# Mert Erbil

> Mert Erbil is a digital product person and consultant based in the Netherlands, a startup advisor, an occasional speaker and mentor, and the creator of merbil.fm, a Turkish-language YouTube channel of monologues on tech, modern life and adulthood.

This is Mert Erbil's personal website. Every page is also available as Markdown (add .md, e.g. https://merterbil.com/about.md). Text is licensed CC BY 4.0; please credit "Mert Erbil" with a link when quoting.

## Working with startups
Mert Erbil works with early-stage startups on user-facing products as a product and experience advisor, and is open to new advisory roles and small early-stage investments.
- [Startups](https://merterbil.com/startups.md): how he works with early-stage teams, current advising, and what he's open to
- [advising after5](https://merterbil.com/startups/after5.md): advising, 2025–now. Advising the cofounders of After5, an IRL friendship platform for ambitious women, on product strategy, UX direction and the way they build.

## About
- [About Mert Erbil](https://merterbil.com/about.md): who he is, background, education and papers, a short bio
- [Home](https://merterbil.com/index.md): overview with latest posts and featured talks, projects & startups
- [CV](https://merterbil.com/cv.md): work experience, projects, education, certificates and skills ([PDF](https://merterbil.com/mert-erbil-cv.pdf))
- [Papers and theses](https://merterbil.com/papers.md): from his studies, mostly unpublished

## Posts
English write-ups of his merbil.fm videos (videos in Turkish). Topics: [games](https://merterbil.com/topics/games.md), [music](https://merterbil.com/topics/music.md), [tech](https://merterbil.com/topics/tech.md), [internet & media](https://merterbil.com/topics/internet-and-media.md), [travel](https://merterbil.com/topics/travel.md), [making things](https://merterbil.com/topics/making-things.md).
- [why big companies get hacked so easily](https://merterbil.com/posts/why-big-companies-get-hacked-so-easily.md): Hacked Danfoss fridges, empty Albert Heijn shelves, an AI-found PHP flaw and PS5 piracy, and why Gabe Newell's line on piracy explains all of it. (2026-10-27)
- [1000 days on duolingo, and why greater than zero is enough](https://merterbil.com/posts/1000-days-on-duolingo.md): A 1,000-day Duolingo streak in Dutch, and why it feels like fatigue: habits work, gamification is a tax, and the owl treats adults like kids. (2026-10-05)
- [what gta 6 will and won't be](https://merterbil.com/posts/what-gta-6-will-and-wont-be.md): GTA 6's $1–2B budget, the Netflix trailer bet, what it means for AAA studios, and why I expect an old formula done really well, not a tech leap. (2026-09-30)
- [why we should talk about music more](https://merterbil.com/posts/why-we-should-talk-about-music-more.md): Music used to build friendships. Spotify turned it into furniture and a 30-second economy, but young rock fans are still out there. Why I'll talk albums. (2026-08-23)
- [made by google '26, and why i can't leave apple](https://merterbil.com/posts/made-by-google-26-and-my-apple-lock-in.md): Made by Google '26, the Pixel Watch's predicted blood pressure and insulin resistance trends, and why leaving Apple for a Pixel feels like a migration. (2026-08-15)
- [tokyo in three words, culture shocks and food](https://merterbil.com/posts/tokyo-in-three-words.md): My wife Zeynep asked me five questions about Tokyo. Why it reminds me of Istanbul, what felt close and far, people-watching in Shibuya, and what we ate. (2026-08-05)
- [how content went from newspapers to scrolling](https://merterbil.com/posts/from-newspapers-to-scrolling.md): From one-way newspapers to webmasters, Web 2.0 and today's endless feeds, why the internet is back to push, and why I can't get into scrolling Reels. (2026-07-29)
- [the pains of gaming as an adult](https://merterbil.com/posts/the-pains-of-gaming-as-an-adult.md): Open-world games felt like closing tasks after work, FIFA ate 2,000 hours, and Mario Kart, Pokémon and Spider-Man brought the fun back. (2026-07-24)
- [mad cool 2026, notes from the most beautiful ankara in the world](https://merterbil.com/posts/mad-cool-2026-festival-notes.md): My notes from Mad Cool 2026 in Madrid, with Foo Fighters, Florence and the Machine, a surprise Twenty One Pilots show, Nick Cave and Pulp closing it. (2026-07-17)
- [this video took me 11 years](https://merterbil.com/posts/this-video-took-me-11-years.md): Radio dreams in the 90s, podcasts since 2015, a newsletter burnout, and why my first video still took 11 years. Plus the low effort, high context rule. (2026-07-13)

