Hristo Butsev – Complex products, clear direction

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# Hristo Butsev

> Complex products. Clear direction.

Product design & leadership for complex B2B software

I design complex B2B products and lead the teams behind them

From untangling a critical workflow to leading design across your product, I help your team decide what to build and see it through.

[Find the right service →](https://hristobutsev.com/#diagnosis)

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## The plan got lost

Products start simple Requests add up Features pile on Priorities compete The focus gets lost You keep building **The plan got lost**

A sketch of a house next to the finished painting of a rocket.

the idea · what got built

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## Portfolio

The decisions behind each project.

Product design and leadership for complex B2B software.

| Project | Label | Card line | Tag |
|---|---|---|---|
| neoshare | Banking & real estate | A shared workspace for banks and real-estate businesses | Case study unavailable |
| Invest.com | Trading & brokerage | Trading platforms and brokerage operations | Case study |
| CarHub | Automotive · customer & merchant apps | Booking and managing car services across two apps | Case study |
| IoTX | Smart cities & infrastructure | A city of systems, one shared view | Preview |
| Big Happy | Ad tech · internal operations | Every campaign and everything behind it | Internal tool |
| ThinkMarkets | Multi-asset trading | A trading desk you make your own | Preview |
| DAHA SEIN | Real estate & technology | Many people, one built environment | Preview |
| productPal | Own venture · AI | From an idea to a product you can try | Preview |
| Garten | Workplace food & well-being | Where does an app fit in a better workday? | Preview |
| DROP | Consumer rewards | Points with somewhere to go | Preview |
| Sesame | Own venture · art & investment | One artwork, more than one owner | Preview |

### neoshare

A financing deal brings banks, businesses, and a lot of information together. I helped bring their conversations into one shared space.

Case study unavailable

### Invest.com

**Trading & brokerage** · 2021–2022 · UX/UI Designer

**A place to trade, a brokerage to run**

I worked on desktop and mobile trading and the CRM behind the brokerage, organizing everyday tasks around the information and tools people needed.

[Read the case study →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/invest-com-trading)

**Timeframe:** 2021–2022

**Product scope:** Trading apps & brokerage back office

#### A capable product that took too much effort to use

Frequent trading actions took too many clicks, and web and mobile worked differently. Back-office tools assumed expert knowledge, so new colleagues needed time to learn them. The goal: make both easier without losing detail.

Where I focused

#### Start with the work people do every day

I prioritized the most frequent trading actions. With the risk team, I mapped daily responsibilities to see which information and tools belonged together.

From market to order

Familiar on another device

From overview to review

Desktop trading

#### Keep the market beside the decision

The watchlist, chart, and order controls share one workspace, so traders don’t lose their place.

##### See what matters

The chart leads, with instruments and orders beside it.

##### Make room for analysis

Side panels slide away for a closer look at the chart, then return.

##### Review before acting

Direction, quantity, and protective prices sit together in the order.

Mobile trading

#### A new device shouldn’t mean a new product

Actions and labels stay familiar, arranged around one task at a time.

##### Read first, act when ready

Buy and Sell stay within reach while traders read the details.

##### Give the order its own space

Orders open in a focused view and close back to the instrument.

Brokerage operations

#### Help the team see what needs attention

With the risk team, I organized the CRM around monitoring exposure, inspecting instruments, and reviewing customers.

##### What needs attention?

The dashboard groups exposure and client activity.

##### What’s behind it?

Colleagues open quote records or instrument settings to investigate.

##### What’s still outstanding?

Customer details, documents, and review status sit together.

#### The decision

I organised the trading and brokerage tools around everyday tasks, keeping the information needed for each action close by.

#### What changed

The desktop design brought the watchlist, chart and order controls into one workspace.

Mobile used familiar actions and labels, with a focused view for placing an order.

The CRM brought customer details, documents and review status together, shaped around the risk team’s work.

#### My part in the work

I designed web and mobile trading and the brokerage CRM. I worked through the flows with the technical team and tested CRM features with the risk team.

