Product Manager Trainee
I joined Side at the beginning of my product career and learned the job inside active products and real team constraints.
About Vladislav Zhirnov
I build products and AI systems that work when real people use them.
I'm Vladislav Zhirnov, Co-Founder and CPO at Pinpoint (opens in a new tab). There, I lead product strategy, contribute to early growth, and build AI systems that enable us to iterate quickly. Through this site, I help founders and product teams turn promising apps into successful products real people use.
Before this chapter, I spent more than five years at Side (opens in a new tab), growing from Product Manager Trainee to Director of Product Management. There, I led DUBS - a social gaming platform for teens - from concept to over 150,000 installs.
Away from the screens, I live on a homestead with Carl the mini-Highland cow and a rather large supporting cast.
To learn more about Pinpoint and the other projects I'm involved in, visit my portfolio.
Projects I build and support
I build from several sides of the same problem.
I work on products, operating systems, a family business, and the guides on this site. They all bring me back to one question: will this still work when someone else depends on it?
Company I am helping buildBuilding now
Pinpoint
Co-Founder and CPOA driving app that keeps a useful history of trips and helps drivers understand where they have been.Visit Pinpoint (opens in a new tab)Personal development systemBuilding nowWarpOS
CreatorThe system I built to keep long-running AI-assisted work organized, reviewable, and recoverable.View WarpOS (opens in a new tab)Product built from a problem I live withBuilding nowDoogle
CreatorA simple way for dog trainers to take useful training notes and share them with the people who need them.Visit Doogle (opens in a new tab)My guide library for helping othersPublishing and buildingVladZ.ai
Founder and authorPlain-language guides for founders who need an AI-built app or workflow to work for real people.Visit VladZ.aiMy wife's dog-training businessOperating nowFrankly Dog Training
Joining the business full-timeA family business helping people build clearer communication and a better daily life with their dogs.Visit Frankly Dog Training (opens in a new tab)Client projectClient workNightweave
Product and implementation workA smart dream journal that helps you reflect on your dreams and create your reality.Visit Nightweave (opens in a new tab)At Pinpoint (opens in a new tab), I work on product strategy and growth as Co-Founder and CPO. It puts me close to the decisions that turn a useful idea into a product people can use.
I am also joining my wife in Frankly Dog Training (opens in a new tab) full-time. That experience feeds directly into Doogle (opens in a new tab), which I built to solve problems dog trainers live with every day.
How I got here
I grew from product trainee to director by staying close to the work.
Product Manager
I moved into product ownership and worked through research, priorities, delivery, and the decisions that connect them.
Product Lead for DUBS
I led DUBS (opens in a new tab) from product research through launch and operation. Is It You? is also part of the products I helped lead at Side.
Director of Product Management
My final chapter at Side widened the job from one product to the product practice around it.
Taking DUBS into the real world
A launch teaches you what a planning document cannot.
DUBS gave me the full product loop: understand the job, make a hard choice, ship it, watch what people do, and change the product when reality disagrees.
We used a 0 to 1200 Behavior Score and separate teen and adult spaces. Trust and safety became part of the product itself: who could meet, what behavior the system encouraged, and how people built confidence before joining a lobby.
Why I built WarpOS
I needed my own work to stop disappearing between conversations.
WarpOS (opens in a new tab) is my personal development system. I built it because long-running AI-assisted work needs more than a good prompt. It needs a durable record of what matters, what changed, what passed, and what still needs a person.
Its architecture drives @Vlad, the Virtual Co-Founder you call inside a project. The goal is practical: preserve the thread, keep decisions visible, and help work continue without pretending an AI should own every choice.
Building from a problem I live with
Dog training keeps the product work honest.
Joining Frankly Dog Training means I am not observing the work from a distance. I see the notes, handoffs, repeated questions, and small tasks that consume a trainer's day.
Doogle (opens in a new tab) came from that direct experience. I built it for myself to make training notes easier to capture and share. The useful system is the one a busy person can still use while doing the actual job.
Client work
Help a client turn an idea into a product they can use.
Nightweave (opens in a new tab) is a client project. I helped shape and implement the public product while keeping the work grounded in the client's goals and operating needs.
Client work asks for the same discipline as founder work: understand the job, make the tradeoffs clear, and leave the client with something they can operate.
How I work
Make the outcome clear. Then make it real.
Start with the person
The product has to help someone do something that matters. The tool used to build it comes second.
Name what finished means
A useful finish line can be seen and checked. It is not a confident message saying the work is done.
Keep proof close
Important claims should have evidence that matches their size. If the evidence is narrow, the claim stays narrow.
Own the handoffs
Many products fail between the parts: from preview to public use, from payment to access, or from a decision to the work that follows.
Why I write
I write guides for problems people keep running into.
Each guide starts with a real problem and ends with a practical next step.
I bring judgment, examples, boundaries, and lessons from work I have actually done.
What drives me
I believe we have far more creative energy and capacity than we are taught to use. If you know something within yourself and refuse to give up on it, you can create it outside yourself. You can build the world you want to live in. As within, so without.
Life away from the screen
I live on a homestead with more than 50 birds, including ducks, chickens, geese, and turkeys; six goats, five dogs, Gerard the horse, and Carl, the mini-Highland cow who inspired the Virtual Co-Founder mascot.
Work with Vlad
Bring me the product that needs to work outside the demo.
If the important part crosses product choices, AI systems, launch handoffs, and real user behavior, I can help make the finish line clear and get the work there.