Daniel Östling
Product leader who ships AI.
I turn fuzzy ideas into specs, and specs into shipped AI products. Comfortable in the code, but the job is product — strategy, build, and adoption.
- BACKGROUND
- 10+ years in B2B SaaS & e-commerce — IBM, Lime Technologies, CASAFARI, Moteefe
- SCALE
- Scaled Moteefe’s enterprise unit to €4M ARR as P&L owner; clients incl. H&M Group
- TEAM
- Led a 15-person data science team building ML on European real-estate data
- SHIPPED
- AI dev infrastructure at Direct Wines — 70% faster development, 3× fewer defects
- NOW
- FractalOcean (fractional AI product team), Karl, Monde — from Lisbon
FEATURED WORK
Karl
- PROBLEM
- Agents build the wrong thing when the input is fuzzy.
- OUTCOME
- <2 min per brief · 40+ hrs/month saved on PM documentation
- STATUS
- live
Monde
- PROBLEM
- TODO-CONTENT (proposed: brands have no visibility into how they appear in AI search answers)
- OUTCOME
- 100% visibility into AI answers
- STATUS
- live
Direct Wines — AI dev infrastructure
- PROBLEM
- TODO-CONTENT (confirm what is public — SPEC §7.2)
- OUTCOME
- 70% faster development · 3× fewer defects
- STATUS
- handed over
WHAT I HELP WITH
- AI product strategy
- Agentic workflow design
- RAG and internal knowledge systems
- Evals and quality loops
- Product discovery and spec writing
- Fractional product leadership
HOW I WORK
I work spec-first — write the spec, build in phases, review at every gate. It’s the same discipline whether the builder is a team or an AI agent, and it’s how this site was built.
I had the chance to work closely with Daniel as a fractional product leader, and he made an impact right away. He quickly zeroed in on the highest-leverage opportunities and kept the team focused on what actually moves the business, not just activity.
He also brought AI into the team in a way that actually stuck. From a Claude-powered PR review bot to AI-driven rule systems embedded in the IDE, these weren’t experiments, they’re tools the team uses every day.
Daniel moves fast. He goes from insight to production in days, not weeks, and does it with strong judgment and high quality. Despite being fractional, he fully embedded with the team, ramped quickly on a complex environment, made confident decisions, and shipped independently.
Just as important, he left the team better than he found it, more focused, more capable, and more self-sufficient. I’d work with him again in a heartbeat and highly recommend him to any team looking for a product leader who delivers real impact, especially at the intersection of product and AI.
Nicole Romito · Digital & Ecommerce Executive | Driving $100M+ DTC Growth | CAC, LTV, Retention | Transformation Leader, Direct Wines · Managed Daniel directly · Apr 1, 2026 ·
source
Building Karl and Monde; fractional AI product work via FractalOcean. TODO-CONTENT: availability state.