From Freelance Web Developer in Yerevan to Technical Product Owner
Armen Ghazaryan's path from freelance web developer in Yerevan to CRM Specialist, Product Owner and Technical Product Owner — and the lessons each step taught.
People sometimes ask how a freelance web developer from Yerevan ended up as a Technical Product Owner. The honest answer: one step at a time, each one teaching something the previous step couldn't. Here's the path, and what I took from each stage.
2021: learning to program
It started with a certified course in Programming with Python in 2021 — foundations of programming and computational thinking. Nothing glamorous, but it gave me the habit that matters most: breaking a big problem into small ones you can actually solve.
2022: freelance web developer
In March 2022 I started freelancing as a web developer. Since then I've worked with 50+ clients across industries and countries — landing pages, business websites, booking systems, membership platforms and full web-app architectures.
What freelancing taught me:
- Scoping is a skill. Clients rarely know exactly what they need. Turning "we want a website" into a concrete list of pages and features is half the job.
- You own the whole lifecycle. Design, build, SEO, delivery, and the phone call when something breaks. There's nobody to hand off to.
- Shipping beats perfect. A site that's live and earning is worth more than a perfect one that isn't.
2023: CRM Specialist
In July 2023 I joined Playtronix as a CRM Specialist. This was my first time working on a product with a large user base, and it changed how I think about software.
I designed customer journeys that lifted engagement and retention, owned the bonus-granting architecture end to end, and ran a promotion calendar tuned for different nations and religions. The lesson: software is only as good as the behaviour it changes. I stopped thinking in features and started thinking in user outcomes.
2024: Product Owner
A year later, in July 2024, I became Product Owner — leading the vision and strategic direction for several products in the iGaming industry: a CMS, an affiliate-management platform, a CRM system and a streaming service. Along the way I founded and built Adrenaline, a business-intelligence platform for partners.
At the same time I was finishing the IB Diploma at Quantum College in Yerevan, which taught me more about time management than any productivity book.
What product ownership taught me:
- Saying no is the job. A roadmap is a list of things you've decided not to do yet.
- Translation is everything. Engineers, designers and stakeholders speak different languages. The PO's job is to make sure everyone is building the same thing.
- A developer's background is an unfair advantage. I can read the stack trace, estimate honestly, and spot when "simple" isn't.
2026: Technical Product Owner and AI student
In July 2026 I joined Voveron as Technical Product Owner for CRM & MarTech, and in September I started the BSc Artificial Intelligence at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Moving from Yerevan to Amsterdam was the biggest single change on this list — and the one I'm most excited about.
What I'd tell a developer thinking about product
- Keep building. Your technical credibility is your edge — don't let it rust.
- Get close to users. Take a role, even a small one, where you see real behaviour data.
- Learn to write. Clear user stories, clear decisions, clear "no"s.
- Own something end to end. Nothing teaches product thinking faster.
I still build websites — it keeps me honest. If you need one, or want to talk about moving from code to product, get in touch. You can also read the Adrenaline case study for the project that shaped my product thinking most.
