Ivan Vasilev

I worked in New York, London, and Moscow as a product manager, designer, and founder.

Presentum, London
Founder, Since 2021
  • Founded a comprehensive hiring platform for product teams, overseeing the project lifecycle from ideation to launch.
  • Implemented peer-to-peer review functionality, a video interview platform, and a machine learning-based candidate search utilizing computer vision, speech-to-text, and vector embeddings.
Scentbird, New York
Senior product manager, 2018-2020
  • Led the retention product team at a Y-Combinator backed startup.
  • Developed an ML-based product recommendation system, oversaw the launch of the native mobile app, and improved customer experience across various touchpoints.
Alfa-Bank, Moscow
Design director → VP of design, 2013-2018
  • Established and grew a design department from the ground up to over 30 product designers and engineers.
  • Introduced the first open-sourced, industrial-grade design system in Russian fintech and oversaw a comprehensive redesign of the retail and corporate online banking experience.
Digital channels manager, 2012-2013
  • Played a crucial role in digital transformation, transitioning most operations from branches to online channels and significantly growing the active online user base.
  • Incorporated the design thinking framework into the organizational culture to enhance strategic initiatives.
Goldman Sachs, New Jersey
Product designer, contract, 2016-2017
  • Redesigned an internal mobile security platform over six months.
  • Delivered UI layouts and collaborated with engineers to enhance UX for iOS and Android apps.
Yandex, Moscow
Lead product pesigner, contract, 2015

Consulted on information architecture for Yandex.Disk mobile apps as interim lead product designer.

Molinos digital advertising agency, Saint-Petersburg
Head of Design, 2009–2012

Merged the studio with Molinos ad. agency in 2010, transitioning it into their web production department.

Founder, desinger, 2002–2009

Grew my design studio to nine employees, establishing it as a prominent web production in St Petersburg by 2009.

Soft5, Saint-Petersburg
Co-founder, designer, 1998–2001
  • Co-founded a startup in high school, developing a market—leading LAN center automation software.
  • Managed UI and website design, and online advertising.
  • Conducted direct sales and customer support, selling over 100 copies in the first year.
  • Expanded sales operations by hiring and training new sales personnel.

I studied visual arts, data science, user research, and coding to excel in building products.

Data Science and Machine Learning
NYC Data Science Academy
New York
2019
Modern JavaScript
Moscow coding school
Moscow
2016
UX research
Nielsen Norman Group
London
2013
Marketing and advertising
Saint Petersburg State University of Technologies
Saint-Petersburg
2005
Visual arts
State Hermitage Museum
Saint-Petersburg
2000

Events

HeyGrowth Summit 2022 ↗︎
Scientific hiring

Online conference about product growth and design. I shared findings from the research about hiring product designers at a scale. Fun fact: this was the most upvoted talk in the product design section.

Online from London, England, April 21, 2022.

Design Line Boost—2

Preparing for a product design interview

900+ online attendees. Educational event held by Design Line, Sergei Krasotin and Alexander Kovalsky.

Online from London, England, November 8, 2020.
Digital Product Design: Role, Goal, Method, Design Prosmotr: Season 10. Saint-Petersburg, Russia, April 28, 2018.Design Prosmotr: Season 10 ↗︎
Digital Product Design: Role, Goal, Method

~500 attendees. One of the most popular regular design conferences in Russia.

Saint-Petersburg, Russia, April 28, 2018.
Digital Product Design: Role, Goal, Method, Codefest 2018. Novosibirsk, Russia, March 31, 2018.Codefest 2018 ↗︎
Digital Product Design: Role, Goal, Method

2042 attendees. The biggest tech conference in Siberia, Russia.

Novosibirsk, Russia, March 31, 2018.
The 19th World Festival of Youth And Students ↗︎
Designer 2022

20 000 people from 180 countries. This is an international festival with top speakers. I prepared a special speech on the future of the design profession (hence 2022).

Sochi, Russia, October 20, 2017.
Design Weekend NN 2017 ↗︎
Common Mistakes in Digital Product Design

~1500 attendees. Fundraising for an event and a lecture on digital product design.

Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, September 30, 2017.
UX-Sreda ↗︎
Design Systems

~120 attendees. The regular event hosted by Mail.Ru, usually focused on one specific design topic (this one was on Design Systems).

Moscow, Russia, September 27, 2017.
Design Systems, Dribbble Meet-Up 2017. Moscow, Russia, June 3, 2017.Dribbble Meet-Up 2017 ↗︎
Design Systems

The Moscow chapter of Dribbble meetup took place for the 6th time in June 2017. The event is hosted in the headquarters of Mail.Ru, one of the top 5 internet companies in Russia, and brings together the Russian Design community. 1000+ attendees and 10000 online viewers.

Moscow, Russia, June 3, 2017.
Habrahabr Open Studio, RIT++. Skolkovo, Russia, May 12, 2017.RIT++ ↗︎
Habrahabr Open Studio

One of the biggest tech conferences in Russia, accompanied by a special online feed organized by Habr, the biggest tech community in Russia. Habr invited me for an interview and as a moderator. At the peak moment, there were a whopping 10000 online viewers.

Skolkovo, Russia, May 12, 2017.
Design Team and 10 Product Design Principles, Strelka Lektorij. Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, April 22, 2017.

Strelka Lektorij

Design Team and 10 Product Design Principles
Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, April 22, 2017.
Design Team and 10 Product Design Principles, Codefest 2017. Novosibirsk, Russia, April 1, 2017.Codefest 2017 ↗︎
Design Team and 10 Product Design Principles

1782 attendees. The biggest tech conference in Siberia, Russia

Novosibirsk, Russia, April 1, 2017.
German culture in Saint Petersburg, Kunsthalle. Hamburg, Germany, October 15, 1997.

Kunsthalle

German culture in Saint Petersburg

This is my first public speech. My first speech in English and abroad. The story behind this picture: I used to study the History of Arts in St. Petersburg State Hermitage. I took part in a student exchange program between the Hermitage and Kunsthalle (Hamburg). As a part of this program, a dozen selected students who participated in scientific work were invited to talk about it in Germany. Luckily, someone (I believe, Nikita Kanukov) took a picture of me talking in public in 1997.

Hamburg, Germany, October 15, 1997.

Contacts

My time zone is whatever time zone is currently in London.

rockbee@rockbee.com