# Slava Derzhaiev 🇺🇦

> Product designer, founder of Reasonal | Course Hero | WIN Reality | Bain & Company | On Deck Founders (ODF15)

Location: United States, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/slavaderzhaiev

I'm a Ukrainian product designer currently based in the US. I work across different platforms, including web, mobile, and VR. I've launched an educational app and co-founded a fintech startup. I have a strong background in data analysis and business strategy, developed during my time as a management consultant at Bain.

## Work Experience
### Senior Product Designer @ Course Hero
Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States
Course Hero is an online platform providing students and educators access to study resources, homework help, and educational content. The company has secured funding across 4 rounds and is valued at $3.6B.

### Product Designer, Founder @ Reasonal
Jan 2024 – Present | Newark, Delaware, United States
Critical thinking skills for today’s world.

### Fellowship @ On Deck
Jan 2022 – Present
On Deck Founders (ODF) is a community that brings together founders of early-stage startups. ODF offers access to world-class speakers, networking opportunities with other founders, and customized support from staff members and advisors.

### Product Designer @ WIN Reality
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Austin, Texas, United States
WIN Reality is a VR sports tech startup that uses virtual reality to train baseball and softball hitters, simulating real-life pitching speeds on Meta Quest headsets. I joined WIN Reality as its first product design hire.

- Optimized the web purchase flow, leading to a 20% increase in conversion rate, 17% increase in annual mix, and a 24% upsell rate for the new premium plan.
- Created a concept and launched a trial experience in the VR channel (purchases through Meta Store), boosting purchase conversion by 25% compared to the baseline.
- Established a new design system aligned with the updated brand and logo.
- Revamped the website, integrating the rebrand, improving information architecture, and optimizing the checkout process.
- Created an internal tool to manage enterprise user databases and permissions, and optimized the experience for both web and mobile platforms.

### Lead Product Designer, Co-founder @ Rupt AI
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | Austin, Texas, United States
Led a team to create, build and launch a mobile app that helps casual investors make smarter stock picks.

- Boosted sign-up conversion rate by 19% through redesign of onboarding and sign-up flow.
- Boosted trial conversions by 59% after revamping paywall strategy.
- Led all UX/UI work, including UX research, UX writing and information architecture. 
- Interviewed 35 and surveyed 700 potential users to identify key needs and problems in the space.
- Devised product concept, product roadmap, product specs and oversaw product development from concept to final product, working closely with analysts, data scientists and engineering team.

### Consultant @ Bain & Company
Jan 2015 – Jan 2021
Developed marketing, business, and product strategy for major clients, working closely with C-level management.

- Led the research and development of a roadmap for 100+ customer experience improvement initiatives with an annual budget of $75M. Supported its implementation, managing internal employees and external client teams. 
- Developed a 5-year strategy (including product strategy, product benchmarking, and customer segmentation) for one of the leading European airline groups managing 2 reports directly and up to 5 reports indirectly.
- Was responsible for operational improvement, customer experience enhancement and ancillary revenue growth of one of the major European airlines with potential effect of ~$60M.
- Developed a go-to-market strategy for the US market for a European FMCG company.

### Senior Strategic Planning Manager @ BBDO Worldwide
Jan 2013 – Jan 2015
Led teams in conducting customer research, identifying key insights and developing integrated marketing and communications strategies for major brands in Retail, FMCG, and Automotive industries.

- Independently managed one of the agency’s most important clients, which resulted in improvement of client’s revenue by 19% comparing to PY on a declining market.
- Created a communication campaign for a retail client which resulted in a 97% increase in revenue from online channel and allowed to outpace the market leader.
- Was responsible for the successful completion of a cross-functional project that required collaboration of local and global media, digital, strategic and research teams. Developed business processes for teams that have never worked together before and provided coordination to deliver joint result under pressing time constraints.

### Strategic Planning Manager @ Leo Burnett
Jan 2008 – Jan 2013
Led customer research and marketing strategy development for the largest global client of Leo Burnett, working with its 6 brands.

- Reversed brand’s market trend from fastest declining brand to the fastest growing.
- Developed and led until completion a series of pilot projects in close collaboration with local and global client teams that outperformed the baseline by 600%. Key findings and approaches were later additionally adopted in 6 cities and 2 international markets.
- Created a local marketing campaign for a global brand that halted market share decline and stabilized market share. The campaign was later rolled out in 3 markets, and the agency received "Superior" – its highest evaluation score from the client.
- Restructured client's consumer segmentation by developing new key insights and collaborating with a third-party agency. The segmentation was subsequently approved by global management, and serves as a basis for most marketing decisions.
- Managed and coached 2 full time direct reports and up to 7 indirect reports for specific projects. 
- Organized and facilitated client-agency workshops and trainings with up to 40 participants.


## Education
### UX Design
IxDF - The Interaction Design Foundation

### Bachelor in Management
Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU)

### High Technology Business
Northeastern University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/derzhaiev
- Portfolio: https://derzhaiev.com/

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Source: https://flows.cv/slavaderzhaiev
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/slavaderzhaiev/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-13