## Talks
- [product discovery with ai at surepay](https://merterbil.com/talks/product-discovery-with-ai-surepay.md): workshop, 2026-05. A Product Discovery with AI workshop for the product team at SurePay, going back to Netnography, Pre-mortem and JTBD and how AI changes each one.
- [how apps communicate with users, at trmnl4](https://merterbil.com/talks/trmnl4-app-communication.md): workshop, 2026-05. A workshop for consumer tech founders at TRMNL4 on notification design, built on a 2016 Google I/O ethnographic study on attention.
- [product management in the ai era, at istinye üniversitesi](https://merterbil.com/talks/istinye-genai-guest-lecture.md): guest lecture, 2026-04. A guest session in a GenAI course at İstinye Üniversitesi on the past, present and future of product management, and why the fundamentals still win.
- [designers and product people in the ai era, on dux](https://merterbil.com/talks/dux-ai-designers-product-people.md): panel talk, 2025-11. A panel talk on Çağdaş's dux channel with my friend Nazlı, about how AI landed in design and product work, ethics, and whether it will take our jobs.
- [telling the after5 story at ie business school](https://merterbil.com/talks/ie-business-school-after5.md): guest lecture, 2025-10. A virtual guest session with After5's cofounders in a Fundamentals of Marketing course at IE Business School in Madrid, on how After5 grew and its marketing.
- [a guest in business communications at boğaziçi](https://merterbil.com/talks/bogazici-business-communications.md): guest lecture, 2024-04. A guest session in a Business Communications class at Boğaziçi University on working in tech and living and working in a multicultural environment.
- [user-centric product management, the jtbd way](https://merterbil.com/talks/jtbd-product-management-academy.md): talk, 2023-11. My talk on Jobs to be Done at a product management academy meetup in Amsterdam, where I was also one of the hosts of the evening.

## Projects
- [tv prompter](https://merterbil.com/projects/tv-prompter.md): weekend project, 2026-10. A free, open-source teleprompter for Android TV. The TV shows a little address, you paste your notes there from your phone or laptop, and it scrolls them very slowly.
- [glow](https://merterbil.com/projects/glow.md): weekend project, 2026-10. A free, open-source Mac menu bar app for Philips Hue lamps. Click to switch, drag to dim and right-click for colors, without Siri, Alexa or your phone.
- [merbil.fm](https://merterbil.com/projects/merbil-fm.md): solo project, 2026–now. My YouTube channel of Turkish monologues on tech, modern life and adulthood, made on a low effort, high context rule.
- [işte promiyer lig](https://merterbil.com/projects/iste-promiyer-lig.md): community project, 2025-09. A small website for our Fantasy Premier League mini-league, with live standings, prize periods and every lineup, built on the FPL API and GitHub Pages.
- [berbat teknolojiler (terrible tech)](https://merterbil.com/projects/berbat-teknolojiler.md): podcast, 2025–2026. A 20-episode Turkish podcast I co-hosted with designer Çağdaş on the dux YouTube channel, about modern failures and tech that was supposed to be better.
- [wardrobe genie](https://merterbil.com/projects/wardrobe-genie.md): maker contest, 2019. A daily outfit picker I built on Coda for Product Hunt's 2019 Makers Festival, a no-code contest. It won the Life Hacks category and a Golden Kitty.
- [hypeoldu](https://merterbil.com/projects/hypeoldu.md): newsletter, 2017–2018. My Turkish newsletter and blog about media, tech and hype, from 2017 to 2018. 106 posts, still online.
- [apsiyon's first design sprint](https://merterbil.com/projects/gv-sprint-stories-apsiyon.md): case study, 2017-04. My write-up of Apsiyon's first GV-style design sprint, which I facilitated in 2017, published in GV's Sprint Stories on Medium.

## Elsewhere
- [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/@merbilfm)
- [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/merterbil)
- [google scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lbu6iu0AAAAJ)
- [researchgate](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mert-Erbil)
- [github](https://github.com/merbil)
- [unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@merbil)
- Email: hi@merterbil.com

## Optional
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