Product guidance for people who actually care about their customers
Bridging technical complexity and UX design. From early-career professionals to seasoned leads: if you’re curious, reflective, and want to grow, you’re in the right place.
For products that aren't simple
I help Product Owners, Product Managers, and tech‑minded builders in data, observability, and devtools turn messy reality into clear decisions, better user experiences, and products they’re proud of. Whether you're new to product or you've been doing this for years.
See coaching programsShort feedback loops
On the farm you find out very quickly whether something works. Feedback is not a ceremony you schedule into a process. It is something you notice, and act on.
Read the articles11+ years
Hybrid UX + Product background:from interaction design to platform strategy
Known for reliability, truthful communication, and taking full accountability for outcomes
More about meCoaching senior PMs and platform leads across Europe and the US. Sessions are confidential, NDA quaranteed.
Eleven years across enterprise leaders, scale-ups and defense
Bohemia Interactive
You Are Probably One of These Three
I help PMs, UX designers, and engineering-heavy teams build products people adopt, and feel more confident about the decisions behind them.
Product Managers in data, observability, devtools, and other complex product domains
You understand the PRD, the roadmap, and the technical language. Turning features into something users actually want to buy is the part that keeps stalling.
- Prioritization
- Change management
- Defining a real MVP
Developers, Customer Success, and anyone else who are taking on more product responsibility
You moved over from engineering and nobody warned you that the job is mostly stakeholder alignment and escalations.
- The what and why of the PM world
- Escalations - when everything seems to be on fire
- Build your PM confidence
Product/ UX / Team leads and Customer facing roles
Your PM team is smart and still drowning in engineering politics, shifting roadmaps, customer-facing deadlines, and a lack of real customer feedback.
- Cross-team dependencies
- Prioritization techniques
- Research and UX advisory
From UX designer to platform strategist:a self‑made product leader for deep‑tech teams
Hi, I'm Zaneta :) My approach grew out of the part of that work I never delegated: calming down customer escalations, keeping priorities clear when people disappear down rabbit holes, translating UX needs into engineering options and vice versa, watching the same conversation go completely differently the second time. The solutions are always contextual. The thinking travels well. That is what this practice is.
I’m especially drawn to people who quietly care a lot. The PM who reads logs at 10pm because something feels off. The UX lead who fights for one more usability test. The dev lead who stepped into “doing product” without any real support.
I’ve been that person too: starting as a junior UX designer in the digital agencies and growing into leading platform strategy in enterprise environments. No playbook, no perfect mentor. Just listening, shipping, and taking responsibility when things went wrong.
If that’s you, my job is to give you language, structure, and confidence around the care you already bring to your product.
Experience highlights
Cisco
Engineering Product Manager
- Led strategy and roadmap for the Data Foundation of Cisco’s Full Stack Observability platform: XMELT troubleshooting, unknown‑unknowns, query languages, log exploration, schema browsers, and high‑impact enterprise escalations.
IP Fabric
Product Lead
- Managed cross‑functional teams building automated network assurance models that prevent critical outages for enterprise infrastructures.
Bohemia Interactive Simulations
Product Owner and Dev Lead
- Directed international teams delivering game‑based virtual training solutions for the US and UK Armies.
CA Technologies and UX agencies
Senior UX Interaction Designer
- Spent years turning deeply technical products into workflows humans can actually use.
I work on the side of product management most coaches avoid: high-complexity, backend-heavy, data-intensive products where the primary user is often an engineer. The work produces contextual solutions you can use in your next review rather than theory you will forget by Friday.
Three Ways to Work Together
No prices on this page on purpose. We talk first, then I tell you whether I can help. If the answer is no, you get the name of someone better suited.
I take five 1:1 clients at a time.
1:1 Career and Skill Coaching
Individual PMs and engineers
Personal, honest space to debug your role, your product, and your next steps.
- Weekly/ bi-weekly 1:1 coaching calls
- Get clear on your situation: product, team, politics, expectations.
- Turn vague asks into concrete product goals, outcomes, and success criteria.
- Translate technical complexity into language stakeholders, users, and sales can act on.
- Prepare for tough conversations: escalations, pushback, trade‑offs, saying “no”.
- Review your real work (PRDs, specs, decks, flows, experiments) and iterate it together.
- Build a realistic growth path, whether it’s your first PM promotion or becoming the “go‑to” person for a critical domain.
- Direct Slack or WhatsApp access
Product Partner (ongoing)
Aspiring (platform) PMs
Steady, trusted sparring partner while you ship, learn, and navigate politics. People who’ve worked with me and want ongoing, reliable support around real product decisions.
- Regular check‑ins (e.g., 2× per month – we agree the cadence together).
- Asynchronous feedback on key docs, decks, and roadmap items (within a defined scope).
- Support through promotions, role changes, or high‑pressure delivery phases.
- Someone outside your company who understands your product world and can be honest without politics.
Team & Company Advisory
For leaders who want more confident, user‑centric, technically fluent PMs.
Product and engineering leaders in deep‑tech, data, observability, or infra‑heavy products who want their teams to make better decisions and communicate more clearly.
- Product & UX audits of your current platform or observability experience.
- PRD, roadmap, and discovery reviews with practical recommendations.
- Clinics on real work: we look at actual initiatives, not theoretical frameworks.
- Support for dev‑to‑PM transitions so new PMs don’t feel lost.
- Aligning architecture constraints with real user journeys and business outcomes.
- Executive advisory retainer: a product sparring partner for your leadership.
Who This Is Not For
- PM interview preparation. Other people do that better.
- Generic PM career coaching with no technical product underneath it.
- Anyone looking for a certificate. There is not one.
Key Information You Need to Know
The questions that come up before a first call, answered plainly rather than defensively.
General Questions
AI can give you thousands of answers. I help you figure out which ones matter, what they mean for your situation, and then practice using them, whether that means trying a different communication style, playing the difficult client, or rehearsing tomorrow’s presentation before you walk into the room.
Practical Questions
My LinkedIn articles
To know if I'm good fit for you, find my ideas and approach in some articles of mine. All of it goes up on LinkedIn.
Follow on LinkedIn
Career I left Cisco to run a farm. It taught me more about product than I expected
In technology, you can sometimes spend weeks or months discussing whether something is working. On the farm, you often know very quickly.
Read the article
Integrity I decided early in my career that my name was part of every product I worked on
Loyalty doesn't mean hiding reality from the customer. Being a good team member doesn't mean never pushing back. Protect the work. Protect the customer. Protect the relationship.
Read the article
AI I was hesitant about AI. I actually like using my own brain
I often have a very clear thought that feels right. The problem is that it tends to live in my head as 17 interconnected threads, three examples, one memory from 2008, and a half-formed sentence.
Read the article
Let's Talk About What Your Platform Really Needs
One short call. If I am not the right person, you leave with the name of someone who is.
Book a Strategy CallReady to Elevate Your Product Practice?
Book a free twenty minute discovery call to talk through your career goals or your team's needs. Tell me what you are stuck on and I will tell you whether I am the right person.
- Twenty minutes, free, no pitch deck
- You describe what is stuck, I ask questions
- At the end I tell you honestly whether I can help
Prefer email? Write to zaneta.svozilova@gmail.com and I will reply with two or three times.