Maria Balyakina

Maria Balyakina has a diverse work experience in various roles and industries. Maria started their career as a Marketing Department Intern at BDO Russia in 2015. In 2016, they worked as a Trainee at the Tax & Legal department of KPMG.

In 2017, Maria joined Alfa-Bank as a Product Manager, where they were responsible for hypothesis testing, customer development, backlog prioritization, financial modeling, budgeting, and team management. Maria served as a Product Owner for different projects, including the platform for SMEs (club.alfabank.ru) and the Online Accounting service for SMEs. During their time at Alfa-Bank, Maria achieved significant outcomes such as the launch of a new main page resulting in a 29% growth in views compared to the previous year.

In 2017, they also interned at the Marketing and PR Department of Global Venture Alliance. Following this, Maria joined Buildup Camp in 2020 as a Product Magician. Maria worked on this role until April 2021.

Maria's next position was at Helloprint, where they joined as a Product Owner intern in January 2020. Maria was responsible for building processes and alignments between the Marketing and Performance teams. Maria worked on initiating daily and weekly meetings, note sharing, and team-lead meetings. Maria then transitioned to the role of Product Owner for Merch.Music, where they led efforts to make merchandise effortless and help creatives build their brand. Currently, Maria serves as a Product Owner for the Customer Journey at Helloprint, leading the development of the online customer journey and collaborating with various teams to improve the customer experience.

In addition to their professional endeavors, Maria is a volunteer mentor at WOMEN IN TECH - Global Movement.

Maria Balyakina completed their education in a chronological order. Maria obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Higher School of Economics, studying from 2014 to 2018. Following this, they pursued further education and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of London, studying from 2015 to 2018. Maria then pursued a Master's degree in Management of Innovation from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, completing it in 2020.

In addition to their formal education, Maria also obtained several certifications. In January 2019, they completed the "Data-driven product management" certification offered by GoPractice, Inc. Maria also obtained the "Professional Scrum Product Owner I" certification from Scrum.org during the same time. In May 2017, they achieved a proficient score of 90/100 on the EF Standardized English Test (EFSET).