#### About this case study

The demos recreate selected flows with paper trades and fictional data. They aren’t connected to a real brokerage.

[Try desktop trading →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/invest-com-trading#invest-desktop)

[Try mobile trading →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/invest-com-trading#invest-mobile)

[Try the brokerage workspace →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/invest-com-trading#invest-back-office)

### CarHub

**Automotive · customer & merchant apps** · 2022 · Product Designer

**A service to book, a business to run**

I helped redesign both CarHub apps: one for customers booking services, one for merchants managing the work.

[Read the case study →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/carhub)

**Project length:** 3 months

**Team:** 2 designers, 1 product manager

#### Every booking has someone on the other side

CarHub connects car owners with service providers through two apps. The brief called for easier onboarding, simpler payments and data entry, more online transactions, and reasons to return. We had three months.

#### Understand both sides first

We started with journey maps, usage data, and stakeholder workshops.

##### Map both journeys together

We mapped the driver’s and the merchant’s journeys to see where they met.

##### Prioritize the wish list

In workshops, we used MoSCoW (must, should, could, won’t) to agree on what came first.

##### Design for both sides

Wireframes covered finding and paying for a service, plus merchant profiles, offers, sales, and schedules.

##### Give people a reason to come back

Points, membership status, and rewards became visible, and merchants got space to promote offers.

#### Two redesigned apps and a customer journey to try

A high-fidelity prototype connects booking, car selection, payments, and loyalty.

#### The decision

We designed the customer and merchant apps as two sides of the same service, using shared priorities to guide the redesign.

#### What changed

Mapping both journeys gave the team a shared view of the service and its priorities.

The redesign covered customer booking and payments alongside merchant profiles, offers and schedules.

A detailed customer prototype connected car selection, booking, payment and loyalty.

#### My part in the work

I was one of two designers, working with a product manager and client stakeholders from journey mapping to detailed design.

#### About this case study

Details come from my original case study, which reports qualitative improvements, not measured results.

[Try the customer prototype →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/carhub#carhub-prototype)

[CarHub today ↗](https://carhubapp.com/)

[Abdul Latif Jameel ↗](https://alj.com/en/)

### IoTX

**Smart cities & infrastructure** · 2024 · Product Designer

**A city of systems, one shared view**

IoTX brings city infrastructure into one management platform. I was its Product Designer at Infosystems International.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/iotx-platform)

Full case study coming soon.

### Big Happy

**Ad tech · internal operations** · 2024 · Senior Product Designer (contract)

**Every campaign and everything behind it**

I worked on an internal system for tracking client campaigns and mapping everything connected to each one.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/big-happy)

[What the team said →](https://hristobutsev.com/#big-happy-testimonials)

An internal tool, so its screens aren’t shown.

### ThinkMarkets

**Multi-asset trading** · 2018–2021 · UI Designer

**A trading desk you make your own**

Years of new screens made the platform hard to navigate. I helped rethink it as a modular workspace traders arrange themselves.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/thinkmarkets)

Full case study coming soon.

### DAHA SEIN

**Real estate & technology** · 2024–2025 · Lead Product Designer

**Many people, one built environment**

I was Lead Product Designer at DAHA SEIN, a company bringing technology to real estate development.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/daha-sein)

Full case study coming soon.

### productPal

**Own venture · AI** · 2026 · Founder

**From an idea to a product you can try**

I’m building a workspace that connects product direction, feature planning, and AI-generated prototypes.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/productpal)

Full case study coming soon.

### Garten

**Workplace food & well-being** · 2023 · Product Designer

**Where does an app fit in a better workday?**

I worked on discovery for a new employee app, exploring how it could make the workday better.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/garten)

Full case study coming soon.

### DROP

**Consumer rewards** · 2022 · Product Designer

**Points with somewhere to go**

I designed crypto redemption for Drop’s shopping rewards, plus an invitation flow for new members.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/drop)

Full case study coming soon.

### Sesame

**Own venture · art & investment** · 2020 · Founder & Product Designer

**One artwork, more than one owner**

A venture exploring shared ownership of artworks. The prototype placed third at the 2020 Paysafe hackathon.

