Zhenia Vasiliev

Senior product lead

Managing creative and production teams to realise software products since 2018. Duties include stakeholder communication, agile/scrum workflow, designer and developer briefs, associated Devops and MarTech, teaching, learning and intra-company policymaking

Current job specs

    -   30% project management (design, development, UI/UX, QA, devOps) including planning and job estimations (Gantt charts and other WBS)
   -   30% technical writing (requirements, user stories, meeting minutes, documentation, reports)
   -   30% research (concept development, wireframing, user journeys)
   -   10% various (system administration, work with marketing on strategy, SEO, QA)

Background

- Design/creative background (15 years in publishing and online media, 2002-2018)
- Recent experience as a product owner (since 2018)

Technical skills

    -   Scrum / Agile, gitHub flow and CI/CD
   -   Working with offshore teams
   -   Project management tools (Jira), documentation tools (Confluence), basic devOps reporting (AWS)
   -   Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD and wireframing
   -   Adobe products: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Personal qualities

    -   Highest standards of accuracy and precision; highly organised
   -   Articulate with excellent verbal and written communication skills; a confident presenter
   -   Ability to think creatively, highly-driven and self-motivated
   -   Strong leadership skills and ability to influence and collaborate with senior executive management
   -   High level of enthusiasm, energy, drive to succeed as well as a sense of humour and collaborative approach to working
   -   Data and results driven, with the ability to create meaningful KPIs and Goals
   -   Solutions oriented, focusing on always putting the customer first

Achievements

- Drum and Lovie media prizes awarded to the team I worked with between 2018 and 2022
- Migration of publishing platform to infrastructure as a service (AWS, including realisation of ElasticSearch)
- Successful digital production of online film festival in 2021: 35 films, 100K views globally

Clients include

Testimonials

I had the pleasure of working with Zhenia on a number of projects. Not only is he a fantastically talented designer & illustrator - he is also one of the most well mannered, level headed and good natured colleagues I've worked with. Highly recommended!

— Mark McClure, Founder and Creative at Mark McClure Studio Ltd.

I highly recommend Zhenia as a product manager and would love to work together again. Zhenia is a highly skilled and attentive professional that does whatever it takes to help colleagues and gets things done. He makes sure that everyone is on the same page and focused on the main goal thanks to his superb project/product management skills.

— Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, Women's Rights Advocate, Nonprofit Marketing & PR

Zhenia is a phenomenal designer who consistently over-delivered on expectations while working together. His portfolio is very impressive and I would recommend his expertise to anyone in a heartbeat.

— Sean McClure, Brand Strategy Executive, Integrated Marketing Strategy, Data & Analysis, Consultative Sales, Digital Transformation

Zhenia is a very talented designer and illustrator who is a delight to work with. He has worked with me on data visualisation infographics for a particularly demanding client, and produced great work, remaining positive and professional at all times.

— Lisa Grundberg, Senior Editor (The Guardian, Graphic Digital Agency)

Why work with me?

Because I care about delivery of your content as much as you do, and understand that it is you who makes your stories matter.

Industry experience

Over the past two decades, beyond The Guardian, I’ve worked with a versatile group of clients from major media outlets, data analytics and brand consultancies to investment banks to small businesses. Coming from this experience, I know that great content delivered right is what matters the most. I also believe that friendships are more important than high fees.

Creative and delivery as the two key foci

I attend to what I do best, which means putting creative and delivery back into Creative Content Delivery. Therefore, I will be most productive when working with your existing content.

This usually means your editorial boards, marketing strategists and social media account managers — I’m happy to recommend content marketing teams of my trusted colleagues. My role is to make sure that the projects are aesthetically sound, managed well and delivered on time. Forget about roadmap frustrations and worries about the unmet deadlines!

Checkpoints along the way

First step is to spend extra time in discovery, fine-tuning your audience personas and the journeys they take. Second step is to produce: from wireframes to design visuals, to prototypes, to web development across all devices, and testing. I hear from you at every step, making sure the project is shaping up as required.

Delivery at its finest

I am the product manager in a very practical sense of the term, meaning that your product is the top priority. I see my value in cutting your costs, in either creative or technological solutions — while delivering the best quality. I am aware of all the hidden troubles and optimise the process to avoid any headaches down the line.

Get in touch

So if you got an idea, maybe tried working with platforms or agencies before but aren’t sure if these have been too effective so far — why not get in touch?

I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you! I’ll get back to you in a minute.Meanwhile, do not hesitate to add me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn -- or better yet, to subscribe to my newsletter!regards,Zhenia

I am also active as an illustrator and information designer. Check my creative portfolio here and do not hesitate to follow me on social: