Soman Awan
Hello, I am Soman

I read a room and a dataset the same way.

Which lets me work in contexts I have never worked in: hypothesis, research, then something that ships.

See the work Email me

I am building an AI learning product, solo.The AI work

Soman Awan Marketing Research and analytics Product AI builds
$150K+average monthly budget managed
150+creators managed
80M+cumulative campaign reach
14,000+survey respondents across studies and campaign programs
7markets

Areas

The work

I do the research and the analytics most project managers hand to someone else, in the office and in academic work.

Product work

Partner platform delivery at a licensed broker, and the AI learning product I build solo.

See the work

Marketing work

Campaigns, brand programmes, the creator channel, education, retention, and the measurement under them.

See the work

Research and analytics

Surveys and instruments, brand tracking, text mining, funnels, and two peer reviewed papers.

See the work

What I build with AI

Agents, permissions, quality gates, data plumbing, and the tools I build them with.

See the work

Selected work

The record, in cases

A pinned planning grid of creator briefs
Marketing

The monthly creator engine

A creator channel measured per creator, from first visit to activation. Ran the monthly slate, negotiated renewals, built the per creator tracking.

150+creators cycled through80M+cumulative reach
A strategy board with drawn arrows
Research

The research programme at a UAE broker

Brand, consumer and competitive research standing up a market entry.

20studies18months
A stacked document tray
SeekOnAI builds

An AI learning product I build solo

One product, built end to end, from the data layer to the app.

Video production set with camera, softboxes and monitor
Marketing

Brand ad films

Brand films produced with local agencies across four priority markets.

680,000+reach on one film
A clean desk with a laptop, framed print and lamp
ResearchMarketing

Creative intelligence for the brand

Coding a category's advertising showed where every serious competitor said the same thing.

505competitor creatives coded
Two professionals sketching a partner journey on a whiteboard
Product

Partner platform build-out

Leading the partner platform build-out at a licensed UAE broker.

Vendor selected, integration underway
Presenter speaking to a webcam at a clean desk
Marketing

Local language webinar programmes

Education in four languages, each market around its own lead educator.

UrduTagalogMalayHindi

All cases on the area pages

Markets

Where the work happened

Current base, 2025 to present

United Arab Emirates

8+ projects

    Education and work

    The journey so far

    Education

    2019-2021

    MSc, Management and Analytics for Business

    HSE St Petersburg

    2013-2018

    BBA

    Sukkur IBA University

    Teaching

    Visiting lecturer at HSE St Petersburg

    Database marketing and consumer behaviour

    Experience

    2025 to now

    Project Lead

    Dafain Holding, a UAE licensed CFD broker built from zero

    The research programme, the partner platform, go to market, and the brand channels

    2023-2024

    Project Manager, Marketing

    An international CFD broker

    Led cross functional initiatives, built the full funnel dashboards, ran the experiments

    2022-2023

    Influencer Marketing Manager

    An international CFD broker

    Built the creator programme from zero to 150+ creators across markets

    2020-2022

    Localization and Market Research Specialist

    An international CFD broker

    Localization across four markets, customer development interviews, webinar coordination

    Awards and honors

    Receiving the Best Student Paper award at ICBEM 2018, Sukkur IBA
    Best Research PaperInt'l conference, 2018
    Case competition winners on stage, 2019
    1st place, int'l case competition2019
    Award certificate in a leather folder beside a fountain pen and lanyard
    Winner, int'l scholarship competitionBusiness and management, 2019
    Laurel-wreath medal resting on bound research papers
    Research Laureate AwardHSE, 2021
    Gold-sealed certificate with a graduation tassel
    Golden ScholarshipHSE Masters, 2021
    Team photo after winning the national hackathon business plan competition, 2015
    1st place, national hackathonBusiness plan competition, 2015

    Speaking

    Debate, MUN and the stage

    Public speaking, from university stages to alumni panels: debating, Model United Nations, hosting and competitions.

    Receiving a certificate of gratitude at the HSE St Petersburg alumni career panel, January 2026
    HSE alumni career panel, 2026"The Edges of a Career", panelist, HSE St Petersburg.
    Presenting a marketing case study on stage at the KSBL Marketing Challenge
    KSBL Marketing ChallengeCase-study presentation on Twitter, KSBL, Karachi.
    Leading an MUN awareness and training session at a whiteboard
    SYMUN awareness sessionTraining session for Sukkur's first-ever Sukkur Youth Model United Nations.
    Hosting the NAB annual session at a lectern, Sukkur IBA
    Hosting the NAB annual sessionSukkur IBA University.
    Speaking at the Sukkur IBA Speech Competition 2013 podium
    Speech Competition 2013Global affairs round, Sukkur IBA.
    On stage at the declamation contest podium, Sukkur IBA
    Declamation contest17th Allama Iqbal Competition, Sukkur IBA, 2016.
    Briefing the team before the DICE competition round
    Briefing the team, DICEWalking the team through the case before the round.
    Defending a business idea on the Battle in the Ring stage at DICE
    DICE: Battle in the RingDefending a business idea in the battle rings at the DICE innovation event.

    Published research

    Peer reviewed, still cited

    Peer reviewed

    Employer brand from employee reviews

    Employee review text can be mined into an employer brand position, tested in a Q1 journal.

    Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 202229 citations Read the paper     Peer reviewed

    Customer service support and brand value

    A second peer reviewed paper, in the industry I work in.

    GATR Journal of Finance and Banking Review, 2023Published as Soman Sajid Read the paper

    Earlier analytics notebooks live on GitHub.