Mikhail Asavkin, Product Manager in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Mikhail Asavkin

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Bio

Mikhail has 10+ years of experience specializing in B2B2C marketplaces, AI, eCommerce, and real estate. While his primary focus is multiplying company profits via product management, he likes to help with engineering leadership, growth hacking, hiring, and company culture. Mikhail's greatest achievements include founding five companies (two of which were acquired), leading products in multinational companies with 5,000+ engineers, and bringing many startups to profitability and greater success.

Project Highlights

Fake News Detector
I've founded a company and created AI technology to do fact checking and detect fake news.
buymyplace.com.au
As a consultant, I led the complete platform rebuilt effort for buymyplace.com.au managing stakeholders across five different companies and an engineering team of 10 to deliver the project.

Expertise

Work Experience

Product Manager

2021 - PRESENT
Improve the News Foundation
  • Took the product from a small site built by students for a large, unbiased media outlet with millions of users.
  • Launched new product verticals: podcasts and news context explainer videos, bringing unbiased news to new audiences.
  • Took the organization and the products through the rebranding and complete UX overhaul.

Head of Product

2017 - 2021
Skychute Pty Ltd
  • Built the engineering team from 0 to 12, with most of them working remotely from all over the world.
  • Worked with internal and external stakeholders delivering products to the market.
  • Led the project of the complete rebuilding of the platform for buymyplace.com.au.

Head of Product and Founder

2015 - 2018
Fact Read
  • Developed the AI-based technology that reads text in three languages and extracts facts better than humans. The technology remains on track for completion at the end of 2021.
  • Built the product for fact-checking and fake news detection for news outlets.
  • Acquired several medium-sized media companies as customers on a $10,000/month subscription.

Product Engineer

2015 - 2017
Kent and Lime
  • Launched AI Stylist, a tool that worked almost as well as a human stylist but much faster.
  • Built a data analytics and business reporting tool allowing the business to make better stock and product decisions.
  • Led the development of the company's internal system that automated procurement, order picking, shipping, returns, and settlement.

Product Group Manager

2014 - 2016
Avito
  • Launched three new products targeted to the business users: real estate agents, car dealers and service providers, in under 10 months increasing verticals’ LTV by 250%.
  • Built the product management and engineering team for the B2B products department, established an exceptional engineering culture.
  • Established the competitive intelligence and the business intelligence practice within the department, allowing us to get real-time metrics for all competitors.

Head of Product, Co-founder

2012 - 2015
Photozeen
  • Built the business and the product from scratch on very limited bootstrap funding.
  • Delivered five different monetization schemes, all profitable.
  • Launched the photo education app in three major regions (SE Asia, Latin America, and North America).

Product Manager

2013 - 2014
inTaxi
  • Brought the company to operational profitability, increasing share value by 500%.
  • Launched the taxi-hailing app in 48 cities, the largest coverage on the market by far.
  • Launched ERP system for taxi companies, improving the average taxi wait time by 300% and providing an additional revenue stream for the business.

Product Manager

2010 - 2012
Yandex
  • Increased the revenue of the eCommerce platform by 25% with a new shop offers presentation and sorting algorithm.
  • Added 4 million MAU and $4.5 million in annual revenue by launching new mobile products.
  • Established an eCommerce startup accelerator within the company allowing Yandex to take advantage of new innovation in the space.

CTO

2008 - 2010
Quickblox
  • Delivered a platform to market in six months, profitable from day one.
  • Built the engineering team from 0 to 20 in three offices worldwide.
  • Increased adoption by evangelizing at development conferences.

Software Engineer

2005 - 2008
E-Style Software House
  • Delivered a billing system with 3 billion daily transactions.
  • Built an authentication service for a WiFi network with 14 million DAU, covering an area of 2,511 km².
  • Built a superannuation accounting system used by 150 million people.

Fake News Detector

https://factread.io/

I've founded a company and created AI technology to do fact checking and detect fake news.

FactRead uses machine reading technology to extract facts from multiple sources in a universal way, then compare the extracted facts between the sources. This allows for automatic fact-checking of the news articles as well as fake news detection. It works with three languages: English, Mandarin, and Russian with the ability to compare articles written in different languages.

The product has been sold as a subscription service to several medium-sized media companies in the EU.

buymyplace.com.au

https://buymyplace.com.au

As a consultant, I led the complete platform rebuilt effort for buymyplace.com.au managing stakeholders across five different companies and an engineering team of 10 to deliver the project.

