Hey, George Yakovlev here,
design & product leader, keen on
digital content products, In love with culturally diverse teams
that make an impact

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CV Portfolio

Selected cases

New Visual Language

Mercuryo

Unified visual language for a family of crypto apps, created and preference tested on existing and new users

12M+ users on the platform
≥10pp preference uplift over the original
~600 people in two preference-test rounds

Read the full case→

Reforming UULA design pipelines

UULA

Design department rebuilt around pipeline and research, leaders added, effective rituals created, pace & quality measured

×2.5 release velocity, no quality loss
×2 research velocity
15 → 11 in-house designers

Details coming soon

Design System

UULA

Component and layout template library, detailed application guidelines, DS check routine for the implementation and UI customisation control

45% → 75%+ design-system coverage of the product
3 platforms — web · iOS · Android, 3 screen sizes each

Details coming soon

Tales of the Yaniverse

Yandex Schoolbook

Weekly story-driven illustrated exercises for grades 1–4 in three core subjects as a way to drive exercise engagement and week over week retention

300K+ student MAU
2× student MAU within a year
400+ weekly stories shipped — ~3,200 interactive screens at 8 per story

Screen homework beat paperrandomised trial with HSE, 6,253 third-graders in 343 schools: the same weekly homework done in the product rather than on paper raised both maths results and interest in the subject — doubling the screen time added nothing further

Details coming soon

An interface that teaches

Yandex Schoolbook

Student exercise interface built around scaffolding

Taking the fear out of a wrong answerlives count down and punish; targets count up towards the answer — with three tries a mistake becomes a step in solving rather than a loss

Hints that wait to be neededa first wrong answer is usually a slip, so the interface only marks what the child got right; the text hint opens after the second attempt, once it is clear the child is genuinely stuck

Details coming soon

Publishers Service

State Post Service

Self-serve cabinet for publishers of periodical titles — print-run control, regional discounts, document flow with the postal service and analytics

83k+ corporate users a month
47–48k print titles in the catalogue
6 mo from research to release

Details coming soon

The first dual-screen smartphone

YotaPhone

UX for an E-Ink second screen — flipping the phone hands the content over, auto-lock decides which display stays live

40 dual-screen apps, front + back
<9 mo OS, apps and content from scratch

Details coming soon

Skillset & culture

System-driven business, design- or content, I make impact by building them end-to-end — design systems, content frameworks, editorial pipelines.
Inventor fond of making new things, or old things, but anew — whether that's a product, a process, or the way a team works.
Mindful about people in search of win-win opportunities for the team to grow in skills & career paths.
Experimenter making quick checks to prove myself wrong, all to go quick & cheap until it's working.
Process builder Through definition, control & automations, I excel at driving efficiency up.
AI enthusiast integrating agents in business pipelines, strategic, UI/UX & content design & systems.

Recent Work Experience

2025 — 2026
Mercuryo.io
Global crypto B2B platform.
12M+ users
Head of Product Design
  • Built a new visual language for the apps family — outperformed the original by ≥10pp uplift in user preference;
  • Led the family-wide redesign across the apps.
2022 — 2025
UULA
EdTech · Kuwait & KSA
Head of Design
  • Rebuilt the design team & introduced agile design pipelines, ×2 velocity;
  • Developed a design system for desktop & mobile web, iOS, & Android;
  • Scaled UX research, ~×2 velocity, exploratory and JTBD methods added;
  • Built a visual assets production pipeline, ×3 peak assets production.
2018 — 2022
Yandex Schoolbook
Learning product for schoolchildren inside Yandex family.
90M+ MAU product family
Design Director & Product Manager
  • Launched the teacher & student product from scratch, → 0 to 150K students;
  • Relaunched the flagship junior-school content product as weekly interactive story-based exercises: concept, business model, pilot, execution, launch & scaling, → student MAU ×2 (300K+);
  • Basic Coding Curriculum for Junior School: concept, piloting, execution, launch & scaling, → 100K+ MAU;
  • Integrated Experience Design System: marketing, product & content.
2015 — 2017
State Postal & Delivery Service
18M+ MAU
Product Manager
  • Owned enterprise & B2C postal/logistics products;
  • Launched monetization postcard-sending product, 750k USD per year;
  • Launched print subscriptions service, pricing, documentation & tracking, 20M MAU, ~400M deliveries yearly.
2013 — 2015
YotaPhone
Dual-screen smartphone with secondary e-ink display.
MWC 2014 Best Gadget
Design Director & Head of UX
  • Led end-to-end UX for world’s first dual-screen (EPD) smartphone;
  • Released 40+ apps for front/back screen experiences in 9 months;
  • Produced full visual asset and marketing kits with more than 50 creatives worldwide.

Earlier Projects

Languages

Russian: native, English: fluent, Serbian: conversational

Don't be shy, just say 'hi'!

I'm available for Head of Design roles in global, remote teams, and ready to relocate for great projects.

If you have more questions about me, my skills and experience, or want to talk about an advisory engagement, drop me a line.

Connect on LinkedIn
CV Portfolio