Skip to content
Ali Manasra

Ali Manasra · Lead Product Manager I turn
ambiguity into products that work.

I'm Lead Product Manager at Al Jazeera, where I founded the AI Lab and run the website, mobile apps and streaming platform. Before that I built the product function at Maqsam and shipped airline commerce at Expedia.

See selected workLet’s talk
Years in product
10+Analyst to Lead Product Manager
Companies
5Media, SaaS, travel, health
Engagement lift
2×+AI/ML integration at Maqsam
AI Lab founded
1At Al Jazeera Media Network
  • Al Jazeera Media Network
  • Expedia Group
  • Maqsam
  • iMENA Group
  • Electronic Health Solutions

01About

Product leadership for the messy middle.

I work where ambition meets organizational reality: unclear opportunities, emerging technology, and teams that don't share the same definition of done. My job is to turn that into direction people can act on, and into products that survive contact with the real world.

I go deep enough on technology to challenge assumptions (build vs buy, evaluation, data readiness, risk) and stay close enough to the business to know whether any of it matters. Across media, SaaS, travel and AI, the pattern repeats: the opportunity is real, but the path is tangled, technically or organizationally.

How I operate

  • Unclear opportunities become a thesis, priorities and a sequence of bets.

    I'm comfortable starting where the roadmap, requirements or even the problem aren't defined. I turn that into strategy, experiments and an executable plan, without waiting for perfect certainty.

Portrait of Ali ManasraPortrait of Ali Manasra
ali-manasra.spec
Role
Lead Product Manager
Company
Al Jazeera Media Network
Based
Amman · working in Doha
Experience
10+ years
Focus
AI, data, complex platforms
Sectors
Media · SaaS · Travel · Fintech
Languages
Arabic · English
Studying
DBA, Acacia University

02Selected work

Three initiatives that show how I work.

From founding an AI Lab to building a product team from zero. Each one started ambiguous and ended in something people use.

  1. Defined the company's AI strategy and founded the AI Lab, moving GenAI from prototypes into the daily workflows of editorial teams.

    • Raised AI literacy across teams so that adoption had a shared language, not just a pilot.
    • Introduced GenAI workflows for writing, translation, media search and content packaging.
    • Operationalized LLMs and open-source model stacks with structured evaluation, prompt governance, MCP and MLOps practices.
    • Shipped AI prototypes into newsroom workflows, improving publishing efficiency and reducing manual work through automation and workflow orchestration.
    • AI strategy
    • GenAI
    • LLMs
    • MCP
    • MLOps
    • Founded the AI Lab
    • AI literacy across teams
    • GenAI in newsroom workflows
    • Evaluation and prompt governance

03Approach

Ambiguity in. Direction out.

Every initiative starts as noise: competing asks, unclear owners, messy data. The work is a repeatable path from there to something shipped and adopted. Drag the slider to watch it happen.

AmbiguityDirection
  1. 01

    Opportunity

    Name the problem worth solving.

  2. 02

    Evidence

    Ground it in users, data and operations.

  3. 03

    Direction

    Turn insight into a thesis and priorities.

  4. 04

    Alignment

    Create shared ownership across teams.

  5. 05

    Execution

    Ship the smallest coherent version.

  6. 06

    Adoption

    Make it trusted and embedded in real work.

  7. 07

    Impact

    Measure, then reinforce or rethink.

Everyone has an opinion. Nobody has a plan.

04Playground

Try my job for sixty seconds.

Here’s a backlog inspired by real work. Place each item by impact and effort, then see where my call differs and why.

Backlog · 6 left

Do now

High impact · low effort

Stage a big bet

High impact · high effort

Batch it

Low impact · low effort

Park it

Low impact · high effort

Place at least 3 more to compare.

05Journey

A changelog of ten-plus years.

From analysing hospital systems to founding an AI Lab. Each version added scope, and the same through-line: unclear opportunities inside complex systems.

  1. Mar 2024 — Present

    Current role

    Doha, Qatar

    v5.0Now shipping

    Leading AI strategy and the digital product portfolio: web, mobile apps and streaming.

    • Own the portfolio of digital products (website, mobile apps and streaming platform) and align roadmaps with editorial and business priorities.
    • Led the company's AI strategy and founded the AI Lab, raising AI literacy across teams and introducing GenAI workflows for writing, translation, media search and content packaging.
    • Operationalized LLMs and open-source model stacks with structured evaluation, prompt governance, MCP and MLOps (model lifecycle, deployment and scaling).
    • Delivered AI prototypes into newsroom workflows, improving publishing efficiency and cutting manual work through automation and workflow orchestration.
    • Modernized the CMS into a unified headless platform and coordinated vendor and technology integrations for performance, stability and scalability.
    • Use Python, SQL, Power BI, Tableau and Amplitude for analysis, feature measurement and product decisions.
    • AI strategy
    • GenAI
    • LLMOps
    • Headless CMS
    • Streaming

  2. Dec 2021 — Mar 2024

    2 yr 3 mo

    Amman, Jordan

    v4.0

    Built the Product Management function from zero at a cloud communications startup.

    • 0→1 product team
    • AI/ML
    • Payments
    • Stripe
    • Discovery

  3. Sep 2017 — Dec 2021

    4 yr 3 mo

    Amman, Jordan

    v3.0

    Airline e-commerce, an AWS cloud migration and the API platform, at global scale.

    • B2C + B2B
    • AWS migration
    • API platform
    • A/B testing

  4. Sep 2016 — Sep 2017

    1 yr

    Amman, Jordan

    v2.0

    Delivered B2B products for the MENA region and the go-to-market behind them.

