Andrew Pridotkas
Open to opportunities

Andrew Pridotkas

Product Designer

Born in Ukraine, shaped by Italy and Britain. I bring over 6 years of cross-cultural perspective to leading multidisciplinary teams that design services people actually need.

I specialise in stakeholder management, turning competing priorities into shared direction. My approach is grounded in psychology, fuelled by curiosity, and backed by hands-on coding and design skills.

Edinburgh, UK design@apridotkas.com linkedin.com/in/apridotkas

What I Bring

Three pillars of impact

I work at the intersection of stakeholder management, human psychology, and technical innovation, connecting departments, users, and strategy into services that drive real change.

Stakeholder Management & Leadership

I align diverse groups across design, product, policy, development, and operations. At A-Gas I built the first UX department and managed 7+ stakeholder groups with competing priorities. At Empakt I brought 25 senior staff together to co-create a unified mission.

Psychology & Communication

With a foundation in psychology, I lead with empathy and active listening. I use conflict-resolution techniques to navigate tense handovers, build trust in resistant teams, and create safe spaces for honest collaboration.

Technical Innovation & Design Craft

I speak developers' language and use it to drive innovation. Proficient in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and tools like OutSystems and Webflow, I build working prototypes that prove concepts fast. My approach accelerated delivery by 27%.

£1.3m

Annual savings through redesigned workflows

+42%

Usability improvement via unified design system

1,000+

Global users across NA, Europe & APAC

$1.8m

Saved through better asset tracking

Selected Work

Case studies

Each project shows how stakeholder alignment, cross-team collaboration, and evidence-led design deliver measurable impact.

Greenfield Project Stakeholder Alignment Workshop Facilitation

Empakt "Babab" - Sustainable Travel

Leading a multidisciplinary team from stagnation to a validated service blueprint, reducing onboarding time by 35%.

Overview

As Project Director at Empakt, I joined a newly formed team of seven where progress had stalled. I led the development of a greenfield project aimed at making sustainable travel accessible while positively influencing local cultures.

Stakeholder Alignment & Building Momentum

  • Ran company-wide sessions with 25 senior staff to co-create a shared mission and service vision
  • Facilitated discovery and design-sprint workshops with 6 distinct stakeholder groups
  • Used FigJam whiteboarding to encourage ideas and cross-team communication
  • Employed personas, dependency mapping, and service maps to build consensus

Innovation in Service Design

  • Mapped end-to-end journeys covering front-stage experience and back-office processes
  • Directed service design using the Double Diamond framework with rapid-prototyping
  • Designed responsive wireframes adhering to Tailwind CSS standards and WCAG 2.1 AA
  • Produced branding guidelines, business plan, and marketing strategy from scratch

35%

Reduction in onboarding time

25

Senior staff aligned on shared mission

6

Stakeholder groups co-designing

Service Transformation Mobile App Global Rollout

A-Gas Field Service App (FSA)

End-to-end service transformation from paper workflows to a digital platform serving 1,000+ engineers globally.

Overview

A-Gas is a world leader in refrigerant lifecycle management. Their field engineers relied on paper systems, manually recording 50+ rows per job while handling gas cylinders weighing 5 to 120 kg. About 7% of records had errors, causing financial losses and untracked emissions.

When I joined mid-development, the app lacked usable touch interactions, had poor accessibility, and had no established user-centred design process.

FSA mobile application

Stakeholder Trust: A Psychology-Led Approach

Situation

The original stakeholder viewed the project as "her baby" and feared losing agency. This created early conflict and slowed progress.

Action

Drawing on my psychology background, I arranged informal one-to-one conversations using active listening, paraphrasing concerns and validating emotions. I proposed a gradual handover with clear milestones, invited her to weekly design authority calls, and made sure her expertise was acknowledged in documentation and team updates.

Result

Conflict eased, collaboration improved, and the handover progressed without further delays. Stakeholder satisfaction increased and delivery timelines stabilised.

