NDA 21'-23'
NDA 21'-23'
NDA 21'-23'
Role
Lead Product Designer, Product Manager
Range
Lead — Managed 7 designers across various products, unifying designs with a single design system.
Designer — Crafted Ads Manager for Pharma & Scholarly Ads.
PM — Managed an empowered team for the last ~5 months, delivering an AI-powered content consumption app MVP.
Markets
Pharma & Scholarly Marketing, AI, Fundraising, B2C Content/Readers
First things first
While I can't share specifics due to NDA confidentiality, past 2 years, and multiple projects significantly impacted my career. Though details are limited, the key takeaways remain valuable. This experience, documented as a text-only case study, marked a turning point, igniting my passion for product management and propelling me to seek deeper knowledge in the field.
While I can't share specifics due to NDA confidentiality, past 2 years, and multiple projects significantly impacted my career. Though details are limited, the key takeaways remain valuable. This experience, documented as a text-only case study, marked a turning point, igniting my passion for product management and propelling me to seek deeper knowledge in the field.
Lead Product Designer
The company
The company I worked for was a kind of idea incubator for an angel investor and YC alumni from California. The top-level mission was to create a team of designers who would quickly iterate on ideas based on a single, unified design system. This system would be totally modular and would allow for the rapid creation of new apps with similar functionality based on microservices. This would allow us to validate the apps with users and the market.
The company I worked for was a kind of idea incubator for an angel investor and YC alumni from California. The top-level mission was to create a team of designers who would quickly iterate on ideas based on a single, unified design system. This system would be totally modular and would allow for the rapid creation of new apps with similar functionality based on microservices. This would allow us to validate the apps with users and the market.
My role
My role was not only to gain the trust of all the designers, but also to find the weak points of the entire team and to fix and supplement their knowledge. The first step was to prepare all the designers for work in Continuous Discovery and Stakeholder Management.
My role was not only to gain the trust of all the designers, but also to find the weak points of the entire team and to fix and supplement their knowledge. The first step was to prepare all the designers for work in Continuous Discovery and Stakeholder Management.
Challenges
Additionally, since the CEO himself attached great importance to design, I developed a system of asynchronous updates. This allowed for immediate context (avoiding high-switching costs), staying in the feedback loop, and at the same time delaying the continuation of design work as little as possible. It also prevented the design team from becoming a silo in the company. Instead, they could be part of the product teams wherever possible. I don't believe in working in silos and I consider it a waste of resources and time in the vast majority of cases. We spent about fifteen hours on continuous discovery itself and turned the book over from cover to cover.
Additionally, since the CEO himself attached great importance to design, I developed a system of asynchronous updates. This allowed for immediate context (avoiding high-switching costs), staying in the feedback loop, and at the same time delaying the continuation of design work as little as possible. It also prevented the design team from becoming a silo in the company. Instead, they could be part of the product teams wherever possible. I don't believe in working in silos and I consider it a waste of resources and time in the vast majority of cases. We spent about fifteen hours on continuous discovery itself and turned the book over from cover to cover.
Results
What I'm most proud of is the positive feedback from the team members. They said that things finally started to happen, that they were developing, that they saw the point in it, and that it gave them a huge boost in understanding that working in a silo is not a good solution. I still have frequent contact with them to this day.
What I'm most proud of is the positive feedback from the team members. They said that things finally started to happen, that they were developing, that they saw the point in it, and that it gave them a huge boost in understanding that working in a silo is not a good solution. I still have frequent contact with them to this day.
Product Designer
The market
The pharmaceutical and scholarly markets are governed by their own laws. For example, some institutions cannot use their own money to advertise themselves, but they still have to do so. These are not typical entities that advertise in the usual way for most companies. The process of concluding contracts with them can sometimes take years, and the number of restrictions and demands is enormous. A simple bet system with a budget, max CPC and a broad target audience is not enough here.
The pharmaceutical and scholarly markets are governed by their own laws. For example, some institutions cannot use their own money to advertise themselves, but they still have to do so. These are not typical entities that advertise in the usual way for most companies. The process of concluding contracts with them can sometimes take years, and the number of restrictions and demands is enormous. A simple bet system with a budget, max CPC and a broad target audience is not enough here.
The tool I've created
Imagine Facebook Ads Manager, but for a specific audience group, taking into account all the restrictions that I can't talk about due to NDA.
Imagine Facebook Ads Manager, but for a specific audience group, taking into account all the restrictions that I can't talk about due to NDA.
Challenges
While leading other designers and developing a universal design system, I was also creating the foundations for the web app version from scratch. All this had to be done with the limited time of the development team and stakeholders. Over 150 screens were produced, and countless hours were spent with stakeholders on discovery and specific requirements.
While leading other designers and developing a universal design system, I was also creating the foundations for the web app version from scratch. All this had to be done with the limited time of the development team and stakeholders. Over 150 screens were produced, and countless hours were spent with stakeholders on discovery and specific requirements.
Results
I learned a lot about how Ads Marketing apps work. I studied in detail most of them, including Facebook, TikTok, Apple and other big players. Understanding how both the advertising industry and the pharmaceutical industry work in the digital world gave me a lot of food for thought on how to build products.
I learned a lot about how Ads Marketing apps work. I studied in detail most of them, including Facebook, TikTok, Apple and other big players. Understanding how both the advertising industry and the pharmaceutical industry work in the digital world gave me a lot of food for thought on how to build products.
