Ellen Kovalenko — Product Design Leader
London-based product Design Leader specialising in complex systems in fintech, adtech, AI, commerce, and two-sided platforms.
I work across B2B and B2C at the intersection of strategy, design, and product, turning ambiguous problems into shipped, successful products. From AI-driven platforms at Klarna to large-scale enterprise systems at Deutsche Bank and Deloitte.
🔒 PORTFOLIO
Klarna — Berlin, Germany
Shopping Feed
Shopping Feed
I led the strategic redesign of Klarna's Shopping Discovery Feed, transforming it from a transactional surface into the central entry point for the shopping experience.
I shaped the design strategy from first principles: repositioning the feed around personalisation, integrating influencer-led and AI-generated content, and designing a journey that served both users and Klarna's merchant partners. The feed was elevated to a top company priority, taking over the full homepage, and delivered 60% higher average viewing time and 25% higher CTR.
I shaped the design strategy from first principles: repositioning the feed around personalisation, integrating influencer-led and AI-generated content, and designing a journey that served both users and Klarna's merchant partners. The feed was elevated to a top company priority, taking over the full homepage, and delivered 60% higher average viewing time and 25% higher CTR.
Scope: Design Strategy · Content & Personalisation Strategy · AI/ML Integration · Cross-functional Alignment (16 teams) · Hands-on Design & Prototyping · User Research & Testing · Launch Oversight · Designer Mentoring
Klarna — Berlin, Germany
Ads Manager
Ads Manager
I initiated and led the 0-to-1 design of Klarna's Ads Manager, a self-service advertising platform for 500,000+ merchants.
With no existing product or precedent, I defined the opportunity, secured roadmap buy-in through prototyping and internal discovery, and led design end-to-end. The platform integrated AI-powered ad creation, advanced targeting, and real-time analytics into a single intuitive workflow. Post-launch: 131% revenue growth and 30% increase in CTR.
With no existing product or precedent, I defined the opportunity, secured roadmap buy-in through prototyping and internal discovery, and led design end-to-end. The platform integrated AI-powered ad creation, advanced targeting, and real-time analytics into a single intuitive workflow. Post-launch: 131% revenue growth and 30% increase in CTR.
Scope: Design Strategy · 0-to-1 Product Design · JTBD & User Journeys · Generative AI Integration · Discovery & Opportunity Framing · Stakeholder Management · Cross-functional Collaboration
ABC Financial — Dallas, TX, USA
Club Manager
Club Manager
I led design of a comprehensive gym management platform for ABC Financial, consolidating member management, billing, scheduling, and reporting into a unified operator experience.​​​​​​​
Managing a distributed team through a critical transformation period, I established quality standards and user-centred practices, ensuring design decisions were grounded in operational reality. The result reduced friction for gym operators and gave ABC Financial a scalable product foundation.
Managing a distributed team through a critical transformation period, I established quality standards and user-centred practices, ensuring design decisions were grounded in operational reality. The result reduced friction for gym operators and gave ABC Financial a scalable product foundation.
Scope: Product Design Strategy · Revenue & Subscription Management · Payments & POS · Scheduling Systems · User Research & Discovery · Team Management · Quality Control
Deloitte — Chicago, IL, USA
AI Tax Processing
AI Tax Processing
I led design for a Deloitte ML/AI platform built to automate large-scale financial data preparation, blending, and analysis, a high-stakes workflow where errors carry real compliance risk.
Working closely with data engineers and stakeholders, I mapped the end-to-end process, identified friction points and risks, and designed workflows that enable repeatable, auditable outcomes with minimal manual intervention, significantly reducing processing time and error rates.
Scope: Information Architecture · ML/AI Workflow Design · Prototyping & Testing · In-depth User Research · Accessibility · Cross-functional Collaboration · Discovery
Verifone — NYC, USA
Curb Taxi Ecosystem
Curb Taxi Ecosystem
I held design ownership across Curb's full product ecosystem, the leading taxi dispatch and payment platform in NYC and across the US and the UK, spanning 10+ interconnected products: driver and rider apps, in-cab media, payments, navigation, and dispatch tooling.
I established design processes, led strategy across the portfolio, and managed a team of designers while staying hands-on. A systematic UX audit of the core apps lifted App Store ratings from 4.1 to 4.8 across 70,000+ reviews.
Scope: Design Strategy · 0-to-1 & Iterative Product Design · Driver & Rider Apps · Payments & Ads Platform · Navigation · Design Process & Team Management · Discovery
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Atea — Riga, Latvia
Ecosystem Marketplace
Ecosystem Marketplace
As sole designer, I designed and delivered a B2B ecosystem marketplace and subscription billing platform for Atea, a multi-sided system serving distributors, resellers, managed service providers, and vendors.
I owned the full process end-to-end: research, opportunity framing, catalogue and billing design, partner channel tooling, and production-ready assets, giving Atea's partner network a unified, scalable operational foundation.
Scope: B2B Subscription & Billing Design · Ecosystem Architecture · Catalogue Systems · Research · Prototyping · Cross-functional Collaboration