    • B2B
    • Go-to-market
    • SQL
    • Tableau

  5. 2014 — 2016

    2 yr

    Amman, Jordan

    v1.0

    Where it started: hospital information systems and the full product lifecycle.

    • Health IT
    • Requirements
    • Analysis

Toolbox

AI & data

  • Generative AI
  • LLMOps
  • MLOps
  • Prompt governance
  • MCP
  • Python
  • SQL
  • Power BI
  • Tableau
  • Amplitude

Product

  • Product strategy & vision
  • Roadmapping
  • A/B testing
  • Discovery
  • Market research
  • Go-to-market

Platforms & leadership

  • Headless CMS
  • API platforms
  • AWS migration
  • Payments
  • Agile transformation
  • Cross-functional leadership

Education

  • Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

    Acacia University · 2026 — 2030(In progress)

  • Professional Certificate, Leadership and Management

    London School of Business Administration · 2026(In progress)

  • MSc, Business Consulting & Analysis

    University of Strathclyde · 2018 — 2020

  • MSc, Strategic Management

    University of Sussex · 2018 — 2020

  • Bachelor's, Engineering

    Al Ahliyya Amman University · 2008 — 2014

Certifications & research

  • AWS Certified SysOps Administrator
  • Microsoft Power BI
  • Splunk Certified User
  • Business Analysis
  • Entrepreneurial Bootcamp

Published research: Blind Assistive Technology Based on Android Platform

06Beyond work

Off the clock, still curious.

Travel, photography, cooking and building small technical things. The hobbies change; the habit of paying attention doesn’t.

Travel

30+

countries, and counting

I've visited more than 30 countries. Travel is how I practice the thing I do at work: arriving without context, then quickly learning how a place really works.

Kitchen

Cooking is my other product practice.

Constraints, iteration, and a very honest user test at the dinner table. Good cooking and good product work share the same habits.

Mise en place
Discovery
Taste as you go
Iteration
The dinner table
The user test

Photography

A frame forces a decision.

Photography is how I pay attention. A frame forces a decision about what matters and what to leave out, which is a surprisingly good product habit.

The lab · side projects

  • This website

    Live

    Next.js, Motion, a cursor-following aurora and a command palette. Built to be read by people and by LLMs.

  • Blind Assistive Technology on Android

    Published

    Published research on assistive technology: an early taste for technology that serves a real person.

  • Next experiment

    Loading

    Something small, probably involving an LLM and an unreasonable amount of tinkering.

I like building small technical things on the side, because the fastest way to understand a technology is to ship something with it.

07Ideas

Notes from the work.

Practical thinking from building AI products, running migrations and starting product teams.

All notes

08FAQ

Straight answers.

The questions people (and their assistants) ask most, answered plainly and ready to quote.

Who is Ali Manasra?

Ali Manasra is a product leader with 10+ years of experience across media, SaaS, travel and AI/ML. He is Lead Product Manager at Al Jazeera Media Network, where he leads AI strategy and manages the website, mobile apps and streaming platform. Earlier he built the Product Management department at Maqsam and was a Senior Product Manager at Expedia Group.

What does Ali Manasra do at Al Jazeera?

Since March 2024 Ali has been Lead Product Manager at Al Jazeera Media Network in Doha. He owns a portfolio of digital products (website, mobile apps and streaming), led the company's AI strategy, founded the AI Lab, and modernized the CMS into a unified headless platform.

What is Ali Manasra's experience with AI and LLMs?

Ali founded Al Jazeera's AI Lab and introduced GenAI workflows for writing, translation, media search and content packaging. He has operationalized LLMs and open-source model stacks using structured evaluation, prompt governance, MCP and MLOps practices, and earlier integrated AI/ML at Maqsam, where engagement more than doubled.

Which companies has Ali Manasra worked for?

Al Jazeera Media Network (Lead Product Manager, 2024 to present), Maqsam (Senior Product Manager, 2021 to 2024), Expedia Group (Senior Product Manager, 2017 to 2021), iMENA Group (Product Manager, 2016 to 2017) and Electronic Health Solutions (Product Analyst, 2014 to 2016).

What are Ali Manasra's strengths as a product leader?

Turning ambiguous opportunities into clear product direction; evaluating technology by customer and business value rather than novelty; and creating alignment between editorial, engineering, data, operations and leadership. He is data-driven (Python, SQL, Power BI, Tableau, Amplitude) and experienced in Agile transformation and A/B testing.

Is Ali Manasra open to new roles or advisory work?

Yes, selectively. Ali is open to senior product leadership conversations in AI, data and complex platforms, and to advisory work on AI product strategy and platform transformation. The fastest way to reach him is ali_manasra@hotmail.com or LinkedIn.

Where is Ali Manasra based and what languages does he speak?

Ali is based in Amman, Jordan, and currently works with Al Jazeera Media Network in Doha, Qatar. He speaks Arabic (native) and English (full professional proficiency).

What is Ali Manasra's education?

Ali holds an MSc in Business Consulting & Analysis from the University of Strathclyde, an MSc in Strategic Management from the University of Sussex and an engineering bachelor's degree from Al Ahliyya Amman University. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration at Acacia University and holds AWS, Power BI and Splunk certifications.

09Contact

Let’s build something that works in the real world.

If you’re hiring for senior product leadership in AI, data or complex platforms, I’d like to hear about it. Tell me what brings you here and I’ll prefill the email.

ali_manasra@hotmail.com
Write the emailLinkedIn

Also

Selective advisory

I take on a small number of advisory conversations about AI product strategy (where AI creates durable value, and where it should wait) and platform transformation under real-world constraints.