Volodymyr Merlenko

AI Product Designer

Mentor

Backed by 15+ commercial projects, I design products that combine great user experience with real business needs. My process covers everything from UX research to beautiful, psychology-driven UI.

In the past couple of years, I've been at the forefront of integrating AI into my process – moving from static mockups to interactive prototypes and using AI-powered tools to connect design with engineering, helping teams validate ideas faster.

My true strength is that I'm always curious to learn, experiment, and share the knowledge with others. Someday, I'll start a product company myself, but for now, the focus remains on supporting other people's dreams of creating amazing digital experiences.

Public initiatives

Lectures & Mentorship: I've given several lectures on AI for Service.so, hosted a client-facing webinar at Cieden, and was invited as a speaker to the "AI with no coding" webinar by Anatolii Bondar. I also mentor designers through the Mate Academy mentorship platform, donating all earnings to the KOLO Fund.
AI & Design Community: I've founded a 300+ member Telegram chat about artificial intelligence and launched a weekly LinkedIn blog that earned over 550,000 impressions last year.
PDPro (Pet-project): In my spare time, I'm also building a product to help IT professionals finally learn the skills they've always been putting off – easily, quickly, and in a personalized way.

Education and certifications

Product Psychology Masterclass (Growth.Design | Issued Jun 2025)
Experiment 1.01 (Projector Institute | Jul 2024 - Sep 2024)
UX/UI Design (Mate Academy | Aug 2021 - Dec 2021)

Skills and tools

Artificial Intelligence

Product Research

Prototyping

Design Psychology

UX/UI

Web & Mobile Design

Design Systems

B2+ English

Cursor

Claude

GitHub

Figma

v0.dev

Lovable

Vercel

Professional experience

Product Designer, Way2B1 (via Cieden)

Contract, Oct 2023 – Present

Collaborated with the CPO on the product vision to create an AI-powered life management tool for high-net-worth individuals and their wealth advisors.
Bridged the gap between static designs and live product by developing interactive prototypes using Cursor, Convex, Vercel, and other AI tools.
Contributed to improving team processes by introducing activities such as "Design Studio" workshops and presenting work in cross-functional demos to gather feedback and make design decisions.
Worked in a fast-paced environment, which inspired me to write a DOU article that received 19k+ views.

"Vlad embodies the designer of the future."

"His combination of deep expertise with a beginner's mindset, along with his blend of design craft, technical capability, and AI fluency, makes him exceptionally rare."

– Bruce Yang, Head of Product at Way2B1

Product Designer, NDA

Freelance, Apr 2024 – Aug 2024

Led the design of an innovative AI-powered career coaching platform from scratch.
Conducted deep competitive analysis of 10+ companies, which helped to identify the key opportunities and led to a mobile-first design strategy that outshined competitors.
Collaborated closely with the founder on product direction, aligning user experience with business goals.

UX UI Designer, Cieden Agency

Full-time, May 2023 – Present

Actively contributed to the design community both internally at Cieden through knowledge-sharing sessions and externally through a personal LinkedIn blog and a Telegram chat.
Hosted a webinar on the use of AI tools in design to attract and educate potential clients.
Worked on several other short-term outsourcing projects as a UX UI designer.

UX UI Designer, Softengi

Full-time, Dec 2021 – May 2023

Conducted research and usability testing on a client's internal tool to identify critical pain points and inform the new design.
Designed an improved, AI-powered version of the product based on research findings, delivering responsive designs for both desktop and mobile web.
Gained foundational experience by working on several projects for a diverse range of clients.

"Throughout our collaboration, we have accumulated a wealth of experience in designing, testing, and validating interfaces, always to the client's satisfaction."

"I highly recommend Volodymyr because I know he is a reliable individual who can be trusted to deliver, whether in calm or high-pressure situations."

– Stan Zadvornyy, Chief Design Officer at Softengi

Articles

DOU | Jul 7, 2025

DOU | Jan 31, 2025

Medium | Jan 13, 2025

Medium | Dec 30, 2024

DOU | May 24, 2024

DOU | Mar 28, 2024

Lectures

Service.so | Apr 21, 2025

Cieden | Apr 7, 2025

Service.so | Feb 28, 2025

Від дизайнера до підприємця: створення продукту мрії з нуля за допомогою АІ