What I liked about working with Diana

1. Diana is a very pleasant mentor—calm and supportive. Talking to her helped me feel grounded, think without anxiety, and learn much more productively.
2. She helped me structure my experience and learning, and present it properly in my resume and interviews—highlighting what really matters.
3. With Diana’s support, I gained real UX research practice: I ran a stakeholder briefing under her mentorship, which was both exciting and very useful.
4. Diana helped me complete a test assignment in a short time—reviewed it, refined it, and pointed out important nuances. This not only improved the task, but also gave me additional knowledge.
5. During a mock interview, she helped me identify gaps and suggested what to work on next, what to read, and what to learn.
6. I especially appreciated how calmly and naturally Diana guided me. It boosted my confidence—and that’s crucial at a junior level.

Key insight
The biggest insight was Diana’s approach itself: calm, balanced, and mindful. I believe these are essential qualities for a researcher. Seeing this in action inspired me, and I started adopting the same mindset. My interviews became more successful as a result.

Impact and results
I became confident that UX research is the right career path for me. My interviews improved, and I received my first job offers.

Most helpful aspects

• Mock interview
• Targeted sessions to close theory gaps
• Support with the test assignment
• Ongoing moral support ❤️

As the only UX researcher in a large e-commerce company, it was especially important for me to get external, professional feedback from a peer. Sessions with Diana were extremely valuable: we worked through my real work tasks that I found challenging, discussed weak spots in how I framed research, and clarified what should be aligned with the product team upfront. Diana shared her experience of research planning at Avito, introduced practical templates and approaches for planning and running studies, and helped me build a clearer work plan and user segmentation to get more accurate and actionable results. In many situations, she worked alongside me as a more experienced partner—helping me identify risks and make stronger research decisions.

Diana, I want to say a huge thank you. Before I started working with you, I had no idea where to begin with UX research—and honestly, I wasn’t even sure I was cut out for it.

Spoiler: I absolutely am!

You didn’t just give me tasks—you built a clear path for me. Thank you for the practical, essential knowledge: I conducted two user interviews on my own, dove into usability testing, created a CJM, and learned how to analyze findings and communicate results. I also loved that we kept a task-and-deadline list—it helped me stay on track.

Thank you for helping me build this skill with confidence, and for your ongoing support, guidance, and answers to all my questions. You’re clear, approachable, and truly awesome. Most importantly, I didn’t just learn new skills—I started believing that I can do this, and I will.

I came to Diana through our corporate mentoring program with a goal of building UX research skills that would support my work. Over four months, we completed a full research case, and it had a noticeable positive impact on my day-to-day role. What I appreciated most about working with Diana was her approach: minimal theory and maximum practice. I share this mindset—learning works best when theory is immediately applied.

Diana supported me at every stage, validated my decisions, pointed out inaccuracies in a constructive way, and consistently encouraged me. Thanks to this mentoring experience, I became confident in my interest in research, understood the core principles of the field, and defined my next career development steps. On top of that, it helped me earn a promotion in my current role—new skills increased both my effectiveness and my impact.

Diana jumped into the mortgage and mortgage application domain with both feet 😄 She immersed herself quickly, asked lots of questions, and helped identify and validate key user blockers that contributed to improving conversion in the product. She was also highly engaged in brainstorms and in the discovery team’s work—always bringing interview insights back into the discussion.

Diana also validated our customer journey mapping (CJM) work. Even when the team started to lose focus, she helped bring us back on track and independently drove large parts of the process forward.

Diana didn’t just talk about research—she actively joined the work and helped us prepare for an external content study that is very important for our UX writing team. In our sessions, we built a research plan together, discussed hypotheses and validation methods, and defined the right respondents to involve.

This study will help us understand the root cause behind an issue that drives thousands of users to contact support every month—and find ways to solve it. Thank you so much!

With Diana’s support, we were also able to convince product stakeholders that the problem is truly significant. We agreed that the product team will review the research results and our recommendations for improving either the flow or even Avito’s search algorithms.

The research coaching was valuable for our team and complemented our existing experience well. We reviewed real cases, improved how we formulated hypotheses, and refined our approach to choosing the most appropriate research methods. As a result, the team strengthened its expertise in identifying and interpreting qualitative user insights and in making effective product decisions.

I worked with Diana during a challenging period when I was rethinking my career path. She responded quickly to my mentoring request, and I felt incredibly lucky. Our sessions were calm, structured, and results-focused. We strengthened my knowledge and skills, which helped me feel more confident and well-rounded in my research practice. I highly recommend Diana as a strong expert and a thoughtful mentor.