Born 1954 in Moscow, graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1977, PhD in Physics. Since 1995, was working in the field of internet marketing: Marketing Director of Glasnet (ISP), General Producer of Lycos Russia, Director of Product Marketing at Yandex since 2004. Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Internet Marketing (Russia) since 2001.
How are you related to Product Management and what does PM mean to you?
I am a Marketing Director and PMs across the company are my very important colleagues (and often clients) when it comes to marketing their products. On the other hand, when we do a marketing activity, say, a big conference, I become a PM for this specific product.
What is one tool you could not live without?
Whatever tool that will bring me data and help analysing it.
What is the most important quality of a PM?
Good and deep feeling of a user, a customer – a person for whom the product is made. Not just a rational understanding, but gut feeling. It helps to ask all sorts of right questions.
What is the best feature in a product you have contributed to?
Consistency.
What is the subject you are going to approach during the PMF? Why did you choose this topic?
I am going to speak about what makes me love and respect my job: how data help us make people happier. The tools may differ: personalization, recommendations, experiments. But the core is data and technologies that make data useful.
What product do you love?
Yandex products: it’s difficult not to love your own kids.
What books, blogs and courses do you recommend?
Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow
Eric Siegel – Predictive Analytics