Focus — Product discovery · B2B SaaS · UX/CX background · AI-assisted prototyping
UX roots, eight years in product. Strongest in B2B SaaS, fintech and complex CX: I find where users lose context, frame the problem in business terms and carry it through to a product solution that reduces support load and cost-to-serve
Experience — 8 years
2026
Atomic English · solo pet project + AI agents
Pet project · Android MVP · research project
Tested whether one person with AI agents can ship an Android MVP end-to-end: product logic, UX, runtime, dictionary contract, QA and a managed build pipeline
2024 — 2026
Senior Product Manager · Product Owner
X-Keeper · B2B telematics · 2M+ devices
Shifted the customer dashboard from a support-heavy model to genuine self-service: rebuilt device-setup flows, introduced an asset-centric monitoring model and shaped the web and mobile experience for large B2B accounts
2020 — 2024
UX/UI → CX → Product Owner
Sber · fintech / loyalty · team of 15
Operated inside a large fintech environment: interfaces, design system, user research, CJM, hypotheses, backlog and adjacent teams
2018 — 2020
UX/UI designer · branding and web
Studios and freelance
Branding, landing pages, web interfaces and no-code prototypes. Systems thinking grew out of components, states and patterns
Education
2022 — 2023
HSE University · Analytics in Digital Product Management
2015 — 2020
Russian State University of Justice · Civil Law
Master's
Courses
Yandex Practicum · Product Manager · 2023 ·
Moscow Digital Academy · UX Design ·
Paper Planes · Win The Market & Win The Digital ·
UsabilityLab · Customer Journey Map training ·
Krasnodar Art College · Easel painting
Inside this document
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02
How I work · Agile role & Discovery
Role · Discovery · AI
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03
Case: From devices to assets
X-Keeper · 2025
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04
Case: Self-service instead of a support call
X-Keeper · −20% support
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05
Case: Atomic English · solo + AI agents
Pet project · 2026
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06
Case: Fintech, CX, 15-person team
Sber · 2020 — 2024
Elena Tonkikh · How I work
Role · Agile · Discovery · tonkikh.netlify.app →
My role in an Agile team — and the value
I bring at discovery
My core responsibility is discovery and product logic. In the later stages I step in selectively — I help preserve the intent of the solution, but I don't replace design, systems analysis, delivery, engineering or QA
01
Discovery
My role — core
- Frame the business problem, user flow and success criterion
- Build a flow prototype: steps, states, permissions, errors, edge data
- Run the research, tests and leadership presentations
- Stress-test the feature for viability before it reaches a sprint
02
Backlog refinement
My role — supporting
- Write feature documentation
- Split must-have scope, risks and future improvements
- Help the team keep user logic intact while decomposing stories
03
Sprint delivery
My role — selective
- Answer product questions whenever an implementation fork appears
- Help the team trade off value, time and scope
- Check the demo against the original flow — without managing engineering
04
Release & learnings
My role — product learnings
- Check whether user behaviour and support load have shifted
- Isolate the real effect from noise
- Frame the next round of hypotheses and improvements
Discovery — that cuts the cost of being wrong
My job is to help the team see — earlier — which hypothesis works, where the flow breaks and what should not be handed to engineering at all. The team saves time, design and engineering stay unburdened, and discovery leaves behind a clear base of decisions
01 · Hypotheses
Validated before expensive engineering
I validate hypotheses on flow prototypes, real data and explicit success criteria
02 · Risks
Less wasted work
I pin down roles, permissions, states, errors, data and edge cases up front.
03 · Decision memory
Artefacts the team can return to
I leave behind reports, documentation, research findings and metrics for every hypothesis
How I use AI agents in discovery
AI-assisted prototypes that leadership and research can act on
- Build the UI on real data, anchored to the existing design system or current mockups
- Validate product logic through a prototype: roles, permissions, states, errors, data and disputed transitions
- Wire up the backend and work against the database on isolated branches so engineering isn't interrupted
- Such a prototype is faster to evaluate and easier to research — it's close to the planned implementation
Elena Tonkikh · Case 01
X-Keeper · 2025 · objects.html →
From devices to assets: a new remote-monitoring model for bank lessors
When new connections slowed, the business needed to grow differently — a second device on already-connected assets. But the product showed devices separately, and the second device's value wasn't visible. I rebuilt the product model: an asset is a bundle of devices, not their sum
+12%Assets with two devices
2MDevices in install base
1Unit of monitoring — the asset
01Context
Growth had to come from the second device
A crisis and rising key rate slowed financing of new vehicles. With fewer new assets, the business had to grow on already-connected ones — a second device per asset. The dashboard is the only remote-control surface once the device is installed.
