Open to opportunities

Yulia Ustimenko

@yuliaustimenko

Product Designer with 3+ years crafting end-to-end SaaS and startup experiences, from research to design systems and handoff.

Zimbabwe

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a Product Designer role where I own end-to-end discovery-to-handoff, build scalable design systems, collaborate closely with engineers, and use AI-assisted workflows to ship faster with measurable UX impact.

I’m a Product Designer with 3+ years designing SaaS and startup products end-to-end, from product discovery and UX research to prototyping and developer handoff. I bring strong visual design skills and deep expertise in design systems, plus front-end development knowledge to keep solutions technically feasible.

In recent freelance work, I accelerated design velocity by integrating Claude for rapid prototyping, research synthesis, and design-to-code handoff—reducing iteration cycles by 40% and freeing 5+ hours/week for strategic focus. At Investure, I co-designed a fintech/edtech platform from 0 to 1 and redesigned onboarding to reduce an 88% drop-off, while shipping 80+ product pages and building a scalable design system.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Product Designer

Freelance

Mar 2025 - Mar 2026 (1 year)

Designed end-to-end digital products for developer tools, SaaS, and e-commerce clients, from research to wireframing, prototyping, and developer handoff. Integrated Claude to accelerate prototyping and design-to-code workflows, reducing iteration cycles by 40%.

Claude Rapid Prototyping User Research Design To Developer Handoff Design Systems Component Libraries Wireframing Prototyping

Product Designer

Investure

Jan 2024 - Feb 2025 (1 year 1 month)

Co-designed a fintech/edtech platform from 0 to 1, shipping learning modules, trading simulations, and portfolio analytics for 3,000+ users. Redesigned onboarding and learning-to-practice to reduce drop-off by 88% and built design systems to support consistent UX across rapidly shipped features.

Product Design User Research Platform Audits Competitor Analysis Usability Testing Wireframing Prototyping Design Systems Component Libraries Claude

Visual Designer

Cratch

Jan 2023 - Feb 2024 (1 year 1 month)

Modernized 100+ UI components for a Web3 dapp, ensuring WCAG 2.1 compliance and improving audit scores by 25% for screen reader usability. Built a design system with 50+ reusable components, reducing design delivery time by 30% and feature development cycles by 25%.

Accessibility Design Systems UI Components Mobile App Design Prototyping UI Design

UI/UX & Front-End Development

Independent Study

Feb 2022 - Jan 2023 (11 months)

Developed front-end development skills to better collaborate with engineers within technical constraints. Built personal UI/UX projects end-to-end (research, wireframing, prototyping, interface design) and studied design systems and component-based design thinking.

HTML CSS JavaScript React Chakra UI styled components REST APIs UI UX Design Research Wireframing Prototyping Design Systems

UI/UX Designer Intern

Accenture

Nov 2021 - Feb 2022 (3 months)

Collaborated with a team to deliver accessible web interfaces aligned with client goals. Conducted user research, created user flows and high-fidelity prototypes using an established design system, and contributed to cross-functional design reviews.

User Research Accessibility User Flows Design Systems Cross Functional Collaboration Design Reviews