# Kira Laktionov > Product Design & Magic • Shaping AI for Language Learning Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/kiralaktionov I design digital products where the stakes are high and the user base is measured in millions across AI learning, automotive, and human development. My expertise spans end-to-end product design, from early discovery and research through systems thinking, interaction design, and motion. I've delivered navigation experiences embedded in millions of vehicles across global automotive brands, shaped AI-driven learning products, and designed coaching experiences trusted by Fortune 500 companies. Along the way, I've led design framework development, initiated process transformations, and validated product concepts through hands-on research. Over the past decade, I've focused on making complex, high-stakes interactions feel simple and human. Whether someone is learning a new language through an AI tutor, navigating a highway in a car I helped design for, or working through a personal challenge on a coaching platform — the design challenge is the same: reduce friction, build trust, and respect the user's time. ## Work Experience ### Staff Product Designer @ Speak Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area • Redesigned Speak's home experience, driving a 5x increase in weekly active learners, 40x growth in feature interactions, and meaningful improvement in dormant user re-engagement. ### Chief Designer @ Aninix Inc Jan 2021 – Present | Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands ### Staff Product Designer @ BetterUp Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands • Led the end-to-end design of BetterUp Manage™️ 2.0, a new scalable and customizable framework supporting a five-week developmental journey. Stepped in as the sole designer during a critical transition, aligning stakeholders and engineering on a shared vision. Delivered a full design concept in just two weeks, enabling a high-impact demo and setting the foundation for platform-wide adoption. • Spearheaded the design of Dare to Lead, BetterUp’s flagship leadership development solution. Directed design across product launches, collaborated with platform teams for cohesive UX patterns, and tailored experiences to program-specific needs. Outperformed internal benchmarks with 56.2% Day 1 activation, 73.1% onboarding completion, and 90.8% conversion to coaching. • Conceptualized and designed the Guided Journeys framework, introducing a reusable design model that unifies user experiences across product programs and solutions. Supported engineering teams to successfully launch and scale to support broader platform integration. • Recognized for strategic leadership, design craft, and cross-functional collaboration, consistently driving forward platform vision, user-centered innovation, and scalable design systems. ### Senior Product Designer @ BetterUp Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands Working as a Flex Designer, I applied my expertise in product and user experience across multiple teams, identifying and solving critical challenges to accelerate impactful product launches: • Manager experience: spearheaded the advancement of initial designs, leading user research to refine and enhance product offerings. Oversaw implementation and crafted a forward-looking product roadmap, aligning with year-long strategic goals. • Video platform experience: conducted a comprehensive audit and iterative experiments to overhaul the video experience, enhancing scalability, security, and stability. Collaborated closely with PM and engineering team to integrate findings, culminating in a user-centric redesign that recuperated $507K by mitigating UX issues. • Mobile app: led the design of targeted UI improvements to boost mobile app engagement, coupled with the development of a visionary new app concept to elevate user interaction. • Coach messaging templates: defined core objectives and developed a design vision, validated through user research. Streamlined early launch processes, achieving a 13% increase in coach sessions per month with the introduction of messaging templates. • BetterUp Manage™️: designed an assessment report experience in cross-functional collaboration to ensure timely and impactful releases. Achieved 40.5% conversion of the experience during the beta phase. • Additional initiatives: created innovative design concepts to align with new business visions, and partnered with sales teams on prototype designs for client presentations, securing partnership deals. ### Senior Interaction Designer @ TomTom Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands • Designed and delivered notification, feedback, motion, and system UI frameworks that completed an MVP of a new in-vehicle infotainment platform. • Delivered a design concept of the next-gen navigation product through an end-to-end UX process with a team of 4 designers; successfully validated the new design through user testing. • Initiated and supported design process transformation from a persona-based approach to the jobs-to-be-done framework; kicked off team migration to Figma. • Designed a route planning experience and a set of guidance features for Italo-American vehicle lineup 2020–2021 (6.2 MM cars sold in 2020). • Delivered 3 products for Italo-American, French, and Japanese car brands. ### Interaction Designer @ TomTom Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands I get under the skin of drivers to better understand their challenges and pain points to ensure that the design solutions I deliver, are appropriate for the driving context. I define a coherent design strategy at both the conceptual and architectural levels for the core features and client-specific projects overall. I deliver, review, and critique the design solutions, and justify them through user testing. Provide detailed specifications for features and design solutions to development teams, support them during the implementation process, ensuring quality. ### Senior UX Designer @ MacPaw Inc. Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Kiev, Ukraine Owned UX/UI design strategy for the R&D department, including research, methodologies, and guidelines. Defined how our design solutions should highlight & focus on the value of a new product to the user. Created designs for new products and improved them continuously throughout user and live market testing. ### Senior UX Designer @ Star Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | Kyiv, Ukraine • led UX consultations for over 10 external clients in enterprise and automotive • pitched new projects with sales and product teams, converted into 7 new contracts • delivered 5 client projects as MVPs within 3 months each through collaboration with the design, product, and development team. ### Web Design Basics Course Mentor @ Projector Institute Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | Kyiv, Ukraine • conceptualized and produced a 3-month practical course on Web Design basics • led 5 groups of students from zero-level to a solid junior web designer • the topics covered web typography, composition and grids, graphics in web, mobile and responsive web, discovery and ideation, UX basics, client management, and massive amounts of practice. ### Art Director @ Kiselev Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Kyiv, Ukraine Led projects for Ukrainian clients (StarLight, Opayz, Doc.ua, Eda.ua, Union Standard Bank). Created user-friendly UI, conducted usability analysis and quality control, ensured deep understanding of design principles within my team. Key responsibilities: — managed a team of designers, coordinated them during working process; — provided researches, monitored design market worldwide; — conducted brainstorm sessions, researched and collected ideas with a team; — built websites' information architecture; — conceptualised ideas, created wireframes and clickable prototypes; — designed high-quality graphic mockups for the most important and complex clients' websites; — provided constant improvement of outgoing design quality. ### Designer @ Kiselev Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | Kyiv, Ukriane Generated creative design ideas for clients and interpreted them into perfect design of identities and websites. Worked on websites of SuperDeal, DigitalForce, Art-hotel Cosmopolite, MiK, Hotel Grandes Alpes, AdverMap and Oberig. Key responsibilities: — usability research and analysis; — worked on wireframes and mockups; — responsive web design; — logotypes, corporate identities, and supporting collaterals creation; — designed infographics; — worked on mobile applications. ### Web designer @ Kvadrosoft Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Mariupol, Ukraine Working in a team with developers to search for projects and create small promo sites and landing pages. Key responsibilities: — websites design; — websites graphic support (www.livelib.ru); — back end development; — UI design; — logo and corporate style design. ## Education ### Masters in Mechanical Engineering Pryazovsky State Technical University, Mariupol ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kiralaktionov - Portfolio: https://kiralaktionov.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/kiralaktionov JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/kiralaktionov/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13