Slava Karablikov sees product design as a puzzle, and he loves 

Whenever Slava Karablikov, a celebrated product designer, begins a new project, it is like beginning a puzzle. Every idea is like a new piece fitting into another, and he finds the process completely fascinating. Working with a team, the communication to ensure the best possible result fuels him, sharing ideas, sorting them out, and choosing the best to finish that puzzle. When he sees the result of all this hard work, with positive feedback from customers and users and good analytical data, it energizes him.

This passion for his work translates into every project he takes on, bringing success after success to every company he has been a part of. Captiv8, RadiumOne, and 415Agency, all leaders in the tech world, have greatly benefited from his expertise during his time there. Many brands have seen the results of his hard work, including Nissan, Verizon, Twitter, as Veritamo, iCracked, and DeliTreat.

“If we speak about work styles in product design, I can highlight two types: creative and systematic. The first one delivers bright, original, fresh solutions with low consistency and reuse rate. The second type builds consistent logical designs, which could be boring. Usually, you want to have both types on your team. I can consider myself a systematic and analytical one. It doesn't mean I lack creativity. It means I'm relaying my work on tested safe practices and patterns rather than new risky solutions,” said Slava.

One of Slava’s fondest memories of helping a brand drive results was with VERITAMO, one of his most critical projects at 415Agency. One of his points of interest was the peculiarity of the project business model. VERITAMO was a Californian startup that worked in the luxury service industry. The target audience of the product was multimillionaires and billionaires. Usually, he begins each project by gathering information from its base, but as VERITAMO’s customers are not the type that can be easily interviewed, he had to get creative, and it was an immensely challenging and intriguing project for the product designer.

“I would say it was a rather unusual experience. The typical methods of testing product hypotheses using interactive prototypes didn't work. During our progress, we discovered that our target audience is not the reach people but their assistants, so we aimed our force on investigating their duties and habits. This eased the way of testing our product hypothesis,” he recalled.

Slava’s skillset made him an asset to the VERITAMO project. He worked with the product ecosystem: a platform for providers of luxury services, mobile applications, and the product website, and helped in developing and testing product hypotheses. He also supported the implementation of the design solution on production and was involved in almost all production activities. 

“Working on this project wasn't dull. You had to be creative to gather data or find respondents for the interview. Everything was outstanding: the audience, their habits, and preferable visual style. It's what I enjoy most – a unique experience with unique projects,” he said.

The success of VERITAMO’s collaboration with 415Agency was a defining moment for Slava’s career. He and his team’s efforts helped launch VERITAMO as a global brand, and it was even featured in Forbes, a leading business publication, for its skyrocketing success.

“First of all, the principal value of the project is an unusual experience. It was tough to penetrate the rather conservative market of luxury services. But we made it and had something tangible and valuable as a result. Working on this project was like moving in the dark, then when you turned on the light, you felt happy and relieved,” said Slava.

For more information about VERITAMO, check out the company’s website.