Buymyplace is the product that allows Australian property owners to sell or rent their property without an agent. It provides a multitude of tools to achieve a great financial outcome for the vendors and landlords and provides automatically fulfilled services such as premium photography, photo boards, auction, negotiation, and many more.

Interest-focused Social Network

Led the product team and engineering team and delivered mobile and web products to the market in four months, gathering 1 million users in 1 month after launch. Two months later, I launched location-based advertising capability within the product.

Happlink was a social network in 2011-2014. Unlike Facebook, it connected people based on their shared interests, thus allowing for higher engagement and better people discovery than traditional networks.

After building the initial product, I focused on monetization and have launched the geofencing advertising product with the top three advertising agencies, allowing retail and restaurant businesses to target people nearby with special offers.
2002 - 2008

Master's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science

Moscow State Forest University - Russia

DECEMBER 2015 - DECEMBER 2023

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Project Management Institute (PMI)

Tools

Jira, Slack Development, AWS, Mockups, HubSpot Development, Infusionsoft, Tableau Development, Google Analytics, Zoom Development, Figma

Paradigms

API, Kanban Project Management, Agile Product Management, Agile Product Management, Agile Product Management, Agile Product Management, Scrum Master Consulting, Agile Product Management, B2C, Agile Product Management, B2B2C, UX Development, Data-driven Design, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C)

Platforms

ProductPlan, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Java, Web Development

Industry Expertise

High-tech Startups, Logistics Consulting, Education Technology (Edtech)

Other

OmniPlan, Virtual Product Management, Product Management, Machine Reading, Mathematics, Engineering Management, Engineering, Data Engineering, Customer Development, Customer Discovery, Web Development, Mobile Product Management, Business Intelligence Development, API, API Development, Team Mentoring, .NET, Web Development, Business Analysis Consulting, Roadmaps, Product Roadmaps, Product Coach, CRM APIs, Value Engineering, Planning, Stakeholder Management, Lean Project Management, Scrum Master Consulting, Feature Planning, Feature Analysis, Feature Prioritization, Feature Roadmaps, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Head of Product, Business Strategy, Product Strategy, Product Vision, Competitive Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Product Ownership, Product Owners, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Mobility, Startup Development, Lean Startups, Early-stage Startups, Startup Funding, UX Roadmaps, Feature-driven Development (FDD), Business to Business (B2B), Business Logic, Talent Management, Talent Strategy, Business Processes, Status Updates, APIs, API Connectors, Implementation Project Management, Burn-down Charts, Agile Program Management, REST API, GraphQL, Agile Product Delivery, Node.js, TypeScript, Angular, AngularJS, E-commerce UX Design, E-commerce Product Management, UI Development, Delivery, JSON API, Front-end, Sprints, Continuous Improvement, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Development (CD), Projects, Agile Sprints, Agile Delivery, Backlog Grooming, iOS, IT Projects, Project Scoping, API, Project Delivery, Product Launch Strategy, Stakeholder Analysis, Stakeholder Engagement, Team Leadership, Remote Team Leadership, Agile Team Leadership, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Process Automation, Launch Strategy, API, Online Tracking Analysis, eCommerce Payments, Data-driven Decision-making, Data-driven Frameworks, Data-driven Methodology, Data-driven Performance Improvement, Technical Product Management, Technical Product Management, Product Analytics, Data Science Product Management, Data Visualization, Lean Experiments, Data Science, SQL, Product Consultants, Market Research Analyst, Pricing Strategy, Digital Product Management, Monetization Product Management, Conceptualization, eCommerce Analysis, AI Product Management, Machine Learning, Data Science Product Management, Mathematical Analysis, Software Engineering, AI Product Management, Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), Amazon SageMaker, NLP, Pricing, UX Development, Negotiation, Stakeholder Interviews, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Startup Consulting, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Salesforce Design, Salesforce API, Salesforce Lightning, Salesforce Sales Cloud, HubSpot Development, Computer Vision, DocuSign, Keras, PyTorch, Inventory Management, Shipping Management, Drop Shipping, UX Development, UI Development, GUI Design, Project Rescue, Business Process Optimization, Business Process Automation, E-commerce marketing, Customer Support, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), Data-driven Marketing, E-commerce marketing, Dashboard, Architecture, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Growth Hacking, Pricing Analysis, Pricing, User Journeys, Market Entry, eCommerce Management, Embedded Software Engineering, B2B Partnerships, Mobile App Design, Oracle Development, ASP.NET, C++, UX Development, Android, Business Development, Social Media Marketing, API, Social Media Apps, Social Media Platforms, Social Media Analytics, Social Media Marketing, Interim CTOs, Growth Product Management, Marketing Design

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