It seems we have a problem.For the past few months, I’ve been spending several hours a day on job search websites, and I’ve accumulated a lot of questions. One of them is about the boundaries of our profession and the rationality of some job requirements. The issue lies in the blurry lines between professions in…

Two narratives dominate today’s debate about the future of work: “robots will replace everyone” and “technology will unlock an ocean of new professions.” Both rely on neat cost curves, while the real economy stays stubbornly down‑to‑earth. This essay offers five field stories that explain why companies still pay humans even for tasks that look eminently…

After a year-long, nerve-racking project I decided to reward myself with an expensive blazer. The boutique greeted me with a pleasant scent, soft lighting, and jazz. The perfect picture collapsed when a sales associate glanced at my rumpled T-shirt and jeans and said, “The clearance section is over there.” Needless to say, I didn’t buy…

Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” But what if your job is far from a fulfilling, passion-driven endeavor? A modern reinterpretation of this wisdom could be: “Turn your work into a game, and you won’t feel like you’re working at all.”…

Back in 2016, without a single Russian case study to reference, we built our first Employee Journey Map (EJM) (link: portfolio). It wasn’t about following trends—it was a necessity. We needed a tool that could make HR transformation into a service model structured, clear, and user-centered. Why Do We Need Journey Maps? EJM helped us:…

Adoption is the ultimate measure of a product or service’s success. It defines the viability of your idea and its real-world execution. You can create a beautiful product, present it at a conference, and even win an award for “Service of the Year”—but the only true metric of success is whether real users adopt and…

Sometimes It’s a Lack of Resources, Sometimes It’s a Designer’s Oversight In either case, appropriation is such a widespread phenomenon that the process of creating a product cannot ignore it. Appropriation is not just a fascinating quirk of human behavior—it’s a lens through which we can better understand user needs, resourcefulness, and even flaws in…

From time to time, former colleagues, friends, and people familiar with my passion for human-centered design invite me to give lectures or lead workshops. A couple of years ago, thanks to such an invitation, I had the opportunity to speak to some of Russia’s most talented high school students at the “PROSTO” festival organized by…

Over the past few weeks, I’ve written and published five case studies about the most exciting projects from my career as a service designer. I believe this is sufficient for a portfolio; hiring managers rarely explore even this much. Now, I’d like to breathe life into this space by sharing more personal, less structured posts.…