Product Manager
Beginnings
Since a new team was being formed and there was no PM on the horizon, I was given the chance to lead and create a truly empowered team. I had previously proven that I not only knew what product management was about, but I had also described the entire product development strategy, identified the problems that the teams were facing, been involved in many of them, and created teams around the upcoming products. I hadn't felt so excited about a new challenge in a long time.
Since a new team was being formed and there was no PM on the horizon, I was given the chance to lead and create a truly empowered team. I had previously proven that I not only knew what product management was about, but I had also described the entire product development strategy, identified the problems that the teams were facing, been involved in many of them, and created teams around the upcoming products. I hadn't felt so excited about a new challenge in a long time.
Clarity
One of the biggest pain points for product teams is that they don't know why they're doing something and they don't have any influence over it. This was the first thing I addressed. I introduced a well-organized structure in Notion with a clearly visible mission statement for the product that was visible every time someone entered the team space. I created things like:
Long-term strategy divided into 3 main stages
Principles aka Values
Team Charter – so every single person involved would know why this team exists, what are the main goals, who is who, main metrics to tackle, strategic importance of it, major risks, dependent interfaces and provided interfaces
Operating cadence – all frameworks, what we want to be, when and how we will incorporate continuous discovery into the team, how continuous discovery looks for developers and how for a tandem made up from PM and designer, at what stage of team forming we are, why we will never run out of work, why we do discovery as a team, and one of the most important — getting away from old style roadmaps with exact dates for 2 years ahead that will never be delivered and switched to Now, Next, Later roadmapping and exercising it with the team, so we plan what we might do in the upcoming 6 weeks of uninterrupted work and what is next aligning them with OKRs.
and many more small improvements made every single week to just streamline the development process.
One of the biggest pain points for product teams is that they don't know why they're doing something and they don't have any influence over it. This was the first thing I addressed. I introduced a well-organized structure in Notion with a clearly visible mission statement for the product that was visible every time someone entered the team space. I created things like:
Long-term strategy divided into 3 main stages
Principles aka Values
Team Charter – so every single person involved would know why this team exists, what are the main goals, who is who, main metrics to tackle, strategic importance of it, major risks, dependent interfaces and provided interfaces
Operating cadence – all frameworks, what we want to be, when and how we will incorporate continuous discovery into the team, how continuous discovery looks for developers and how for a tandem made up from PM and designer, at what stage of team forming we are, why we will never run out of work, why we do discovery as a team, and one of the most important — getting away from old style roadmaps with exact dates for 2 years ahead that will never be delivered and switched to Now, Next, Later roadmapping and exercising it with the team, so we plan what we might do in the upcoming 6 weeks of uninterrupted work and what is next aligning them with OKRs.
and many more small improvements made every single week to just streamline the development process.
Amplitude
When the app was nearing its first 'Golden Master MVP', I developed the entire implementation process and data taxonomy for the application. This allowed us to track all user paths, drops, and habits already at the beta tester stage.
When the app was nearing its first 'Golden Master MVP', I developed the entire implementation process and data taxonomy for the application. This allowed us to track all user paths, drops, and habits already at the beta tester stage.
OKRs
Due to the nature of the company and the many projects it had, there was no synchronization of goal-setting when it came to times when teams needed to work together. Therefore, with the help of the knowledge team, I introduced OKRs to the entire company and established a quarterly hygiene of summarizing them.
Due to the nature of the company and the many projects it had, there was no synchronization of goal-setting when it came to times when teams needed to work together. Therefore, with the help of the knowledge team, I introduced OKRs to the entire company and established a quarterly hygiene of summarizing them.
Additional Challenge
This application was a precursor to building microservices that would be used in other applications under the same umbrella. This required a slightly different, more general approach to planning and architecture.
This application was a precursor to building microservices that would be used in other applications under the same umbrella. This required a slightly different, more general approach to planning and architecture.
The App
My role includes managing the development of an AI-powered text-to-speech app, optimizing its performance for a universal and seamless user experience. However, confidentiality prevents me from revealing specific details.
My role includes managing the development of an AI-powered text-to-speech app, optimizing its performance for a universal and seamless user experience. However, confidentiality prevents me from revealing specific details.
Results
Thanks to planning using Now, Next, Later roadmapping, clarity about what we were going to do, emphasizing that everyone is part of the planning process, active, fruitful meetings only when needed, trust, being truly empowered, and perfecting the way we show stakeholders the results of what we planned, each team member was incredibly happy with the results after just a few weeks. Various personality tests clearly show that I am able to drive people to work and create things above their abilities or awareness. This opened my eyes to the fact that product management is something I could be passionate about, even though I humbly know that I still need a lot of experience.
Thanks to planning using Now, Next, Later roadmapping, clarity about what we were going to do, emphasizing that everyone is part of the planning process, active, fruitful meetings only when needed, trust, being truly empowered, and perfecting the way we show stakeholders the results of what we planned, each team member was incredibly happy with the results after just a few weeks. Various personality tests clearly show that I am able to drive people to work and create things above their abilities or awareness. This opened my eyes to the fact that product management is something I could be passionate about, even though I humbly know that I still need a lot of experience.
CASPER
ZURAWSKI
NDA
NDA
21'-23'
21'-23'
NDA
NDA
21'-23'
21'-23'