Image Courtesy of Maryna Karpenko
SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Maryna Karpenko, an award-winning product designer and digital product leader whose previous work has reached millions of people worldwide, has joined Meta, where she helps shape the future of digital communication on a global scale. Some of Maryna’s top honors include the MUSE Creative Award, the Vega Digital Award, and the Davey Award.
Previously, Maryna led the mobile messaging experience at Mattermost, an open-source platform for secure collaboration and workflow orchestration, and Y Combinator’s largest-ever Series B investment. There, she redefined how teams connect in high-trust environments like government, finance, and tech.
Maryna first made her mark at Hily, a fast-growing dating app, where she launched live-streaming features that helped users connect in more meaningful ways and stand out in a crowded market.
She was also the Lead Product Designer at Wavechat, where she built the app from the ground up. Her work led to a win at Product Hunt’s Maker Festival (Snapchat Edition) and a feature on the Apple App Store.
How it Started
Maryna Karpenko’s passion for design began early. As a child, she balanced competitive gymnastics with hours spent exploring the online world. She taught herself Photoshop through YouTube tutorials and quickly became captivated by the creative possibilities of digital tools. “I was always drawn to making things on a screen,” she says.
A defining moment came when a classmate brought a first-generation iPod to school. “I remember how natural it felt to use—so intuitive and thoughtfully made. That was the moment I realized great products don’t just solve problems; they feel like magic. I knew then that I wanted to build things like that,” Karpenko recalls.
Gifted in math, she pursued a degree in applied mathematics while continuing to develop her creative skills. Over time, her curiosity shifted toward understanding how people think and feel, leading her to study psychology.
By the time she graduated, product design had emerged as a defined career path, with inspiring role models like Julie Zhuo and Luke Wroblewski leading the way. “It finally clicked for me: this was the path that blended creativity, technology, and human insight,” she says.
Her path to a third degree in design was not easy. But looking back, Karpenko credits her diverse academic background and creative drive with shaping her into the designer she is today.
Operating at the Intersection of Disciplines
Steve Jobs famously championed the idea that great innovation happens when technology meets the humanities. At the launch of the iPad 2, he summed up Apple’s approach:
“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.“
Maryna Karpenko, a dedicated student of Apple’s design philosophy, echoes this belief. She credits her cross-disciplinary background as a core driver of her work: “Psychology helps me understand people—their context, motivations, and mental models. Math gave me the structured thinking to collaborate deeply with engineers. And design school taught me how to bring it all together to solve real human problems.”
Giving Back to the Community
As a respected voice in the design community, Maryna Karpeno serves as a jury panelist for the Communicator Awards and is an active member of the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), where she helps spotlight the work of the next generation of designers.
She shares that, “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have people take a chance on me. Now it’s my turn to help emerging talent get seen.”
Contact info: San Francisco, CA
Contact Name: Maryna Karpenko
Email address: rinak.notes@gmail.com
Website: https://www.marinakarpenko.com/
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/025cd174-cade-4df3-a92b-5f4b99fc0cd6
