Stas Polyakov

About

Product & Brand Design Lead and Product + Brand Designer with ~15 years end-to-end experience from positioning and identity to shipped products. Led brand strategy, product UX, and design systems across startups and established companies, from founding designer to head of design at a NASDAQ-listed tech company. Drove measurable outcomes including support reduction at a 500K-user bank and GTM/design that contributed to a tokenized security reaching ATH.

Experience

• Strategy & Design Consultant · Republic03-01-2021

  Investment platform democratizing access to startup investing. $1.5B facilitated, 3M users. Backed by investors from OpenAI, Binance, AngelList. ● Developed Brand Platform and led strategy workshops → strategic foundation ahead of $150M Series B raise. ● Created GTM design and relaunch for Republic Note for secondary market debut → token hit ATH 138% above public offering price post-listing. ● Ran product design across 2 verticals Music, Tokenized Securities); led dozens of UX research sprints and product experiments: from deal page updates to global navigation. ● Upgraded Design System and built custom 3 Figma plugins → library 40%, screen assembly 35%.

• Founder & Creative Director · Magic x Logic01-01-2018

  Strategic design consultancy for startups and growth brands. 40 engagements across US, UK, UAE, EU, CIS. ● Led full brand-to-product stack for The_Reason (longevity biotech): brand identity, website, pitch deck, AI-generated visuals, automated reporting pipeline, and core product UI. ● Designed end-to-end UX and design system for GetGen AI (a16z-backed AI compliance product, Fortune 100 clients): information architecture, core flows, and component library from 01. ● Built complete GTM design stacks for 10 startups (incl. $3.5Mbacked Sizl, Anzen, Chef du Chien): brand, pitch decks, websites, product design, AI automation.

• Creative Design Director · Tochka Bank01-01-2019 – 08-31-2022

  Digital-first bank for SMBs, grown into a business ecosystem during tenure. 500K entrepreneurs, #1 mobile bank for micro & small business Frank RG. ● Led rebranding with internal team only → deployed across 5 digital products and offline touchpoints. ● Owned UX strategy and AI assistant design for Tochka XS (app for solo entrepreneurs) → help desk volume dropped by 30%. ● Launched Tochka XL vertical from scratch: ran product vision workshops, hired CPO and Lead Designer → shipped MVP in 4 months. ● Advised Tochka Self-Employed launch: shaped product vision and UX strategy, hired first product designer → service onboarded 10K self-employed users in the first quarter.

• Co-founder & Founding Designer · House of Pitch11-01-2022 – 08-31-2023

  AI-powered cold outreach platform connecting founders with VCs and journalists. ● Designed full product 01 vision, UX, brand, web app → 2,000 users in 6 months, Product Hunt Top 10. ● Achieved 33% pitch acceptance rate 30 more efficient than traditional cold email)

• Strategy & Design Consultant · Profi03-01-2021 – 01-31-2022

  Russia's largest services marketplace. 4M clients, 900K professionals, 450 service categories. ● Developed brand platform, TOV guidelines, and photography system → adopted across all marketing and product channels ● Advised product UX for the new mobile application.

• Product Design Lead · VDNKh + AIC08-01-2019 – 03-31-2020

  CSIʼs largest public space. 325 ha, 30M visitors/year, 85% unaware of areas beyond the main avenue. ● Led UX research and design across website, iOS/Android app, and 22 interactive kiosks → 20% traffic increase to undervisited zones, 30% drop in support requests, 30K app downloads.

• Creative Director & Product Design Lead · BCS Group05-01-2016 – 05-31-2018

  One of Russia's largest financial services groups. ₽500B in client assets, 200K investors. Led company-wide digitalization. ● Led Fins 01 as Creative Director: product vision, brand (agency), team of 5, BCG alignment → "Fintech Startup of the Year 2017", 3,500 waitlist pre-launch, 15K users in first 3 months at 35% activation. ● Designed end-to-end UX across web and iOS replaced branch visits with remote onboarding → $100 entry, zero financial knowledge required. ● Advised product design across 3 adjacent verticals: SME bank, currency exchange, and core investment platform digitalization.

• Head of Communication Design · Yandex10-01-2013 – 06-30-2015

  Russia's leading tech company (comparable to Google). NASDAQ-listed, 100M MAU, 30 products, 5,600 employees. ● Built Yandex's first in-house communication design studio from scratch → scaled to 30 designers, producers, and external partners. ● Managed brand architecture and sub-brand identity across the full portfolio, including integrations following $175M in acquisitions → identities created during this period lasted 9 years unchanged. ● Directed hundreds of digital, offline, and event campaigns across all business units at the company's fastest headcount growth phase

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