Ciao, I’m Uzair. I was born in Karachi, raised in Chicago, and trained in Silicon Valley. I speak fluent English, Urdu, Hindi; semi-fluent Spanish, and elementary Italian and Arabic.
I'm a product leader with over 15 years of experience. My strengths are in user-experience (UX) design, cross-functional product management, and strategic business development. I code, design, empathize, and stay ahead of emerging technology.
I’ve worked at some of the world’s top brands such as Apple, General Assembly, TAG-Heuer, and Innit. In fractional capacity, I recently contributed as Chief Product Officer (CPO) to MetaClass. More importantly, I’ve built products of my own such as Cleu, DistrictZero, and VeloceAI.
I hold a B.S. in Biological Sciences from University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), iOS Swift Mobile Programming certification from General Assembly, and level-1 timekeeping from TAG-Heuer.
When in doubt, ship it.
Short interviews, making the most of my button downs and facial-hair choice.
From ideation through iteration.
Grateful for the kind words others have shared about my work.
He has been a leader to our development team and filled in the gaps of our weaknesses. He has been someone we can bounce ideas off of and confide in, which has been a blessing beyond measure.
We have talked about Uzair to our friends and family. You could pull them aside and interview them at any moment and they would tell you we have sung his praises not only for the work he has done, but the trust he has built with us over the past several months. For us, this is huge. Trust is the foundation of a healthy relationship.
I met many students in my career of 20 years, but I will remember Uzair for sure. He instills positive energy, has great communication skills and his willingness to learn was a satisfaction for me as a teacher!
Ho incontrato moltissimi studenti nella mia carriera quasi ventennale a scuola ma sicuramente mi ricorderò di Uzair.è una persona che infonde energia positiva, ha grandi doti comunicative e la sua inclinazione all'apprendimento è stata una soddisfazione per me come insegnante!
Uzair is one of the most caring, compassionate and persistent professionals I know. We previously went to high school together, worked together at General Assembly and have continued to float in an out of each others professional lives for years after. I am always so impressed by Uzair's calm and calculated way of leading a team and building products. He cares so deeply about everyone involved and gives everyone room to be themselves. At the same time he understands the dynamics of a business and how to make products useful and profitable. I am continuously in the process of trying to convince Uzair to follow me to whatever company I'm at because I enjoy working with him so much. He is an incredible role model, thought leader and human being.
I’ve known Uzair for four years, and in that time have had the privilege to build, collaborate and learn with him. My first impression, which was accurate, was that I was meeting a visionary. He connects naturally to people and continues to impress me with his ability to see solutions to human-centered problems. Uzair is an empathetic leader who moves across industries and within organizations building products, relationships and trust. He is a creative, has a lovely soul and is going to continue to do great things for a long time.
Uzair’s professional background began in sales, point of sale consumer experience, and evolved into product development. For ten years, he worked on an alarm clock app that worked in different personalized ways to help people wake up motivated and focused. Although that project ultimately failed, Uzair learned a lot about human motivation. A few years ago, when he was working with students in middle and high school, he noticed a great lack of motivation and focus in the first period of the day, which seemed to be getting progressively worse. Due to his professional experience and his own wellness growth, he saw an opportunity to have an impact by creating the District Zero app.
Uzair not only knows his stuff when it comes to product, he's a passionate evangelist for the best and most effective product management and development methods. Uzair has a gift for taking a roomful of people at vastly different levels and adapting to each individual's needs so that nobody feels either left behind or too far ahead. Everyone in Uzair's classes learns exactly what they need to know in exactly the style that suits them best. In addition to being a truly gifted teacher who is obviously 100% invested in his subject matter, Uzair is also an awesomely nice guy, super charismatic, and he has a great sense of humor. He is able to control a class just by virtue of being truly interesting, which is a rare quality. Even though I'm an experienced product owner, I got a lot out of his class, and I'd be interested in taking any other class Uzair teaches in the future.
I saw Uzair develop as the CEO of Cleu. He's been able to take an idea from concept to one of the most highly rated and more importantly, loved apps by its users. He not only possesses skills as a Product Manager, but he's also a great leader that is able to get people involved with a product excited about its prospects.
