Ilya has been working with us as a consultant and coach for the past months to help us improve how we do product at Remi overall, and to tackle some of our biggest challenges as an early stage software startup.
Working with Ilya has been nothing short of amazing - he's been an amazing sparring partner on product strategy and vision formation, but also great support on improvement of our day-to-day product management practice - whether it's discovery process opimization, workshop design or how to do better user interviews - he's increased our confidence in our approach substantially.
Rebecca Görres - Co-founder @ Remi
Many years ago, I met Ilya as peer. I liked the way he managed his product, his customers, and his colleagues. Later, we both moved on to different companies. We stayed connected. Occasionally, we will hop on a call and discuss our challenges, approaches, and frameworks. I always learned a lot from all these sessions. Ilya has this wonderful way of asking you tough questions that help you crystalize you’re thinking. I was getting so much from these conversations that we decided to convert this into a coaching relationship. As a coach, and as a colleague, Ilya is sharp, insightful, deep thinker, focused on delivering value. Most importantly he understands product management inside out. In a coach you want honesty, insights, ability to clarify your own thinking, and a world-view that can position you to succeed in delivering value to your customers, your stakeholders – and Ilya can deliver all of that. I totally recommend Ilya as a product coach.
Shājey Rūmi - VP Product @ Elastic
I've had the pleasure to work with Ilya on several projects, in which he provided invaluable support as consultant and advisor. Ilya consistently demonstrated outstanding strategic vision, combined with very experienced and effective hands-on project management; furthermore, he imbued focus and structure within the team, as well as leading with clarity, energy, enthusiasm and openness. I very much look forward to working with Ilya again and I strongly recommend him.
Walter Gjergja - Board Advisor & Head of Mindfulness @ Palta
Ilya is smart AF. He’s also low ego and deeply focused on understanding user needs. He’s one of the best PMs I’ve worked with.
Aditi Shekar - CEO @ Zeta
It has been a sincere pleasure to have Ilya consulting for Himalaya. Ilya is very data driven with amazing experience in product management and prototype design. He gave inspirational direction for the team to grow and deliver business results at the same time.
I would happily jump at the chance to work with Ilya again, should the opportunity arise. If you are looking for an inspirational product consultant that understands content business, subscription model, global growth and can work effectively cross functionally, Ilya is your guy. I highly recommend, endorse and support Ilya.
Ariel (Xingxin) Liu - CEO @ Himalaya
Ilya has consulted me several times. He has helped me with two requests:
— meaningful and actionable advice to improve product discovery and delivery processes;
— preparing a pitch deck for a comprehensive product solution.
During our collaboration, I have liked that Ilya is very experienced in product leadership, product discovery and product delivery. He is people oriented person (customers, team mebmers, stackeholders).
It was a pleasure working with Ilya, and I hope that we will have a chance to work together again!
Kristina Ochkina - Product Manager @ Simple
Ilya helped me rebuild the product team and processes at Simple.
He has an excellent systematic understanding of what is essential to do and how to grow at certain stages of product development and the company as a whole.
I was lucky to receive such a gift - a high-level professional explains complex things in simple language and gives shortcuts to solve them 🙂
Stanislav Pyatikop - CPO @ Simple
We brought Ilya on board to advise our Product team on key processes. Ilya helped us with several product prioritization questions and supported one of our junior PMs through ongoing coaching. He was able to quickly understand the product and its challenges and help us think through a leaner approach to making product bets and running experiments around them. Because of his experience both in house and as a consultant, he was able to quickly spot product issues and suggest improvements that we had not thought of. I highly recommend him to any companies looking to level up their Product team, his feedback is invaluable.
Sandra Wu - Director of Growth @ Himalaya
Ilya worked with us - an early-stage startup - on product discovery. He designed and ran a workshop with us and a number of subject matter experts. The workshop was a great success, we were able to scope out a very convincing MVP and the overall atmosphere was very productive and positive. Ilya not only facilitated the workshop but also provided lots of very valuable input into the product scoping. Ilya is very responsive, reliable, well organised and methodical in his approach. We found him through a recommendation by a former product manager and I am very grateful for it. We are looking forward to working with him more in the future, e.g. by helping him guide our MVP implementation.
David Klemm - Co-founder @ Stealth Startup
I had a great fortune onboarding Ilya as advisor when co-founding and leading the product at WeatherWell. We had a period of rapid dynamics with the product and Ilya came as a great help to me in reflecting on product tactics and strategy. Ilya’s approach and the kind of person he is have more than once helped me to find solutions for the challenges I seemed to be stuck with.
I think we had this vibe of trust, openness and love for the product that allows for looking at things at different angles. It helped me to adjust my approach to validating hypothesis and understanding the users. A great experience I am thankful for.
Oleg Sosna - Co-founder @ WeatherWell
Ilya is a seasoned product management professional. He meticulously dives into the product, structures the hypothesis validation process, iterates on ideas, and develop the solution people appreciate.
Alexander Chekan - Chief of Staff @ Palta
We invited Ilya to help a number of startups in Palta family with product strategy. His work has been really valuable, also he's easy-going and fun to work with.
Alexey Mazurov - HR Director @ Palta
Ilya is highly experienced and very friendly. I highly recommend working with him.
Ilya consulted for Ahead to give me and my team some additional guidance on how to set up and run a highly effective Product Team. He 1st listened to every team member and then gave us a full report on things we were doing well and things we could improve. His improvement areas were insightful and we noticed an improvement after implementing them.
Duncan Campbell - Product Manager @ aHead
Ilya worked with the SideChef team to understand the user pain points and product opportunities in our shoppable recipe/online grocery experience. He brought a fresh product perspective, and I appreciated his ability to balance both user and business needs. He’s a thoughtful listener and great communicator - overall pleasure to work with!