Discovery & Collaboration

  • Shadowed engineers on-site to uncover behaviours surveys would miss
  • Quantified the problem: 3 to 4 jobs per day, each needing 30+ minutes of paperwork
  • Centralised design assets, meeting notes, and feedback in shared documentation
  • Ran workshops introducing UX principles and root-cause analysis
  • Partnered with compliance, data, and IT security for GDPR and pen testing

Design & Prototyping

  • Used lean UX, selecting every action by potential impact
  • Built a custom Figma component library aligned with OutSystems
  • Created HTML/CSS prototypes for design-to-development accuracy
  • Wrote hand-off docs with custom code examples
  • Ensured WCAG 2.1 AA conformance across all interfaces
FSA app in the app store

1,000+

Global users across NA, Europe & APAC

20%

Decreased workload for engineers

£1.3m

Annual savings

4.1m

Cars-equivalent CO₂ offset

"What truly sets Andrew apart is his proactive approach to seeking out and incorporating feedback. He cultivated a culture of co-design where discovery sessions were invaluable."

"Having worked with Andrew for nearly three years at A-Gas, I recommend him as a person and a highly talented UX professional."

Data Dashboard Stakeholder Governance Strategic Design

A-Gas Mass Balance Report

A next-generation dashboard for product management for better asset visibility.

Overview

As A-Gas's systems matured, their data streams grew more complex. Reports were hard to read and analysis took too long. Senior stakeholders needed a lean dashboard that surfaced actionable insights quickly.

Mass Balance Report dashboard

End-to-End Design Process

01 - Discovery

Gathering Data

Worked with users and stakeholders to collect qualitative and quantitative data.

02 - Analysis

Understanding Problems

Led workshops to visualise data and wireframe optimal flows.

03 - Design

Prototyping & Testing

Rapid iterations, usability tests, and stakeholder alignment on hi-fi designs.

04 - Delivery

Onboarding & Handoff

Global sessions, training guides, and feature roadmaps.

Built for growth

Through better asset utilisation and visibility

50%

Reduction in support requests

+42%

Usability score improvement

Expertise

Skills & tools

Stakeholder management, innovation-led service design, and hands-on technical ability.

Stakeholder Management & Leadership

Stakeholder Management (7+ groups) Cross-Departmental Alignment Team Leadership (5-25) Workshop Facilitation Agile / Scrum Mentoring Roadmapping Conflict Resolution Governance

Service & Experience Design

End-to-End Service Design Double Diamond Service Blueprinting Journey Mapping Persona Development Usability Testing WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA Design Systems

Technical & Coding

HTML / CSS / JS Tailwind CSS Figma & FigJam Adobe Creative Suite OutSystems Webflow Salesforce Jira / Confluence

Communication & Languages

Cross-Dept Coordination Evidence-Based Decisions Training Delivery English (fluent) Italian (fluent) Russian (fluent)

Career

Experience

January 2025 - Present

Lead Product Designer

Empakt

  • Led cultural transformation; facilitated alignment with 25 senior staff
  • Directed service design using Double Diamond across 6 stakeholder groups
  • Reduced onboarding time by 35% through end-to-end journey mapping

April 2022 - October 2024

UX Designer

A-Gas

  • Founded the organisation's first UX department
  • Delivered £1.3m annual savings across 5 cross-departmental projects
  • Built a unified design system; halved support requests, +42% usability

September 2020 - April 2022

UX/UI Designer & Software Engineer Apprentice

Vodafone

  • Managed 5 junior designers using Agile methods
  • Acted as Scrum Master; ran monthly user studies
  • Presented designs to multiple teams and product owners

April 2019 - September 2020

Software Developer Apprentice

Intently (formerly Smarter Click)

  • Built responsive web components in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Ran A/B testing and funnel analysis across campaigns
  • Localised designs for Russian and Italian clients

Community

Volunteering & Community

ENGin Programme

English Tutor, 3+ years

Supporting Ukrainian citizens to build confidence and communication skills through structured, regular sessions.

Oasis Centre

Companion & Mentor, 8+ years

Providing companionship to elderly and vulnerable people, fostering safe spaces and offering mentoring support.

Vodafone

Apprentice Mentor, 2 years

Mentoring junior apprentices and ensuring their perspectives shaped organisational decisions.

Remembrance Day ceremony at Kirk of Calder

Active in the local community

Beyond professional volunteering, I'm an active member of my local community in Mid Calder. I participate in a range of events, from group litter-picking sessions that keep our neighbourhood welcoming, to attending and assisting with the annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the Kirk of Calder.

I'm currently organising a whisky dram tasting event for charity to support prostate cancer awareness and raise funds for men's health. Bringing people together for something meaningful is what community is all about.

Let's talk

I'm always open to conversations about service design, leadership, or interesting challenges. Whether you're hiring, collaborating, or just want to chat, I'd love to hear from you.