I sit in the problem, not in the brief.

I'm Vadym Drut, a product designer based in Vilnius. I help early-stage founders turn ideas into working MVPs. Then I fix what breaks once real users start putting pressure on them.

Most of that work has happened in DeFi, AI-native tools, and fintech. That's not a list of logos to sound impressive. It means I've worked through token-based mechanics, GPU-compute derivatives markets, and AI research tooling: products where the logic is genuinely hard to explain, and where getting the UX wrong isn't just ugly, it's the reason nobody trusts the product enough to use it.

I don't work from a finished spec. Most of what I do starts before the brief exists: a founder with a rough idea, a half-built MVP, a flow that technically works but nobody trusts yet. I get into the mechanics myself, work out the logic, and come back with something concrete: a flow, a prototype, a decision.

AI is part of how I do that, not a pitch. I use it to move faster through research, prototyping, and iteration: the loop between “what should this do” and “here's what it looks like” is a lot shorter than it used to be.

I also build my own products with it. Odee, a language learning app I designed and shipped myself, is live and in daily use, bugs and all. Building something solo, end to end, forces a kind of product judgment that consulting alone doesn't.

Where I’ve done this

Hilbert AI

AI-powered market research tool. Design work supported a funding round

Ornn

GPU-compute derivatives exchange, complex infrastructure UX

Emeris

AI-powered market research tool. Design work supported a funding round

BibliU

Edtech platform, accessibility focused features

I work best with founders who want someone in the problem with them early, not someone waiting for a spec to execute. If that's where you are, let's talk.