Experience
Omniva
Product Design Lead · April 2024 – now
Goals
▪ Lead the product design practise by example.
▪ Shift away from an internal agency model to a product design team with designers tightly related to one product manager and owning E2E experiences.
▪ Increase design quality in our products.
▪ Create systems, rituals and practices that help my team thrive as persons, and professionals.
▪ Find resources to develop a state-of-the art design system, with accessibility built in.
▪ Lead the product design practise by example.
▪ Shift away from an internal agency model to a product design team with designers tightly related to one product manager and owning E2E experiences.
▪ Increase design quality in our products.
▪ Create systems, rituals and practices that help my team thrive as persons, and professionals.
▪ Find resources to develop a state-of-the art design system, with accessibility built in.
Pipedrive
(Group) Design Systems Manager · February 2022 – April 2024
Achievements in this role:
▪ I drove the establishment of a mission and vision for my team and design systems at Pipedrive.
▪ I took ownership and implemented multiple improvements to our operational practices.
▪ We created two yearly roadmaps using inclusive methodologies.
▪ I built a strong partnership with our counterpart Product Manager, Engineering Manager and development team.
▪ I learned how to delegate work to my team and empower them.
▪ My team moved the design system to a whole new level in terms of component and documentation quality.
▪ We improved accessibility by implementing a contrast-based color system.
▪ We launched customizable navigation and dark mode, both highly requested platform features by Pipedrive customers.
▪ I drove the establishment of a mission and vision for my team and design systems at Pipedrive.
▪ I took ownership and implemented multiple improvements to our operational practices.
▪ We created two yearly roadmaps using inclusive methodologies.
▪ I built a strong partnership with our counterpart Product Manager, Engineering Manager and development team.
▪ I learned how to delegate work to my team and empower them.
▪ My team moved the design system to a whole new level in terms of component and documentation quality.
▪ We improved accessibility by implementing a contrast-based color system.
▪ We launched customizable navigation and dark mode, both highly requested platform features by Pipedrive customers.
Senior Product Designer, Design Systems · July 2021 – February 2022
Some of the things I did in my time as a Product Designer for Design Systems:
▪ Refactored every single web app component, in order to take advantage of the latest Figma functionality and raise the overall quality.
▪ Helped to move component documentation to a whole new level by understanding the necessary bits of information our designers needed, and creating a mini design system for unified component documentation.
▪ Envisioned and implemented a semantic token-based asset system in Figma which enabled the Pipedrive design system to become fully themeable and in turn enabled to implement an extensive visual update in the Pipedrive web app.
▪ Worked with a team of 40+ product designers on a daily basis, getting feedback on our design system and consulting them on using it.
▪ Worked with a development team on implementing changes to existing components and creating new ones.
▪ Refactored every single web app component, in order to take advantage of the latest Figma functionality and raise the overall quality.
▪ Helped to move component documentation to a whole new level by understanding the necessary bits of information our designers needed, and creating a mini design system for unified component documentation.
▪ Envisioned and implemented a semantic token-based asset system in Figma which enabled the Pipedrive design system to become fully themeable and in turn enabled to implement an extensive visual update in the Pipedrive web app.
▪ Worked with a team of 40+ product designers on a daily basis, getting feedback on our design system and consulting them on using it.
▪ Worked with a development team on implementing changes to existing components and creating new ones.
Product Designer · July 2018 – June 2021
The projects that stood out for me as a Product Designer in Pipedrive:
▪ Scheduler – Appointment Scheduling Tool
– I designed the UX and UI of the free time slot allocation view.
– Designed UX and UI for the page where the end users choose and book a time with the Pipedrive users.
▪ Caller – CRM-integrated calling tool
– I was responsible for the telephony widget's UI in the web app and the UX flows within that widget.
▪ Web Forms – CRM-integrated forms
– I designed the UX and UI for the end customer-facing web forms.
– Created a whole new design system and language for these forms, using my previous knowledge about web development and making sure that the forms would seamlessly integrate with a wide variety of different design languages coming from the customers' websites.
– Integrated Web Form best practices into the UX of the forms, making sure that the forms are validated properly and there are clear error messages for invalid fields.
– Used my HTML / CSS / JS knowledge to create multiple Codepen prototypes for the forms to validate my design ideas quickly.
▪ WYSIWYG – the rich text editor in the Pipedrive web app
– I was responsible for cleaning up the design of the rich text editor which powers the Pipedrive email client and Notes + adding new formatting functionality to it.
▪ Finding and Merging Duplicates
– Duplicate data entries are a huge issue in CRMs and I helped to deal with the consequences by creating the UX and UI design for a tool that identifies the duplicates in Pipedrive and helps users merge them.
▪ Scheduler – Appointment Scheduling Tool
– I designed the UX and UI of the free time slot allocation view.
– Designed UX and UI for the page where the end users choose and book a time with the Pipedrive users.
▪ Caller – CRM-integrated calling tool
– I was responsible for the telephony widget's UI in the web app and the UX flows within that widget.
▪ Web Forms – CRM-integrated forms
– I designed the UX and UI for the end customer-facing web forms.
– Created a whole new design system and language for these forms, using my previous knowledge about web development and making sure that the forms would seamlessly integrate with a wide variety of different design languages coming from the customers' websites.
– Integrated Web Form best practices into the UX of the forms, making sure that the forms are validated properly and there are clear error messages for invalid fields.
