Product · Strategy · Builder

I solve problems for a living.
On weekends, I build apps
to solve the ones left over.

Dimitry Kitaigorodsky  ·  Dima  ·  Director of Product, Visa

Dad, dog owner, perpetual student. Still haven't figured out how to relax. This site is proof, and an outlet.

Dimitry Kitaigorodsky

Things I've built

Side projects that started as personal problems and turned into shipped products.

Card Optimizer
Live Fintech
Card Optimizer
Which card should I use right now? Enter any purchase and get the optimal card from your wallet instantly.
View Project ↗
Fridge to Fork
In Progress AI
Fridge to Fork
Photo your fridge, get recipes built around what you actually have. Inverts the way recipe discovery works.
In Development
In Progress
Coming Soon AI
Strategy, on demand
Competitive intelligence, financial context, market definitions — without the three-hour research spiral. In progress.
Coming Soon

Who I am

I'm a product leader with 15+ years of experience working across payments infrastructure, embedded finance, and global product strategy. At Visa, I've helped build products that touch hundreds of millions of users, from BNPL pilots with Amazon to installment platforms spanning 30+ markets globally.

Before Visa, I spent time at Deloitte as a product manager and consultant, and before that built my foundation in finance and strategy at Mattel, Bank of America, and State Street. I have an MBA from UCLA Anderson.

The projects on this site aren't just hobbies. They are also how I stay sharp and on top of trends. I enjoy building things that solve problems I run into, testing hypotheses, and owning outcomes instead of handing it off to someone else.

Outside of work: I was born in the former USSR and went through two immigrations before landing on the East Coast of the United States. I'm raising a two-year-old and an Australian Shepherd, fitting in travel wherever I can, and I regularly enroll in courses and workshops to keep learning.

Focus Areas
Product Strategy Embedded Finance Payments & BNPL GTM & Monetization 0 to 1 Building AI-first Products
Education
MBA · UCLA Anderson BS Finance · NYU Stern

Where I've worked

2022 · Present
Director of Product Management, Embedded Finance
Visa · New York
Led global BNPL and installments strategy across 30+ markets. Stepped into a stalled Amazon BNPL pilot, diagnosed pricing and checkout gaps, and helped turn it around. Consolidated a fragmented portfolio into 4 scalable platforms.
2020 · 2022
Director of Product Management, Banking Solutions and Strategy
Visa · New York
Orchestrated GTM strategy for a new payments product with a top-20 US bank. Developed MVP analytics tool for SMB customers from research through pilot.
2018 · 2020
Product Manager, Senior Consultant
Deloitte · New York
Identified a major revenue opportunity in a complex, heavily regulated market and built the expansion plan that got executive buy-in. Developed new analytics feature for a large tax product.
2016 · 2018
Associate Manager, Global Strategy and Analytics
Mattel · El Segundo, CA
Led brand reacquisition strategy for a $300M licensing business. Spearheaded ML model to identify consumer product preferences, leading to two new product line extensions.
2014 · 2016
MBA, Strategy
UCLA Anderson School of Management
2010 · 2014
Lead Engineer / Senior AVP
Bank of America · New York
Led a 40-person cross-functional team to ship a cashflow product.
2007 · 2010
Product Manager
State Street (IFS) · New York
Reduced manual product valuation work and runtime by 97%.

What I think about

My Wife Just Wants to Know Which Card to Use. So I Built Something. New

Experimenting with AI to finally solve a simple but surprisingly annoying problem, and what deciding what not to build taught me more than the building itself.

More at dimitrykitaigorodsky.substack.com

If something here resonated, a project, a perspective, or just the vibe, I'd love to hear from you.

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