Product designer
I validate design with metrics,not intuition
Hi, I’m Katya Yulina. Open to new projects —
full-time or freelance
The problems people bring to me
Design decisions get made by eye, and then they are hard to explain and defend
Before drawing a single screen I build a BPMN diagram and a user flow — so any decision can be explained by the logic of the scenario rather than by taste
Every new platform, or every step of product growth, means reassembling the logic from scratch — and the user gets lost
I design so that a solution behaves the same whatever the platform, and does not need rebuilding as the product scales. In the Just AI case the channel picker in Aimylogic has run unchanged for six years
The interface has accumulated steps that were once added one at a time — even the person who invented them gets lost
I bring scattered steps into a clear information architecture and a user flow that reads. In the ISPsystem case a usability study found 53 problems across four touchpoints of a ten-step scenario — the case shows the solution for one of them
A designer wants to grow faster than they can on their own, and cannot tell what to do first
I mentor on real work, not invented exercises: I build an individual development plan, take decisions apart piece by piece, and stay in touch years afterwards — see Testimonials
Colleagues want Claude AI to understand the specifics of their own design work instead of handing out generic advice
I write design skills for Claude AI — colleagues come to me for them, and you can too
Users try the product and leave before they reach the value, and growth hypotheses need testing fast
I work out at which step users leave and why, take hypotheses through to a prototype and look at the numbers. In the MyOffice case this approach lifted day-one retention: 80% of users used to leave on the first day, and today the product keeps 76 thousand of them
Several teams build one product, and what comes out is three different services
I bring the interface down to one system of components and rules — not an instruction on paper but a working tool for the whole team. The design system I built at ISPsystem is listed in the Catalogue of Russian Design Systems
There is data, but no clear picture of the product
I take scattered spreadsheets and reports and build a single screen: one glance and it is clear how things are going
There is a site or a landing page, but no sales coming from it
I design and build it myself, writing code blocks for custom components — with no need to assemble a team of designer, markup developer and engineer. That is how the MarketologTECH landing page raised the client’s monthly profit 2.5×
A CV gets lost among hundreds of identical ones, and the interesting offers never come
I designed a personal one-page site for Sergey — recruiters started writing to him through it, and a site he once showed “just for feedback” turned into a job offer
You promote yourself or your business on your own, and the visuals are a logo here, a template there, with no single style
I draw illustrations, covers and icons, build a visual concept from scratch and take it to a system you can go on using yourself — the way this site works
Numbers instead of promises
MyOffice · 2023—2026
76K
MyOffice Documents users who stay past day one — they used to leave
marketolog.tech · 2026
+150%
Monthly profit from subscriptions
MyOffice · 2023—2026
+350%
Releases a year with no design-side delays
MyOffice · 2023—2026
+108%
Speed of validating hypotheses while bringing AI into design
I talk about the work, not only do it
I speak and write about UX: talks at ProfsoUX, IT Global Meetup and Astra TechDays, articles on Habr and vc.ru. The ISP UI design system I built at ISPsystem is listed in the Catalogue of Russian Design Systems
All publicationsTestimonials
Thanks to her sense of responsibility, her ability to work autonomously, and her skill at building processes and communication with colleagues, Ekaterina handled complex tasks successfully, including under uncertainty
Together we designed a complex part of the product for sales and sales ops — and what came out is a tool that solves people’s pain rather than just adding functionality
She explains things until they click, and lays out theory that until then had been mush in my head. We worked on real projects rather than invented tasks — that played a part in my getting hired. Years after the mentoring, we are still in touch
She took me under her wing when I was a completely green specialist. From her I picked up the habit of breaking tasks into parts, trying different approaches, and taking a pause when it really is not going anywhere — which is what gets me out of a work block
The site that came out of it — recruiters and developers leave delighted comments about it, it helped me earn noticeably more, and the one time I asked for feedback on it, that turned into an offer for the job I have now.
You can dump a pile of thoughts and problems on her and she sorts it into a structure that makes sense, often with a solution I would never have arrived at myself. I do not have to spell out what exactly to change. With any feedback on mockups she first works out why I need it at all, rather than just executing it. And she takes criticism calmly: you can give feedback straight, without ceremony
About me: experience and interests
I am drawn to design that moves business metrics directly, and to everything happening right now where design meets AI. Design systems too, and work on the border between research and visual language
Art school, then art college — that is where the feel for form and colour comes from. Then a bachelor’s in information systems and technology — that is where the systems thinking comes from. I still work where those two worlds meet
At Just AI I designed voice interfaces, which led to a patent on the Just AI Conversational Platform, 2018—2021
I started out freelancing, then worked at KB Sobaka Pavlova, Dnevnik.ru, Uptick Inc, Just AI, WinHappens, ISPsystem and MyOffice
I navigate for a rally crew in classic rally: I keep the time, read the pace notes and finish on the podium. I also ride a motorcycle and train at the gym — up to 150 kg in the deadlift
Rally channel: vk.com/ed_kat_rally