Nasmaan Ibrahim

The short version

I joined Unimax Industries straight out of A Levels, to replace manual payroll across a manufacturing division. Salary processing, attendance, deductions, tax compliance, all of it done by hand. Two years later I was running requirements for the ERP that pulled seven separate business functions onto one platform.

Then I moved to Vancouver for my BCom and kept the job, part time and remote, through the whole ERP build. Most of my five years there was spent asking people to walk me through processes they knew by instinct but had never had to put into words.

Since then I have led two products from the front. Optima shipped and did not find a market, and I am the one who recommended we wind it down. SKADI is a sensor kit for freestyle skiers, and it started with more than seventy interviews before anything got designed. As of August 2026 my co-founder runs SKADI day to day and I hold an advisory seat, which is what makes a full time role possible.

Both halves are the same work. Sit with people. Find out what they actually need, which is rarely the first thing they say. Write it down precisely enough to build against. Stay on it until it ships and someone uses it.

1. SKADI Technologies

   Co-Founder, Product and Operations

   Advisory since 2026.08 2025.09 to now

   A two pod IMU sensor kit that lets freestyle skiers capture and review their tricks. I owned product and commercial from the first interview to the v1 scope. It started with more than seventy customer discovery interviews, which felt like the only honest way to begin. In August 2026 I handed the day to day to my co-founder and moved to an advisory seat, so the next full time role has my full attention.

   What that involved

   • Ran 70 plus discovery interviews with freestyle skiers to test the problem and willingness to pay, then turned the findings into product requirements and positioning
   • Built the financial model from scratch: unit economics at a 249.99 dollar price point, customer acquisition cost and payback, fundraise scenarios, runway
   • Ran a Meta Ads validation funnel and tracked click through to waitlist conversion, so the pricing was tested against real behaviour rather than our own optimism
   • Defined hardware and software requirements with the engineering team, from sensor capture through the desktop review application, and set release scope for v1
   • Built the internal operating system: every meeting and communication captured into one queryable record, with Claude, Cursor, and Zapier automating the workflow and feeding what we learned back into how we ran
   • Produced the ad creative myself in Higgsfield, compositing real footage, because there was no budget for a shoot
2. Optima

   Co-Founder, Product Management

   Wound down 2024.07 to 2025.11

   A mobile wellness app for situation specific mindset training, backed by angel investment. I owned product end to end and shipped it to the stores. Seventeen months in, I recommended we shut it down.

   What that involved

   • Shipped a published mobile app end to end, owning UI and UX design, the product framework, and release scope
   • Ran discovery interviews to test the problem space, and changed product direction on what they showed rather than on what we hoped
   • Led positioning, go to market, and operations, and got the venture selected into Innovation UBC's founder program (February to July 2025) for mentorship and resourcing
   • Recommended the wind down in November 2025 once the evidence showed no path to product market fit. More runway was not going to change the answer
3. Unimax Industries Ltd.

   Junior Technology Project Manager

   Delivered 2021.09 to 2024.09

   Promoted from Project Analyst to run delivery of an in house ERP replacing siloed departmental systems at a consumer goods manufacturer. Seven business functions onto one platform: inventory, production planning, order tracking, sales, procurement, HR, finance. Part time and remote from Vancouver through the whole build, while I did my BCom.

   What that involved

   • Ran requirements elicitation across all seven functions, produced functional specifications and process maps, and reconciled competing needs into one specification set before build started
   • Led the build versus buy evaluation, then managed system integration testing and UAT through business sign off and cutover, tracking test cases and defect triage to closure in Jira
   • Facilitated scrum ceremonies for a delivery team of 12
   • Built the training and change management that drove adoption across functional departments, which is the part that decides whether an ERP is used or worked around
4. Unimax Industries Ltd.

   Project Analyst

   Delivered 2019.07 to 2021.09

   First job, on site in Dhaka, hired to replace manual payroll across the manufacturing division. Salary processing, attendance, deductions, tax compliance. Processing time down 40 percent and manual calculation errors eliminated.

   What that involved

   • Mapped the existing payroll process end to end, isolated the failure points, and turned the findings into functional specifications the development team built against
   • Gathered requirements from HR, finance, and IT, and led user acceptance testing through business sign off across a team of 5
   • Built the training materials and ran user onboarding
   • Rolled out a self service portal for payslips, deductions, and leave balances, which quietly removed a standing queue outside the HR office
5. Totem Park Residence Association, UBC

   President, and VP Finance before that

   Handed over 2022.07 to 2023.08

   Elected VP Finance in July 2022. Assumed the presidency the following month after an abrupt mid term departure of council leadership, and ran the association for a 2,880 student residence for the year.

   What that involved

   • Rebuilt the residence council out of a leadership vacancy without escalating it, working directly with UBC Housing staff to restore governance mid term
   • Led programming, communications, and volunteer teams supporting 2,880 students through their first year transition
   • Represented resident interests to UBC Student Housing leadership as the association's primary point of contact
   • As VP Finance, prepared the operating budget and reporting package, then handed the finance function to the incoming treasurer with a documented budget position
   • Recognized with the Chris Proctor Award for most significant contribution, alongside Excellence in Leadership and Excellence in Strategic Management
6. UBC Sauder School of Business

   LIFT Team Member

   Delivered 2022.06 to 2024.10

   Selected for Sauder's international entrepreneurship program, a 32 student UBC team that delivers business training across two continents. I taught and mentored entrepreneurs in Kenya and Ghana across marketing, finance, and strategy, and helped build the curriculum used in the classroom in both countries. Standing in front of a room of people who run real businesses, with a lesson plan you wrote, is the fastest education in plain language I have had.

Artifacts

A record tells you what someone did. It does not tell you what their work looks like up close. These are the closest I can get to handing you that on a first visit. Three of them follow one made up request from a corridor conversation to sign off, so you can see the whole arc rather than three unrelated fragments. The ones marked real are from the record above.

• Resume PDF, two pages

  The same record as this page, on paper, with the awards and coursework this site leaves out. Kept deliberately in step with whatever I send to an application, so you are never reading two versions of me.

• One requirement, written out in full Writing sample · part one of three

  The vague request at the top of this page, followed all the way down: the questions I would ask, what changes once they are answered, and the finished requirement with acceptance criteria, open items, and a sign off block. Written for this site rather than lifted from a client, so I can show the whole thing.

• The process, drawn Process map · part two of three

  The walkthrough behind that requirement, as two swimlane maps on the same six day grid: the close as it runs today, with the waiting marked, and the close once the requirement is live, each step tagged to the acceptance criterion it satisfies. Plus the note I would send the controller the same afternoon.

• The UAT pack, in miniature Test pack · part three of three

  The same requirement at the point where the business decides whether to accept it: traceability from criteria to test cases, six test cases written out, a defect log with the triage reasoning, the query I ran to check the numbers myself, and what has to be true before anyone signs.

• Build or buy, written up Decision write-up · illustrative figures

  The call I still get asked about: why a consumer goods manufacturer built its ERP instead of buying one. What the decision turned on, the four criteria I would weight before any demo, how the cost model works, the order the dependencies set for a phased build, and the one module I would buy rather than build.

• Seventy six conversations, one page Research synthesis · real

  How SKADI's customer discovery was run, the two assumptions it killed before anything was designed, what it changed about the product and the price, and how a paid funnel checked what people said against what they did.

• The first fifteen minutes Practice note

  How I open a requirements session, what I deliberately do not do, and what I have learned about talking to someone who suspects the system you are building is there to replace them. The part of the job that never appears in a specification.

• The SKADI reel, nineteen seconds Video · real

  Ad creative I made myself in Higgsfield, compositing real footage, because there was no budget for a shoot. Self hosted, 1.4 MB, and nothing loads until you press play.

• LinkedIn Profile

  The conventional version, and the fastest way to reach me if email is not your habit.

How I actually work

1. The first version of a requirement is never the real one

   "We need better reporting" is a symptom, not a requirement. The requirement is three questions further down, and the only reliable way to get there is to ask someone to walk you through what they do on the worst day of the month.

2. I write for the person who has to build it

   A specification that a developer has to interpret is not finished. If two engineers can read the same line and build different things, that is my defect, not theirs.

3. Sign off is an event, not a formality

   Requirements nobody agreed to are just notes. I make sure every decision has a clear owner and a written record before build starts. It is the least glamorous part of the job, and it is most of the reason things actually ship.

4. Killing something on time is a delivery skill

   I spent seventeen months on Optima and I am the one who recommended we end it. The evidence said there was no path to product market fit and more runway was not going to change that. I would make the same call again.

5. What I am still working on

   I over-document early. On a twelve person delivery team that discipline paid for itself. On a two person startup it cost me speed more than once, and I am still learning which artifacts are load bearing and which ones just make me feel prepared.

Off the clock

• At home

  Bengali and English, usually in the same sentence, usually mid argument about food.

• Outside

  Vancouver makes staying inside a waste of geography. When I need a break from screen time I am usually running the Seawall or putting miles on my bike. It is the fastest way to clear my head.

• Pokémon

  Fell in love with the franchise as a kid and never grew out of it. I have watched every episode aired and played every game. There is a Pokedex entry hidden on this page, and it is not for a Pokemon, which I hope you will forgive.

• Music

  I collect records and hold strong opinions about them that nobody asked for. These six are my all timers.

  • KDOT·22 Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers Kendrick Lamar
  • DRAKE·11 Take Care Drake
  • 1D·14 FOUR One Direction
  • BNY·78 Nightflight to Venus Boney M.
  • FRNK·16 Blonde Frank Ocean
  • SNF·77 Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees

Get in touch

Email is the fastest way to reach me and I reply to all of it, usually the same day.

Looking now for a full time business systems analyst, business analyst, or product owner role. Vancouver, hybrid, or remote anywhere in Canada. Authorized to work in Canada, no sponsorship required, and I can start straight away.