02Problem
A model limit, not a UI gap
In the dashboard, devices appeared as separate entities even when they belonged to the same asset. Operators stitched events together by hand. Sales couldn't argue the value of a pair — because the model didn't show the pair
03Approach
An asset as one observable unit
Reframed the unit of monitoring from a device to an asset. Routes, events and states roll up to the asset; a second device adds confidence rather than noise. Sales got a coherent story; security got a bird's-eye view of the fleet
To show the value of a second device, the unit of observation had
to change first.
— Reframing the task
B2B SaaSTelematicsAsset modelBanks & leasingOperatorsSales enablementWeb + Mobile2M devices
Elena Tonkikh · Case 02
X-Keeper · 2025 — 2026 · auto.html →
Self-service instead of a support call
On a B2B telematics platform, users were calling support for actions already available in the dashboard. I rebuilt the key flows so clients could configure devices, manage assets and pull data themselves — without a manager
−20%Support tickets on device reconfiguration
+9%Sessions in the customer dashboard
×4Mobile-app sessions
01Context
The dashboard wasn't a growth channel
Session Length wasn't a target metric. A good B2B dashboard should help clients finish tasks faster, not keep them inside the screen. Users could already configure devices and view events — but the flows were scattered and depended on hidden settings.
02Strategy
Independent work, end to end
Turn key flows into clear self-service inside the dashboard: visible next step, explicit dependencies between settings, and the ability to complete device setup, asset work or data retrieval without contacting a manager.
03Approach
Four product moves
- Tabular view for large fleets — fast sorting beyond the map
- No dead-end flows — system enables dependent settings
- Timeline + second metric on the route — analysis, not viewing
- Mobile relaunched on Kotlin Multiplatform
Fewer support tickets start with clearer product logic — not «fix the screen», but finish the scenario
— Self-service principle
Self-serviceB2B SaaSDiscoveryCJMTabular UXKotlin MPMobile relaunchSupport load
Elena Tonkikh · Case 03
Solo Pet Project · 2026 · app.html →
Atomic English: shipping an MVP solo, with AI as a synthetic team
A full-stack product cycle led by one PM with AI-assisted execution. Narrowed the real-content idea into an Android MVP, built product logic, a Supabase/Postgres backend, a curated dictionary and a testable learning loop. The main takeaway: a learning product stands on trust in the data
14k+Meanings in the dictionary
300hProduct, dev and data cleanup
Solo + AIOne PM as orchestrator
01Insight
Vocabulary growth above A1 needs trustworthy data, not gamification
Built for an adult learner: basic English is already there. The next stage needs quality words, precise meanings, short context and a clear learning queue — not mascots and streaks.
02Pivot
From media discovery to a curated dictionary
Discovery with texts and audio surfaced words of uneven quality and added storage / sync / release risk. The MVP narrowed to a curated B2-level deck — proving the loop first, scaling sources later
01 · Find WordsCurated B2-level deck
Pre-curated quality words: diverse parts of speech, clear frequency, learning value.
02 · Word CardWord, meaning, context
Translation, learner-facing meaning, and context tied to the selected meaning
03 · LemmasLearning queue
Selected words enter the queue and stay until a deliberate user action
04 · ChunksA word in short context
Focus shifts from an isolated word to natural use.
05 · ReviewSpaced review
The word returns on the right day and stays part of the system
Modern AI tools can ship MVPs and complex products — but there is no «make it good» button. What matters is management discipline and Agile principles: framing, ownership, context, validation, orchestration.
— Outcome · Hypothesis confirmed
Try the Android MVP
Scan to join the beta test
Elena Tonkikh · Case 04
Sber · 2020 — 2024 · sber.html →
Fintech product: interfaces, CX,
a 15-person team
Four years inside Russia's largest bank and fintech. I moved step by step from screens to product logic — investments interface design, then customer-experience work and hypotheses, then Product Owner in the Sber app team. The shift from thinking in screens to thinking in product systems
01 · UX/UI DesignerInvestments
Investment interfaces and design system
- Designed components and screens for investment products: charts, showcases, product cards and learning materials
- Built and maintained design-system components in Figma — web, iOS, Android, states and dark theme
- Ran design reviews and refined work based on research and analytics
02 · CX ManagerCustomer experience
Customer journeys and hypotheses
- Worked through customer journeys and located friction points
- Ran target-audience, user-need and competitive analysis; generated and validated hypotheses
- Built concepts, prototypes, CJMs and stakeholder materials; defended a strategy for a new cross-platform feature
03 · Product OwnerSber app · accounts & cards
Sber app: accounts and cards
- Led accounts-and-cards flows with a 15-person team, adjacent teams and contractors
- Owned the backlog, priorities and requirements; aligned product, design, analytics and development via Jira / Confluence
- Built a unified onboarding to «Spasibo» for non-bank customers across partner surfaces
This period moved me from thinking in interfaces to thinking in product systems — the foundation for the later work on X-Keeper and Atomic English
— Main shift in role