From childhood dreams to global impact, it’s recognition time for the teams behind building and launching Realize and its new Predictive Audiences tool. We asked Taboolars across Product, Engineering, and Product Marketing, “What was your dream job as a kid?”
Their answers? Heartwarming and unexpected. Their jobs today? Inspirational and game-changing, and the impact of their work is increasingly making its mark on advertisers worldwide.
Predictive Audiences: Its Superpower, Explained
Before we meet the incredible team behind the magic, let’s dive into what exactly Predictive Audiences is and what’s got the team so hyped. “We love superheroes at Taboola,” Roei Turgeman, Group Director, Product Management shared, with Boaz Shor, Algorithm Engineer, and Allen Chang, R&D Team Lead, adding that if Predictive Audiences had a superpower, it would be “x-ray vision for customer behavior.”
The Predictive Audiences tool is about leveraging data to connect advertisers with the right people at the right time. Allen explained, “Predictive Audiences leverage historical data to help advertisers identify and reach users with similar interests to their existing customers.” A key strength of the powerful tool the team is super proud of? It allows advertisers to move beyond simple demographics and tap into users’ intent, predicting their future actions based on their online behavior.
Meet The Team
While the road to their careers today may have been unexpected for some—from childhood aspirations of journalism, lawyering, and astronomy—the team behind Realize has many reasons to celebrate their accomplishments. Their work has driven users to report strong performance and higher conversions for less spending compared to campaigns run outside of Predictive Audiences, and it’s just the beginning. Now, let’s meet the team!
Meet Allen Chang, R&D Team Lead. With an early childhood dream to work in AI, his passion is now a driving force in his work at Taboola. He leads the R&D team behind Predictive Audiences and builds solutions that empower advertisers to reach their ideal customers. Allen’s younger self? “He’d be excited to see what I’m doing because it’s always been my dream to build AI products.”
Boaz Shor, an Algorithm Engineer, took a significantly different route to the tech world. “I initially wanted to be a doctor,” he revealed. His pursuit of medicine led him to computational biology, where a love for the “computational” side of things ultimately steered him towards computer science. Today, Boaz plays a crucial role in crafting the algorithms that power Predictive Audiences. “The kid that I was would think this is a part of an amazing science fiction movie. They’d be very excited.”
Gabi Assif, Product Manager, expressed how his early goal was to be a lawyer for deaf individuals. “I even learned sign language,” he added. While his path shifted away from law, today, Gabi has been an integral part of ensuring that tools like Predictive Audiences are intuitive and impactful. When reflecting on his earlier career dreams and recent accomplishments, Gabi humorously added that his younger self would ask, “What’s a product manager?”
Jonathan Quach, an Algorithm Engineer, shared how, in his earlier years, he was fascinated by astronomy but ended up transitioning to tech after admiring his friend’s coding work, piquing his interest in pursuing a tech career. Today, Jonathan expressed, “It makes me genuinely happy that our users are reporting good performance using Predictive Audiences. They’re saving costs, and with every dollar they put in, they’re getting more out.”
Katherine Pickles, Senior Product Marketing Manager, shared, “When I was younger, I wanted to be a journalist or a writer.” Today, her knack for crafting compelling narratives and understanding audience needs now translates into her work in product marketing, ensuring that the value of Taboola’s products are clearly communicated. Her younger self? Katherine said, “They’d be excited that I’m working on products that show real innovation and drive impact.”
For Tom Chin, an Algorithm Engineer, working in tech and building tools that solve real-world problems was always a motivator. Tom shared, “I wouldn’t have imagined that someday I could become someone who would develop such large systems serving this number of users globally. I see a real impact on this product because I see the daily real-time metrics.”
Roei Turgeman, Group Director, Product Management, also took a turn from his early aspirations. “As a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer, but I used to take apart VCRs, so I think, in some way, it was my destiny to build cool products that have an impact,” he shared. Now, he’s at the forefront of overseeing a team of product managers. Roei’s expertise lies in understanding market needs, defining product strategy, ensuring collaboration between product and R&D, and playing a key role in the strategic direction of innovations like Predictive Audiences.
A Team Collaboration
Like any successful product, Predictive Audiences was a deeply collaborative effort. Katherine shared, “I work in product marketing, so that means that I work very closely with our product teams developing new products, and I work on enabling our advertisers and our sales and account managers to sell those products to their customers.” This collaborative spirit extended throughout the development process as Boaz explained, “We have a very good collaboration between R&D and Product. (Product) tells us what they hear from their customers, what their needs are, what they’re looking for, and we (R&D) tell them what we can actually do.” This partnership, he noted, led to “an amazing experience working together,” where both sides helped each other “achieve what we needed to” and “define the product in the best way” for customers.
Roei further highlighted the importance of teamwork, adding, “I’m fortunate to work with a team of skilled product managers and our R&D partners to bring innovative ideas to fruition.” This close partnership was echoed by Gabi, who called out the “exceptional” nature of the collaboration and the expertise he gained. Reflecting on the full-cycle experience of working on this product, Tom added, “Being involved from the beginning and seeing the positive impact on our advertisers has been incredibly rewarding.” With a joyful smile, Boaz emphasized, “It’s safe to say that we’re proud of what we accomplished.”
From those early childhood dreams to building and launching Predictive Audiences under Realize, a performance marketing platform that has a real impact on how advertisers connect with their audiences, it’s remarkable and (might we add, heartwarming) to hear the excitement and pride from the team who stands behind it. As Jonathan reminds us, “Technology should ultimately serve people, and I’m proud to be in a job that allows me to get to do that.”
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