– Used my HTML / CSS / JS knowledge to create multiple Codepen prototypes for the forms to validate my design ideas quickly.
▪ WYSIWYG – the rich text editor in the Pipedrive web app
– I was responsible for cleaning up the design of the rich text editor which powers the Pipedrive email client and Notes + adding new formatting functionality to it.
▪ Finding and Merging Duplicates
– Duplicate data entries are a huge issue in CRMs and I helped to deal with the consequences by creating the UX and UI design for a tool that identifies the duplicates in Pipedrive and helps users merge them.
Junior Product Designer · July 2017 – June 2018
The most memorable experiences from my Junior year at Pipedrive:
▪ Learning the ways of working as an in-house designer at a B2B SAAS company versus a being contractor for SME business websites.
▪ Learning about our customers – I did *a lot* of end-user research and shadowed a customer on-site in their office in Tallinn, Estonia.
▪ I designed an internal dashboard for Pipedrive developers – the project helped me create lots of connections in the company, as I conducted end-user research with a dozen developers and the main expectations and guidance came from head of quality and CTO.
▪ Working on quite a few smaller Sales CRM-specific functionalities like deal-winning probability, follow-up frequency visualization, etc.
▪ Learning the ways of working as an in-house designer at a B2B SAAS company versus a being contractor for SME business websites.
▪ Learning about our customers – I did *a lot* of end-user research and shadowed a customer on-site in their office in Tallinn, Estonia.
▪ I designed an internal dashboard for Pipedrive developers – the project helped me create lots of connections in the company, as I conducted end-user research with a dozen developers and the main expectations and guidance came from head of quality and CTO.
▪ Working on quite a few smaller Sales CRM-specific functionalities like deal-winning probability, follow-up frequency visualization, etc.
RaulWalter
Project Manager · May – December 2015
RaulWalter specializes in identity solutions for both public and private sector applications.
I worked on the company's website and marketing materials.
Antenn
Co-founder, Designer, Developer · November 2012 – July 2017*
Antenn was a web design and development studio.
▪ We created the studio with the aim to improve how small businesses in Estonia present themselves and serve their customers on the web.
▪ We took pride in building high-quality Wordpress-based websites with fully custom themes, designed and developed to meet specific customer needs. Using bloated off-the-shelf website builder themes was a big no-no for us.
▪ My role at first was coding, but as time went by and projects got delivered, I got more and more interested in the design part of things and switched my focus to that.
▪ In addition to the above, I managed most of the customer relationships, responses to inquiries, invoicing, and bookkeeping.
Antenn was a web design and development studio.
▪ We created the studio with the aim to improve how small businesses in Estonia present themselves and serve their customers on the web.
▪ We took pride in building high-quality Wordpress-based websites with fully custom themes, designed and developed to meet specific customer needs. Using bloated off-the-shelf website builder themes was a big no-no for us.
▪ My role at first was coding, but as time went by and projects got delivered, I got more and more interested in the design part of things and switched my focus to that.
▪ In addition to the above, I managed most of the customer relationships, responses to inquiries, invoicing, and bookkeeping.
▪ Notable clients include: Geenius Meedia (geenius.ee), HeadRead (literary festival, headread.ee), AGR Autokeskus (Mitsubishi dealer, agr.ee), Human Rights Centre (humanrights.ee).
The studio was active during 2012–2017 and since then we have winded it down to maintenance activities and occasional developments to our existing loyal customers.
The studio was active during 2012–2017 and since then we have winded it down to maintenance activities and occasional developments to our existing loyal customers.
Raadio 1 OÜ
Web Editor · September 2011 – November 2012
Raadio 1 was a podcast publishing company, producing radio shows legendary in the Estonian tech community such as Restart, Buum, and Digitund.
In my role, I had to write summaries for the shows and publish them in a timely manner on the website. I also maintained and evolved the website.
💡 Something that was and perhaps is still really only possible in "e-Estonia" – never for once did I physically meet my employers while working in the company.
One of the Raadio 1 founders Henrik Roonemaa went on to found Geenius Meedia, a media platform for talented authors on science and technology. Geenius became one of the most important customers for my web studio Antenn and a success on the media landscape.
Education
Estonian Aviation Academy
Communication, Navigation and Surveillance · Sep 2010 – June 2014
Communication, Navigation and Surveillance · Sep 2010 – June 2014
The education provided me with solid foundational knowledge in engineering and informatics. Unfortunately, I never pursued a career in aviation as I immersed myself in the world of web design already during my studies and haven't pivoted back since.
Activities and societies
Tartu University Chamber Choir, student magazine Propeller, Estonian Aviation Days.
Activities and societies
Tartu University Chamber Choir, student magazine Propeller, Estonian Aviation Days.
Student exchanges
Anadolu University (Eskişehir Turkey) – Spring 2012
Anadolu University (Eskişehir Turkey) – Spring 2012
Scholarships
Pühajärve scholarship – November 2013 – from the Estonian Aviation Academy Fund. A traditional scholarship in Estonian Aviation Academy, given to one student each year.
Pühajärve scholarship – November 2013 – from the Estonian Aviation Academy Fund. A traditional scholarship in Estonian Aviation Academy, given to one student each year.
Get in touch
You can contact me via this form or on LinkedIn. I'm fluent in Estonian and English.
Thanks for getting in touch with me. Talk to you soon!