Navigating your Product Design Career

Navigating your Product Design Career

This talk is a personal story of a bold career shift from international relations to product design; from startups to a big company; and from SalesTech/MarTech to MedTech and FinTech in a new country.

Takeaways to expect:
✅ How to get into product design
✅ Where to learn
✅ Where to find opportunities
✅ How the work for a small company differs from the work in a big one
✅ How designer role varies in different industries
✅ How to enter a completely new industry without any prior specific experience
✅ How to never give up during the job search

About Lena Marakov
Lena is a Digital Product Designer at Nationwide Building Society. Born and raised in Ukraine, she transitioned from interpreting and international relations into tech, where she discovered her passion for product design. Her journey across industries, roles, and countries has been both challenging and rewarding, proving to herself and others that “impossible” is nothing.