If you haven't spent some time with Uzair, then you are missing out on a person who's positivity, enthusiasm and resilience is beyond normal. In fact, I can't help but hear the "Rocky" theme when I think about him. At Apple, Uzair was not only a top performer in consumer and education sales, a product expert who mastered solution selling, and a B2B specialist that quickly adapted to the needs of a more complex customer, but he was also an incredibly motivating presence. The kind that sees the positive things in all people and all situations. Working with Uzair taught me a couple things- 1) a positive outlook on life is intoxicating and contagious 2) creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship are only limited by our own fears of failure. Recommending Uzair for your organization is just one thing...I recommend you get to know him and maybe join him for his next workout.
I've known Uzair for a few years now, we have collaborated on a number of projects together and will hopefully collaborate for many years to come. As a graphic designer, I’ve worked with many clients, project managers, and co workers over the years and I have never met someone who is so open to the ideas of the designer. All of the projects we have worked on were his own but Uzair has never had a problem with input or suggestions from the people he’s collaborating with. He puts trust in others and refines his product accordingly, never micromanaging or downplaying anyone else’s ideas. That is not only rare, but it is a true mark of a successful human being. Uzair is a strong asset to any team and I am honored to have worked with him for the time that I have.
What I liked most about Uzair was how much he cared for his students by providing the resources to deliver the quality of work they deserved. Seeing this, made me want to come back to teach at GA again and again. The guy has this enthusiastic energy no matter how hard the challenge and always comes through. He puts this same amount of energy into Cleu and always thinks about his user first. By doing this, Uzair has been able to succeed and come out with new concepts that will benefit his customers and change how we view sleep.
Uzair, one of my earliest clients, has shown an avid interest to collaborate with experts to learn how to do things "right", per what the evidence suggests, and to build it into District Zero's product roadmap, current and future. I admire how Uzair prioritizes transparency, both within his own team and with external collaborators such as experts, school districts, and funders. There may be much more to learn and improve but I trust Uzair will continue his journey because this isn't just a product, it's his mission.
Uzair is a visionary product leader. He is a living inspiration that I get to contact, from which I accumulated lots of wisdom about the whole spectrum of product development. Working with him and for him has been one of the best experiences I had as a software engineer. His virtues make developing a product easy by lifting the sudden unknown needs when developing the product, which is essential when working in teams. He is well established in handling situations where you have to make hard decisions, whatever the use case. He will be there to support you in any way possible, whether that is related to work or emotional support.
I have had a pleasure to work with Uzair very closely over the last couple of years on DistrictZero mission of building a trauma informed SEL solution for our K-12 schools and kids. Uzair is visionary, high empathy, execution focused product leader. Uzair led sourcing and onboarding of new team members in distributed world while maintaining a high transparency startup environment. His empathic day-to-day leadership with care for team members and customers inspired everyone around him do better. And above all, Uzair has the skill and focus needed for a good product leader. He is able to put continuous high performance effort with data-driven product shipments to keep forward motion prioritizing the resources available to him as an entrepreneur. I have learned so much from Uzair, including a language for leadership focused on learning and removal of blockers to change / growth. I will highly recommend Uzair to any product team looking for a good leader who cares and will make a difference.
I had the privilege to work with Uzair on a 10 day session in a Computer Science Discoveries course at Glenbard East High School. Uzair brought in a unique lesson build around the design thinking process. His persistence and drive to improve the students learning environment through social emotional learning strategies is unprecedented. Uzair is a team player who is concerned about helping others. His communication, teamwork, and presentations were top notch. His drive includes an optimistic approach to learning through failures. He is changing the way we see SEL in the public education sector. He puts the students first and seeks to understand how to remove blockers from their learning environments.
It has been a huge pleasure to work with Uzair. Rarely, does someone clock-in and be excited to work; however, Uzair has created a work place of transparency and effective cross-channel communication. It is inherently obvious as well that the consumer always came first when working with Uzair, keeping top of mind data privacy and new tools that may help the consumer with their journey at District Zero. The startup world is no easy task, but to usher every day with an outlook of positivity and a great amount of leadership is what made working with Uzair exceptional!
