Personal project · Live
中文真好玩 Chinese Fun (opens in a new tab)
A playful app I built so my kids and I could learn Mandarin together. Product and code, start to finish: still the fastest way I know to stay honest about both.
Product & Technology Leader
Abdelrahman Salem
I lead product and technology at Disty: what we build, why it matters, and how it is built to last. For 17 years I have worked where business problems meet software: deciding what to build, and building the teams and platforms that deliver it.
- ProductStrategy, roadmap, customer outcomes
- TechnologyArchitecture, platforms, reliability
- TeamsOwnership, a high bar, steady delivery
One seat, two questions
What should we build, and how should we build it? They are often two jobs for two people. At Disty I hold both, and I like it that way: the trade-offs get made in one conversation instead of across a handoff.
On the product side I work from the customer and the business: which problems are worth solving, what we say no to, and how we will know it worked. On the technology side I make sure the answer holds up: sound architecture, reliable platforms and teams who own what they ship.
I have built engineering organisations from the ground up and partnered with executive teams across markets, through Yahoo!, Maktoob, Fetchr, ASYAD Express, Quicko, Lezzoo, Qawafel and Disty.
- Leading
- Product & technology, Disty
- Experience
- 17 years in commerce, logistics and internet platforms
- Based in
- Riyadh
- Languages
- Arabic, English, and Chinese (super beginner, 一点点)
- Education
- Al-Hussein Bin Talal University
- Certified
- Zend Certified Engineer
What I own
Product · the what and why
Product strategy
Turning goals into a few clear bets and a roadmap people can act on - and saying no to the rest.
Customers & market
Starting from who buys, what they need, and what the market will actually pay for - then working back to what we build.
Outcomes over output
Discovery before delivery, and checking whether what we shipped moved the customer and the business - not just whether we shipped.
Technology · the how
Architecture & platforms
Cloud and distributed systems on AWS, designed for performance, reliability and growth, including migrations that protect continuity.
Engineering organisation
Hiring, clear ownership, a high bar for quality and a pace the business can trust.
Delivery you can trust
Standards, reviews and operating practice that keep quality high as the organisation and the platform grow.
How I lead
Problem before solution
Teams get the customer and the why, not just a ticket. Good people make better calls when they understand the stakes.
One conversation, not a handoff
Product, design and engineering decide together. The trade-off is made once, in the room - not thrown over a wall.
Fewer bets, finished
Focus beats a long roadmap. I would rather ship three things well than start ten.
Reliability is a feature
In commerce and logistics, the platform being there every day is the product. Quality is never a later phase.
Side project
Contact
Glad to talk about product and technology leadership, building teams that ship, and making B2B commerce simpler.