Chernyakov.Coaching
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Hi, I'm Michael Chernyakov.

I currently focus on banking customer experience and personal coaching following the ICF.

By day, I'm Product Lead for B2C at Solaris SE in Berlin, building customer-facing banking products used by over a million people. Alongside that, I coach product managers and emerging business leaders on the work itself — managing stakeholders, shipping under pressure, growing teams, and building careers that hold up over time.

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Michael Chernyakov coaching a class
Current Role

Product Lead — B2C at Solaris SE

As Product Lead for B2C at Solaris SE, I'm responsible for our customer-facing banking solutions — from onboarding through to the apps themselves. The role spans commercial performance, continuous delivery, and coordination across many internal stakeholders, external partners, and customers.

In September 2024, Solaris SE migrated 1.1 million credit cards from LBB. I led the build of the migration app, ran the migration itself, and have continued to expand the financial product offering inside the app since.

Experience

What I lead and build

Mobile Banking

Lead three teams building and releasing apps on iOS, Android, and Web for 1.1m Visa credit cards. Previously owned the delivery driver app used by over 20,000 GLS drivers daily.

New Customer Onboarding

Designed and built customer onboarding flows for credit cards across online, offline, and call-center channels. Each flow handles regulatory steps including data protection, credit scoring, KYC, verification, and contract signing.

Banking Features

Shipped app features across credit line management, transactions, card management, value-added services, insurance products, personal details, and Apple Pay / Google Pay integration.

Stakeholder Management

Coordinate with auditors, regulators, leadership, clients, legal, customer support, and core banking to ensure a steady release cadence.

Team Management

Before I joined Solaris, the B2C function didn't exist. I built the working agreements that made collaboration possible across teams — through joint functional and technical refinements.

Running the Product

Building features is only half the job. The other half is keeping the product healthy — reviewing customer feedback, fixing bugs, paying down tech debt, running maintenance — all while shipping new functionality and managing priorities.

Selected work

Two projects I'm proud of

Apple & Google Pay integration

No one in the company had previously integrated Apple or Google Pay, and there's no sandbox environment for Germany. Under time pressure, we built the knowledge from scratch — researching, testing, iterating, and working directly with Apple.

We got certified ahead of the migration and now offer both payment methods to 1.1 million customers.

Customer onboarding

Onboarding a banking customer means collecting significant personal data while remaining compliant with regulators. I owned the onboarding flows across online and physical-branch channels, each with their own requirements.

The launch required aligning approvals across legal, marketing, data protection, Anti-Financial Crime, and customer support — and unlocked new portfolio growth and revenue.

Career

Work experience

  1. 10/2025 – Present

    Product Lead — B2C

    Solaris SE · Berlin, Germany

    Owning the B2C credit card portfolio and the customer-facing banking products built on top of it.

  2. 2024 – 10/2025

    Product Owner — Credit Card Apps

    Solaris SE · Berlin, Germany

    Built and launched the ADAC iOS, Android, and Web banking apps, plus new customer onboarding across online, physical branch, and call center.

  3. 2021 – 2023

    Product Owner

    GLS — General Logistics Systems · Berlin, Germany

    Built products for logistics and last-mile delivery on Android and Web.

  4. 2019 – 2021

    Product Owner

    Convidera GmbH · Cologne, Germany

    Shipped digital products in agency mode across multiple industries.

  5. 2017 – 2019

    Junior Consultant & Consultant Trainee

    Convidera GmbH · Cologne, Germany

    Consulting projects focused on executive training, digital marketing, and corporate branding strategy.

  6. 2016 – 2017

    Market Analyst

    Procane GmbH · Cologne, Germany

    Conducted market research and analytical projects.

Education

Studied

  1. 2021 – 2023

    M.Sc. in Web Science

    Technische Hochschule Köln — University of Applied Sciences
  2. 2014 – 2017

    B.A. in International Business

    CBS International Business School

Curious about coaching?

If you're a product manager or business leader navigating a stretch — new role, big launch, team rebuild, career pivot — I'd love to hear about it. The intro call is free.

Book a free intro call