senior product manager · mentor · advisor

I've made the jump from IC to platform leader. Now I help others make theirs.

15 years, 6 companies, 4 industries — from a Yandex feature team to owning data strategy for a European platform group. I mentor product managers moving from IC to senior and lead roles, and I advise companies building or scaling their product and data functions.

See my story ↓
Portrait of Ekaterina Lebedeva, Senior Product Manager

the long way round

The long way round

I didn't plan a straight line, but looking back, every move taught me something the next role needed. I started building web and mobile features at Yandex, then moved into international expansion — launching products across 8 markets in a year, working with distributed teams who didn't share a language, let alone a roadmap. That took me into enterprise digital transformation at Gazprom Neft, where the hard part wasn't strategy, it was getting a huge organization to actually change.

Then I built something from nothing: as Head of Product at Moeco, I set up the product function from scratch — roadmap, backlog, onboarding, the works — for an IoT logistics platform, working directly with enterprise clients from day one. From there, fraud and payments at Delivery Hero taught me what "high stakes" really means: an ML fraud model live across 8 markets in 3 months, real money on the line.

Today, at AVIV Group, I own data product strategy for a cross-functional team of 10+, turning fragmented pipelines into infrastructure the whole business trusts.

Every one of those transitions felt like starting over. None of them were random. That's what I now help other people — and other companies — do on purpose, instead of by accident.

for product managers

Moving from IC to senior or lead isn't a promotion. It's a different job.

The skills that got you noticed as an IC — shipping fast, owning your backlog, being the answer person — aren't the skills that get you promoted next. Senior and lead roles ask you to create leverage through other people, hold ambiguity longer, and make the trade-offs visible before anyone asks. I help PMs close that gap deliberately.

What we work on together

  • Diagnosing what's actually holding your next promotion back (skill gap, visibility gap, or scope gap — they need different fixes)
  • Building your "senior narrative" — the story of your impact that a promo panel or hiring manager can actually follow
  • Practicing the harder parts: stakeholder pushback, prioritization under pressure, saying no with authority
  • Interview and promo-case prep, with structured feedback, not just cheerleading

1:1 sessions, either a single working session or a short structured sprint — we'll figure out what fits after an intro call.

Book a mentoring call

for companies

Product or data problems don't always need a full-time hire.

Sometimes you need someone to audit why your data platform isn't trusted. Sometimes you need a product function built from zero. Sometimes you need an interim head of product for a quarter while you hire. I've done all three, and I scope the engagement to match what you actually need — not a fixed package.

Where I typically help

  • Data product strategy — turning fragmented data into something the business actually uses and trusts
  • Standing up a product function from scratch (roadmap, process, team structure) for early-stage or newly-formed teams
  • Fractional / interim product leadership during a gap or transition
  • KPI frameworks and data models that hold up across teams, not just one dashboard

Starts with a scoping call to understand the actual problem — engagement length and shape follow from there.

Book an advisory call

process

How it works

1

Book an intro call

30 minutes, no deck required, just the actual problem.

2

We shape a plan

For individuals, a focus area and cadence; for companies, a scope and timeline.

3

We get to work

Sessions or engagement, with clear check-ins so it stays useful, not just billable.

85%

legacy dependency reduction

8

markets, one fraud model in 3 months

15+

years across 6 companies

career

Career

Senior data product manager AVIV Group · 2023 — present
Senior product specialist Delivery Hero · 2023
Head of product Moeco · 2020 — 2022
Senior product manager, digital transformation Gazprom Neft · 2019 — 2020
Senior product manager Yandex Taxi / Yango · 2018 — 2019
Product / project manager Yandex · 2014 — 2018

get in touch

Tell me what you're working on.

Book a call, or send a note if you'd rather write first.