Slava Karablikov spends every day doing what he loves most. As an industry leading product designer, he has worked with many major brands to help make an idea a reality. Everything he does in his role is to ensure a product is successful.
“When someone hears the word ‘designer’, the first thought is mockups. It is true in some way, and definitely, it’s a visible part of your work. But as a product designer, you should be involved in all product development stages. You can analyze marketing research, interview users, and build product hypotheses in the early stages. In the middle, you’re working on finding and testing better solutions for revealed problems. In the end, you take part in quality control and analysis of the success of implemented features,” he described.
Originally from Belarus, Karablikov is now known around the world in his industry for his work with many illustrious and award-winning companies such as 415Agency, InData Labs, and RadiumOne. In his current position as Director of Design at Captiv8.io, he has worked with many recognizable international companies, such as Nissan, Twitter, Verizon and Craft Science to develop long-term brand-creator collaborations.
“We build innovative products, so it’s an excellent opportunity to learn something new. It’s challenging and always pushes you forward,” said Karablikov. “We have a highly professional team, and the atmosphere is astonishing. I’m not limited by a fixed list of responsibilities. It’s essential for progress in product design.”
Captiv8 is an internet platform that allows influencers to own, promote and monetize their audience by helping brands and creators connect to impact audiences around the world. Captiv8 has built a platform that organizes social data and makes it universally accessible and predictable.
“I have experience in product for display advertising, but not in social media advertising. I decided to take advantage of trying something new. Also, Captiv8 was a small and dynamically developing team. I had just finished my work at a big company, so it seemed logical to try something smaller but with more significant responsibilities,” said Karablikov.
When Karablikov was invited to join the company, it was initially as a UX designer, doing investigations and building and testing high-level concepts of some features. However, once he showed his talent and experience, it wasn’t long until he was involved in all activities of the product team. Now, as Director of Design, he owns the overall creative direction and UX for influencer and brand onboarding and engagement, from searching talents to world-class marketing campaigns and working with leadership to manage priorities for the team. He is always improving the platform experience by working through design problems from beginning to end, translating insights from research and analytics into concepts that form new products and features, and designing the detailed workflows and interactions required to make them a reality while leading stakeholder reviews. His input in establishing product processes and mediation between stakeholders and the development team is invaluable. Karablikov and his team constantly deliver high-quality interfaces tested by their users and positively reviewed by their customers.
“I can highlight a few features that help the company acquire its first big corporate customers: creators’ discovery, advertising campaigns management, reporting, and affiliate marketing programs,” said Karablikov.
Karablikov’s vast contributions to Captiv8 have led the company to great success. In 2019, Captiv8 was declared the Top Start-Up Winner by TiE Silicon Valley, one of the world’s largest networks in tech. In 2021, Captiv8 then took home two major honors at the Influencer Marketing Awards, Best Influencer Marketing Technology and Best Influencer Marketing Platform, showcasing just how important their tools are for their target customer. They also took home Best Influencer Marketing Company at the 2021 MarTech Breakthrough Awards, and this year they once again won Best Influencer Marketing Platform at the 2022 Influencer Marketing Awards. Karablikov is honored to have been such a vital aspect of this continued success.
“This is the goal for a good product designer; not beautiful mockups, but a well-working and valuable product. Knowing that the project is financially successful and has loyal users adds sense to the designer’s work. This feeling helps you move forward and overcome any troubles or imperfections,” said Karablikov.
Karablikov and his team are planning to finalize the world-class design system for the Captiv8 product line. Then, they want to set up a production process based on Double Diamond Approach and integrate it across the company. Keep an eye out for these exciting developments.
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