Avitologists Certification Program Launch

• My role: Product Manager, Product Designer
• Deliverables: Product Strategy, UI/UX/IxD, User Testing, Public Speaking
• Audience: Avitologists, SME Sellers
• Platforms: Web

Certified avitologists after the meetup

Context

Seller segments and their monthly spending

Avito is a leading classified platform, connecting individuals and businesses across categories like goods, transportation, real estate, jobs, and services. Since 2021, it has become the world's most visited classified, surpassing Craigslist in daily active users (DAU), with over 42M registered users and 150M listings.

Originally, Avito started as a C2C marketplace for private sellers. However, professional sellers quickly recognized the platform's high-quality traffic and business potential. These days, our strategy is centered on acquiring and growing SME (midmarket) customers. This segment is large, business-driven, and willing to invest — making it a key focus for our growth.

Problem

SME customers face specific challenges that our current product doesn’t fully address:

• Analyzing competitors,
• Developing a marketing strategy to stand out,
• Creating high-quality content (photos and descriptions),
• Publishing hundreds of listings each month,
• Promoting them using our value-added services.

And they must do all this while running their business full-time. This complexity leads to a 60% churn rate by the second month.

Research findings

Avitologists listings on the website

While testing a new feature with advanced statistics, I discovered a strong demand for professional assistance. Six out of eight customers found our product too complex and were willing to pay for help.

I soon realized that a community of specialists had already formed around Avito, calling themselves avitologists and offering exactly this kind of support. However, we had no visibility into their expertise or qualifications, making it impossible to recommend their services to our customers.

I interviewed several avitologists and contacted a colleague who had previously launched a similar certification program at Yandex. That's when the idea of creating our own certification program hit me.

Discovery process

Product discovery work

I assembled a product and marketing initiative team. As a product manager, I led the entire product discovery cycle:

• Ran a series of workshops to shape the idea,
• Conducted dozens of customer interviews to identify key problems and potential solutions,
• Analyzed competitors to establish market benchmarks,
• Defined a unique value proposition (UVP) for Avitologists to qualify for certification,
• Mapped out the customer journey (CJM) and target vision,
• Defined a minimum lovable product (MLP) to test the main hypothesis.

Together with a community manager, we launched the certification program. To move fast, we built the first version using Google Spreadsheets. It focused on three key aspects to validate an Avitologist’s expertise:

1. Platform rules survey. Assessing knowledge of platform policies, mechanisms, and tools for effectively working with SME clients.
2. Case study. Evaluating real-world business experience with SME clients.
3. Interview and test case with our in-house sales manager. Verifying soft skills and practical expertise.

Solution hypothesis

Certified Avitologists can help our customers develop and execute effective marketing strategies. This will enable customers to gain more value from the platform, which we can measure through increases in ARPPU and average customer lifetime.

Hypothesis validation

To validate our hypothesis, we ran a series of tests with newly certified Avitologists and closely monitored customer metrics and satisfaction (measured through monthly surveys). After four months, we saw strong traction: ARPPU increased by 32%, and second-month churn dropped by 66%. This meant customers were spending more and staying with us longer.

To secure development resources and build tools for avitologists, I presented this initiative at a product portfolio review with our CPO and CTO. We used Amazon’s PR/FAQ framework for this process.

First gate press release

I successfully defended the concept and its potential in the first review gate, demonstrating that there is a clear market demand from customers, and that qualified specialists are ready to meet it.

Second gate FAQ

At the second review gate, I defended the financial traction model, presenting revenue projections for the post-launch year period.

After getting the green light, I took on the product management role for several months:

• Planned delivery team capacity, aligning roadmaps with OKRs,
• Collaborated with stakeholders across business verticals to define success metrics for the entire project,
• Assisted the community manager in migrating the certification program to the VCV platform.

Public speaking

Meetup with avitologists in Saint Petersburg’s office

As you can imagine, Avitologists are highly interested in company’s inner workings. To build a strong relationship with this community, we launched a series of meetups. I delivered two public talks about the new tools we were developing for them, gathered feedback on our program, and even gave them a tour of our office.

To further develop the Avitologist community, we launched a dedicated chat and an educational event series. These sessions covered moderation challenges, feedback on new tools, and best practices for working with clients across different verticals.

Final solution

Avitologists showcase

Alongside my part-time product management role, I designed, tested, and launched several key product improvements:

• A showcase of all certified Avitologists within our business hub,
• An Avitologist profile and certification badge to distinguish certified specialists from non-certified ones,
• A guide to help Avitologists properly fill out their profiles and promote their services,
• A client connection system to track customer success metrics,
• A dedicated section in Avitologists’ profiles to manage their clients.

As a result, we simplified and secured the process of choosing an Avitologist. Clients could browse the showcase, check a specialist’s experience in their profile, connect via a built-in messenger system, sign a contract, and start working together.

We successfully highlighted qualified Avitologists, brought them new clients, and provided a seamless tool for client management within their profiles.

Outcome & impact

After a year of running this program, we built a community of around 150 certified Avitologists. They help our customers effectively grow their businesses on the platform. As a result, we also generated an additional $2M in revenue, driven by increases in ARPPU and customer lifetime value.

We established a mutually beneficial collaboration with external specialists to support our customers' growth. This gave us the ability to rapidly test new hypotheses with a highly engaged audience and provided a valuable new source of high-quality market insights.

Reflections & learnings

I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to step into a product management role and strengthen my entrepreneurial skills. I learned how to test hypotheses with minimal resources and, more importantly, how to sell a project to stakeholders to secure those resources.

If your product is growing at a rapid pace, brand ambassadors will naturally emerge. Partnering with them is a win-win. They spread the word about your brand, while you provide them with insights and tools to boost their income.

Team credits

None of these significant results would have been possible without an incredible team:

• Senior Product Designer & Product Manager: Paul Sikorsky
• Product Unit Lead: Margo Alumyan
• Tech Team Lead: Aleksey Zhuravlev
• Brand Manager: Arina Girshovich
• Community Manager: Kseniya Kildeeva
• Senior Product Analyst: Alina Dranga
• UX Writer: Mikhail Borisenok

I'd love to launch new projects

I really enjoyed working on a product from zero to one. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to do a project together!

Telegram, LinkedIn, p@sikorsky.design.