# Boris Fründt

> Technical Product Lead · Technical Product Lead at Ascléa · product and engineering. Based in Potsdam, Germany.

## Who I am

I sit between product and engineering. I still write code, help decide what to build, and talk easily with designers and backend developers.
At Ascléa, a Charité spin-off, we run large language models inside hospital networks under clinical governance. Before that I was interim CTO at a connected-products startup until it was acquired, technical director at Jung von Matt, and I started as a web developer at IBM.

## Work experience

- **Ascléa** · Technical Product Lead (05/2026 to Present)
  Ascléa is a Charité spin-off (formerly x-cardiac). We build AI for hospitals. I lead product for Clé: open language models inside the clinical network, on-premise or in a EU cloud the hospital runs.
- **Freelance** · Product Builder & Technical Product Manager (01/2019 to Present)
  Own engagements from pitch to production across automotive, health tech, culture and insurance. LLMs in real workflows since 2023. Clients stick around when you're honest, not when your slides are shiny.
- **SWAN** · Interim Chief Technology Officer (CTO) (07/2025 to 03/2026)
  Interim CTO at a startup building connected hardware and software. Led 23 engineers across firmware, mobile and cloud. Defined IoT architecture and device-to-cloud communication; scaled the platform through to acquisition by a US company.
- **digetiers** · Interim Senior Manager (05/2022 to 08/2022)
  Part of the leadership team at a management consultancy. Led a client project on AI-based used car pricing, from visual prototypes and click dummies through to a single-page app with real-time pricing models. Product ownership across discovery, epics, backlog, stakeholders and delivery with frontend, UX and QA in rapid prototyping cycles.
- **Jung von Matt** · Technical Director (01/2017 to 12/2018)
  Built, trained and led a team of developers and technical project managers at one of Germany's leading creative agencies. Product strategy for major brands including BMW, Daimler and Lufthansa; co-led technical conception and delivery of global web presences. Drove PWA, headless CMS and VR/AR in a fast-moving creative environment.
- **IBM iX** · Web Application Architect & Consultant (01/2015 to 12/2016)
  Helped establish IBM iX Studio Hamburg and build its digital capabilities: design, engineering and early AI research under one roof. Watson prototypes from 2015, including a BMW i8 configurator. Design Thinking workshops and client consulting; translated complex business needs into scalable architecture.
- **Jung von Matt** · Senior Web Developer & Team Coordinator (09/2009 to 12/2014)
  Grew from developer to team lead and subject matter expert. Built digital products for major brands, mentored junior developers, and learned that the best code is the one that ships and works.
- **IBM** · Web Developer (08/2007 to 08/2009)
  First job. Front-end for enterprise clients. A proper intro to web development.

## Education

- B.Sc. Business Information Systems (dual study) · Berlin School of Economics and Law + IBM Germany (09/2004 to 08/2007)
- Abitur (A-levels) · Hedwig-Bollhagen-Gymnasium, Velten (08/1998 to 06/2004)

## Skills

- **Leadership & Team Management:** Team building and talent development, Cross-functional collaboration, Stakeholder management, Conflict resolution, Project communication, Organizational development
- **Technical Product Management:** Product strategy, Feature prioritization, User story mapping, Technical documentation, API design, Release management, Hardware-software integration, Embedded software architecture
- **AI & Data Analytics:** AI strategy and integration, LLM integration (Claude, GPT, Gemini), Agent systems, Prompt engineering, Claude Code, Cursor, n8n, RAG pipelines, Data analytics and visualization, Data-driven decision making
- **Frontend:** React and Next.js, TypeScript and JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3, Progressive Web Apps, Responsive design, Performance optimization
- **Backend & Cloud:** Node.js, RESTful and GraphQL APIs, Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), Firebase, PostgreSQL and MongoDB, Docker and microservices
- **Mobile:** Cross-platform development, Native integration, Mobile performance optimization, Hybrid app development (Flutter)
- **IoT & Connected Devices:** IoT product strategy, Connected device ecosystems, Device-to-cloud communication
- **UX & Product Design:** User research, Interaction design, Usability testing, Design systems, Prototyping (Figma), Design Thinking
- **Languages:** German (native), English (fluent), French (basic)

## Side projects

- [das-beste-produkt.de](https://www.das-beste-produkt.de/) · Well-founded buying recommendations instead of hours of research. AI buying advice on Next.js with the Vercel AI SDK, web search and a human editorial pass.
- [herzliste.de](https://herzliste.de/) · Gift ideas for the people you love. Gift ideas sorted by person, not product. No account, no cloud, data stays on device. Expo/React Native and a Next.js web app.
- [liga.boris.io](https://liga.boris.io/) · The football manager simulation. Browser remake of the 1995 shareware game LIGA. Engine rewritten in plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, no build step.

## Selected brands

BMW, Google, Daimler, Lufthansa, Vodafone, DHL, Huawei, Nikon, Montblanc, Kia, EDEKA, ERGO, DFB, Bitburger, Freixenet, General Electric, BSH, Elbphilharmonie, Ernst von Bergmann Klinikum.

## How I work

- Figure out the product first, then how to build it
- Say what you mean. Honest disagreement beats polite confusion
- Leadership is removing blockers, not adding meetings
- Humour, empathy and transparency are the hard part
- Stay slightly unsatisfied. Keep asking why

## Contact

- Email: hey@boris.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borisfruendt
- GitHub: https://github.com/b0ndt
- Email: mailto:hey@boris.io