[View preview →](https://hristobutsev.com/portfolio/sesame)

Full case study coming soon.

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## Find your starting point

Three questions. We’ll confirm the scope together.

### What’s getting in the way?

Choose the closest match to continue.

- **We can’t agree on what to build next:** Priorities keep changing and decisions keep reopening.
- **Important tasks are too difficult:** People need too many steps, explanations, or workarounds.
- **Every change adds more complexity:** Features, rules, and exceptions have become difficult to manage.

### How much of the product is affected?

Choose the closest match to continue.

- **One critical journey:** The problem is concentrated in a specific task.
- **Several connected workflows:** The difficulty crosses different parts of the product.
- **We’re not sure yet:** We can see the symptoms, but not where they begin.

### What kind of help do you need?

Choose the closest match to continue.

- **Find the problem and set a direction:** We need clarity before committing to a solution.
- **Redesign and prototype the experience:** We know what needs attention and want to improve it.
- **Lead the work through delivery:** We need someone to keep design, product and engineering aligned.

[Take the assessment →](https://hristobutsev.com/#diagnosis)

[Design, strategy & development services](https://hristobutsev.com/services)

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## From a focused review to ongoing support

### Product Complexity Audit

€2,500 · Focused review

I review your product and workflows to identify the main problems, set priorities, and recommend a next step.

**Includes:** Product review · Core workflows · UX & information architecture · Priorities · Next steps

Book a Product Clarity Sprint within 30 days and apply the audit fee toward it.

[Book an audit →](https://hristobutsev.com/start/complexity-audit)

### Product Clarity Sprint

€10,000 · 2–3 weeks

Untangle one critical workflow and prototype the way forward.

**Includes:** Discovery · Problem mapping · Workflow simplification · Direction · Prototype

[Start a sprint →](https://hristobutsev.com/start/clarity-sprint)

### Product Redesign

€25,000 · Scoped project

A simpler architecture for products weighed down by years of additions.

**Includes:** Product direction · UX architecture · Workflows · UI · Validation · Engineering support

[Discuss a product redesign →](https://hristobutsev.com/start/product-transformation)

### Part-time lead

€8,000/month · Ongoing

Part-time design leadership, with direction, hands-on design, and reviews tailored to your team.

**Includes:** Direction · Leadership · Hands-on design · Prototypes · Quality · Delivery

[Discuss part-time leadership →](https://hristobutsev.com/start/fractional-lead)

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## Clear direction matters more when building gets easier

AI brings new possibilities and new decisions. I help teams agree on what to build and see it through.

[Hristo Butsev · Product design & leadership →](https://hristobutsev.com/about)

### From the people I’ve worked with

> Hristo was a great thought partner in iterating a fresh design for our product. He was given some legacy work that was bloated and all-over-the-place. He assisted with research, competitor benchmarking, and at the end of the day was able to **streamline the vision** and deliver a beautiful and clean design in a short timeline.

— [Heather Stever Waibel](https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherwaibel/), Entrepreneur & investor

> He created intuitive, user-friendly applications and established strong processes that improved how the team delivered products. […] He’s an incredibly talented designer who **elevates both products and processes**.

— [Jennifer Lea Klein](https://www.linkedin.com/in/leaklein/), Head of Design / VP · Big Happy

[Also recommended by Big Happy’s CEO, Jonathan Frohlinger (Inc. 5000, 2025) ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hristobutsev/details/recommendations/?detailScreenTabIndex=0)

> Hristo has **a solid understanding of the entire UX process**, from concept, to research, hi-fidelity wireframes, and post-production testing. […]

— [Anna Istomina](https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaistomina/), Head of Product Design · Swiirl

> I highly recommend Hristo as a Product designer and **would love to work together again**. […]

— [Mejdi Gharrad](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mejdigharrad/), Senior General Manager - Head of SW Development / Digital Department · Abdul Latif Jameel

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## About

### It started at my dad’s agency

2003–04

At my dad’s advertising agency, curiosity led me from watching designers to learning Photoshop and Illustrator.

