Illia Kovalov’s Product Truth: An Inside Look At IT That Works For People

Today, digital products are expected to deliver not polished presentations, but real value: stable performance, usability, and reliability in critical moments. Behind this stand not only technologies, but also people who make decisions at the intersection of business, development and the user. One of them is Illia Kovalov, specialist with many years of experience in QA and quality management, who increasingly approaches projects from a product perspective.

Illia has gone from test engineer to team leader and founder of his own projects. His background includes work with American medical and engineering companies, compliance with strict safety standards, and the launch of ecommerce solutions on the U.S. market. Today, he speaks about product not as a set of features, but as responsibility for outcomes.

How Do You Explain The Product Approach To An Ordinary Person?

In very simple terms, a product approach means you are responsible not for “completing a task,” but for making something easier, faster, or more reliable for a person. Users don’t care how many lines of code were written or how many sprints passed. They care that the service doesn’t let them down. Product thinking starts with the question: “Why is this needed at all?” If there is no clear answer, something is going wrong.

You Spent Many Years In QA. Why Do Testers, In Your View, So Often Grow Into Product Specialists?

Because QA sees the system as a whole. A tester constantly thinks about scenarios, errors, risks, and how users might deviate from the ideal path. A good QA specialist asks uncomfortable questions in advance and a product manager, essentially, has to do the same thing, just at a higher level. That’s why this transition is quite natural.

In The Medical Projects You Worked On, The Cost Of Error Is Particularly High. Does That Change Your Attitude Toward The Product?

Very much so. There is no room for “we’ll fix it later.” Every decision must be validated in advance. That experience is very disciplining. You start to understand that a product is not an experiment for the sake of experimentation. It is a system that real people will use in real processes. That mindset then carries over into both commercial and consumer products.

Many Companies Today Chase Speed: Launching Faster, Releasing More Features. Is That Justified?

Speed matters, but it cannot be an end in itself. I’ve seen products that launched very quickly and lost users just as fast. Sometimes it’s better to do less, but make it clearer and more stable. Users may forgive the absence of a feature, but they rarely forgive inconvenience and instability. In the long run, those products win.

You Work With ECommerce In The U.S. What Is Critical For A Product There First And Foremost?

Trust. If a user doubts payment, delivery, or returns even for a second, they leave. From a product perspective, this means thinking not only about the storefront, but about the entire journey, from the first click to postpurchase support. Very often, success is determined not by marketing, but by how calmly and confidently a person goes through that journey.

It’s Often Said That A Product Manager Is A “Translator” Between Business And Development. Do You Agree?

Partly. But I would also say it’s a filter. A product manager must be able to cut away the unnecessary. Business wants more, development thinks about technical constraints and users live their own lives. The product specialist’s task is to bring all of this together into a working system without overloading the product with unnecessary solutions.

How Do You Know When A Product Has Started To “Live Its Own Life” And Needs To Be Reconsidered?

When the team fixes things more and more often but can’t clearly explain why those fixes are being made. Or when there are metrics, but no clarity. In such moments, it’s useful to pause and return to basic questions: who is our user now, what matters to them, and what problems are we really solving? Sometimes the answers are uncomfortable, but without them there is no growth.

What In Your Opinion, Distinguishes A Strong IT Product From A Mediocre One Today?

Honesty. A strong product honestly solves a specific problem and doesn’t try to pretend it’s something it’s not. When a team understands its limitations, respects the user and takes responsibility for results, it shows. And those are the products that stay with people for a long time.