my story
my story
my story
work
work
work
ethos
ethos
ethos
nice to meet you
nice to meet you
nice to meet you
about me
about me
about me
I get it - you want the one-liner. Product designer, ten years in, specialised in onboarding and growth. That's the version that fits on a card.
Here's the longer version, because it's the one that explains how I work.
The world isn't short of people who can solve problems. It's short of people who stop to check they're solving the right one. Almost every failed product I've watched up close was built competently. It just answered a question nobody was asking.
By the time a problem reaches a designer, it has usually been described as a solution already: we need a better onboarding screen, the pricing page should be clearer, users don't understand the feature. The work I care about happens one step upstream — finding out what's actually broken, which is often not what got reported and almost never what got requested.
That's also why I don't think design is decoration. Defining a problem correctly is the highest-leverage thing anyone does on a product, and it's a design act. Everything after it is execution.
I get it - you want the one-liner. Product designer, ten years in, specialised in onboarding and growth. That's the version that fits on a card.
Here's the longer version, because it's the one that explains how I work.
The world isn't short of people who can solve problems. It's short of people who stop to check they're solving the right one. Almost every failed product I've watched up close was built competently. It just answered a question nobody was asking.
By the time a problem reaches a designer, it has usually been described as a solution already: we need a better onboarding screen, the pricing page should be clearer, users don't understand the feature. The work I care about happens one step upstream — finding out what's actually broken, which is often not what got reported and almost never what got requested.
That's also why I don't think design is decoration. Defining a problem correctly is the highest-leverage thing anyone does on a product, and it's a design act. Everything after it is execution.
My Journey
My Journey
My Journey
I followed an old dream and moved to Japan to study Japanese literature. A year in Kyoto turned out to be training for the work I do now, though I didn't know it at the time: reading what a text is actually doing underneath what it appears to say. Systems, symbols, the distance between the stated thing and the real one. My first creative job happened there, almost by accident, and that accident decided the rest.
Back in Ukraine I had a degree in Japanese literature, rent to pay, and no experience in a field full of people who had plenty. So I taught myself. Illustration first — drawing was what I'd done anyway, since childhood — then everything around it: composition, type, colour, 3D, the craft of making an image do something. It took a few years to notice that what held my attention wasn't the image but the decisions behind it. An illustration answers the brief. Design decides whether the brief was right. I moved across, and stayed.
In 2022 the full-scale invasion brought my family to France. I began again in a new country, a new language and a new market — the third time I'd started from the beginning, and the first time I knew how.
Since then I've worked on products where the first five minutes decide everything: onboarding, activation, the moment someone chooses to stay or leave. Most recently at Readdle, on Spark. Alongside it I founded Maison, a connected object for scent and light — I grew up watching my mother build a company on her own, so I had some idea what I was signing up for. It taught me hardware, patents, and how much of design happens before anything gets drawn.
I now live near Montpellier, and I'm looking for a team building something with real ambition behind it, where design is part of deciding what gets built rather than how it gets dressed.
I followed an old dream and moved to Japan to study Japanese literature. A year in Kyoto turned out to be training for the work I do now, though I didn't know it at the time: reading what a text is actually doing underneath what it appears to say. Systems, symbols, the distance between the stated thing and the real one. My first creative job happened there, almost by accident, and that accident decided the rest.
Back in Ukraine I had a degree in Japanese literature, rent to pay, and no experience in a field full of people who had plenty. So I taught myself. Illustration first — drawing was what I'd done anyway, since childhood — then everything around it: composition, type, colour, 3D, the craft of making an image do something. It took a few years to notice that what held my attention wasn't the image but the decisions behind it. An illustration answers the brief. Design decides whether the brief was right. I moved across, and stayed.
In 2022 the full-scale invasion brought my family to France. I began again in a new country, a new language and a new market — the third time I'd started from the beginning, and the first time I knew how.
Since then I've worked on products where the first five minutes decide everything: onboarding, activation, the moment someone chooses to stay or leave. Most recently at Readdle, on Spark. Alongside it I founded Maison, a connected object for scent and light — I grew up watching my mother build a company on her own, so I had some idea what I was signing up for. It taught me hardware, patents, and how much of design happens before anything gets drawn.
I now live near Montpellier, and I'm looking for a team building something with real ambition behind it, where design is part of deciding what gets built rather than how it gets dressed.
problem
research
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
My Work & Philosophy
My Work & Philosophy
My Work & Philosophy
Design Direction
Holistic approach
Team Leadership
I start by disagreeing with the brief — politely, and only until we've established what the problem really is. Most of what looks like a design problem is a business problem, a messaging problem, or a problem of asking people to do something they were never going to want to do.
After that, the work is ordinary and demanding: research that's honest about what it found, prototypes early enough to be wrong cheaply, and interfaces that get out of the way. I believe in less, but better — not as an aesthetic, but because every element you keep is one you have to justify.
I start by disagreeing with the brief — politely, and only until we've established what the problem really is. Most of what looks like a design problem is a business problem, a messaging problem, or a problem of asking people to do something they were never going to want to do.
After that, the work is ordinary and demanding: research that's honest about what it found, prototypes early enough to be wrong cheaply, and interfaces that get out of the way. I believe in less, but better — not as an aesthetic, but because every element you keep is one you have to justify.
beyond design
beyond design
beyond design
The fastest way I know to find out that I've defined a problem too narrowly is to talk to someone who lives differently than I do. I've been lucky with that — different countries, languages, backgrounds, people whose assumptions don't match mine. Their stories keep resetting what I think is obvious, which is usually where the wrong problem was hiding.
The fastest way I know to find out that I've defined a problem too narrowly is to talk to someone who lives differently than I do. I've been lucky with that — different countries, languages, backgrounds, people whose assumptions don't match mine. Their stories keep resetting what I think is obvious, which is usually where the wrong problem was hiding.
Let's connect
Let's connect
Let's connect
If my story or work resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re building a brand, exploring a new direction, or simply curious about design — let’s talk.
If my story or work resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re building a brand, exploring a new direction, or simply curious about design — let’s talk.