### Learning to see things differently

School years

Art taught me to observe and express ideas. National awards gave me confidence to pursue design.

### Then we had to make it work

Student years

Running a company with my cousin while studying taught me to build, sell, and think beyond design.

### A wider world of products

Since 2015

I moved from graphic and web design into product design in 2018. Through Toptal and other work, I’ve designed for fintech, trading, healthcare, and automotive.

### What I do today

Today

I lead design for complex B2B software, helping teams decide what’s worth building.

I still enjoy making things. I just ask more questions before I start.

### A little more about me

I’m a father, follow financial markets, and earned an aikido black belt after nine years of practice.

[More about Hristo](https://hristobutsev.com/about)

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## Philosophy

Clear direction matters more when building gets easier

AI makes execution faster and cheaper. It also makes it easier to build more than a product needs. I help teams stay clear about what is worth building and why.

### As building gets easier, complexity adds up

AI lowers the effort of adding something. Every addition still creates rules, dependencies, and decisions people have to live with.

**One more feature** Easy to build. Easy to justify on its own.

**More connections** New states, rules, and exceptions across the product.

**More to navigate** The effort shifts to the people using and maintaining the product.

### As the product grows, focus can slip

More output can hide a lack of progress. As execution gets cheaper, I expect this gap to grow.

- **For the team:** A longer roadmap. Less agreement on what matters.
- **For the people using it:** More capabilities. More effort for the same job.
- **For the business:** More releases. No stronger reason to choose the product.

### Set a clear direction, then build

Agree on who the product is for and what needs to become better. Use that direction to decide what to build, what to simplify, and what to leave out. AI makes that discipline more valuable.

- **Purpose:** Whose problem are we solving?
- **Focus:** What deserves our attention now?
- **Progress:** What gets better for the person using it?

I help teams make these decisions and carry them through design, testing, and delivery.

### Find a direction worth pursuing

Tell me what you’re building and where the focus has slipped.

[Get in touch →](https://hristobutsev.com/contact)

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## Practical notes on building products

[Product clarity is a decision, not a deliverable](https://hristobutsev.com/articles/product-clarity-is-a-decision)

Good product design starts with deciding what’s worth building.

[Read the articles →](https://hristobutsev.com/articles)

Most complex products don’t need a longer backlog. They need a clearer decision about what comes next.

The most useful question is rarely *What can we add?* It’s **What needs to change to make the product easier to understand, use, and improve?**

That means looking at the business, the people using the product, the workflows connecting them, and the technical constraints as one system, then choosing what matters now.

Clear product direction gives the team a few concrete decisions it can act on. Those decisions shape the interface.

## Start with a task, not a feature

Imagine a customer who needs to upload a document during an application. They leave the product to ask which document is required, send it by email, and return later to check whether it was accepted.

A new dashboard might make the status easier to see. It would still leave the customer switching tools and asking for help. Before adding it, map the task: what must the customer provide, who checks it, and what happens when something is missing?

This is a hypothetical example, but the distinction matters. A feature request describes a possible solution. Following the task helps establish the problem.

## Make the decision specific

A useful brief identifies:

- The person and task you’re designing for.
- The difficulty you have observed, with an example.
- The constraints the design must preserve.
- What you expect to improve and how you’ll check it.

For the application, that might mean showing the required document, the reason it is needed, and its review status beside the upload step. A prototype can then help test whether people understand what to do without asking for help.

## Keep the evidence beside the decision

Record why you chose the direction and what remains uncertain. If a test contradicts an assumption, change the design or revisit the problem before extending the scope.

The useful output is a decision the team can explain and a way to check whether it works. The screens make that decision tangible.

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## Contact

Where is your product stuck?

Tell me what you’re building. I’ll reply personally.

[Get in touch →](https://hristobutsev.com/contact)

- Email: [hristo@hristobutsev.com](mailto:hristo@hristobutsev.com)
- [LinkedIn ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hristobutsev/)

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