most outcomes are flat.

I remember me saying this to my team some years ago:
“Look at all the features we shipped!”

Sounds impressive. But it wasn’t.

Shipping isn’t strategy.

Here’s what strategic PMs actually do:

1. Set the company priority → e.g., “Improve retention.”

2. Diagnose the current state → find the drivers and the root cause.

3. Define strategic bets → focused responses to that root cause.

4. Expose unmet customer needs → each becomes an opportunity.

5. Design solutions and run experiments → validate and scale what works.

That’s strategy.

Not the feature list.
Not the release notes.

Every product team is busy.

Most startups are stuck.

You hear this in every startup:
“Our teams are at 110% capacity.”

Sounds good. But it isn’t.
Busyness ≠ progress.

Here’s what strategic PMs actually do:

1. Understand the company priorities → make the focus explicit.

2. Diagnose the current state → reveal the root cause, the actual challenge beneath the surface.

3. Define strategic bets → clear directions to tackle the root challenge.

4. Expose unmet customer needs driving the root challenge → translate them into opportunities.

5. Design solutions and run experiments → validate, then scale.

That’s strategy.

Not utilization.
Not headcount.

No PM wants to be told what to build.

Few can show how their work drives outcomes.

The dream is clear:
→ Be given a problem.
→ Not be told the solution.

But here’s the problem:

Most PMs argue for empowerment at an abstract level.
“We should be more outcome-driven.”
“We should focus on discovery.”

To executives, it sounds like theory.
Not strategy.

Here’s the truth:
You don’t get empowerment by asking for it.
You get it by showing what you’ll do with it.

Here’s how:

1. Understand the company priority → Anchor in the business goal (e.g., “Improve retention”).

2. Diagnose the current state → Reveal the real drivers and root cause.

3. Define strategic bets → Propose sharp responses to that challenge.

4. Expose unmet customer needs → Connect the business priority to customer problems.

5. Design solutions & run experiments → Show how you’ll validate and scale.

Now you’re not asking for empowerment.
You’re pitching a strategy.

And executives empower the PMs who bring clarity, not just requests.

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