Elina Ashimbayeva

A podcast about money transparency in purpose-driven businesses. On Making Good Money, I explore how social entrepreneurs, ethical brands, and mission-driven organisations *actually* run: financially & operationally. If you're building (or dreaming of) an inclusive business, social impact project, or values-driven venture, AND you are very uncomfortable talking about money. Join me as I ask founders questions we are all uncomfortable asking: How much money do you make? What’s your business model? Can you build wealth for liberation without replicating harmful capitalist systems?

• Co-directed and facilitated workshops focusing on Allyship journeys across various intersections of gender, race, ability, and LGBTQIA+. • Collaborated with organizations such as Red Cross, NZTE, Blackbird, Auckland Museum and Xero to deliver tailored talks and consulting. • Co-created and ran a sold-out leadership unconference in Auckland, attended by 100 participants.

• Co-created a Hello Access platform to connect diverse user testers with organizations. • Focused on enhancing accessibility, inclusivity, and equity in products and services. • Conducted user testing to gather feedback and improve user experience. • Contributed to a vibrant startup culture dedicated to making a positive impact ✨

Ara Manawa is a team in the Auckland District Health Board championing the needs of users in the design of new spaces, services, experiences and products via the application of human-centred design methodology and co-design; ensuring the experiences and input of patients, whānau and staff are central throughout the design process. Key projects: • Design of the National Antibiotics Guidelines App to support evidence-based clinical practice. • Co-design of the Health & Wellbeing Hub in one of New Zealand’s lowest socio-economic areas through community and provider engagement • Created hospital workflows and service roadmaps, including a Missing Patient protocol. • Co-built a MedTech incubator, supporting startups and system-level innovation. • Collaborated on the creation of a Māori (our indigenous people) Leadership Programme, integrating design thinking with indigenous protocols to address hospital challenges.

Storyo is a storytelling platform and a community organisation that features 200+ stories of people (mainly women & non-binary) on topics like domestic violence, reproductive health, immigration, careers and much more. I’ve run Storyo for 5 years, and in that time, I: • Managed a team of 10+ volunteers and 8+ contractors • Produced and run 30+ community events, classes and workshops • Reached 100,000+ people online yearly across platforms • Run multi-channel campaigns that included billboards, social media, 8+ NZ radio stations • Collaborated with 15+ local organisations, including the Auckland Sexual Health Conference, Belong Aotearoa, and Radio New Zealand • Raised $100,000+ for various projects • Created in-depth evaluations of impact measurements (see example attached) • Was nominated and won the 2023 Impact Awards in the “Inclusion” Category

Building on my experience in product strategy and community engagement, I have designed workshops and talks centring on inclusion, ethics and equity in product development: • Taught over 20+ organisations such as Xero, EY, Brightly, Blackbird, Startmate, locally in New Zealand and their teams in the United States. Focusing on product managers, designers, engineers and analysts, as well as people leaders. • In 2022, collated the material into an online cohort programme aimed at product teams and invited 4 other industry leaders as co-facilitators. • Launched two sold-out cohorts (3 months each) covering topics such as company and team values, accessibility, responsible tech assessments, data ethics, intersectionality, and indigenous influences on the way product culture can be built

• Product rebuild & national rollout: Engaged with 100+ schools and educators across New Zealand to understand real needs. Rebuilt product roadmap from scratch, translating insights into clear user stories, PRDs, and acceptance criteria. Scaled from initial pilot to 50 schools with strong adoption and measurable impact. • Full lifecycle ownership: Sole customer-facing product leader. Partnered with designers, engineers, marketing, and customer success to transform platform from technically-driven to user-first. • Stakeholder navigation: Successfully balanced needs of educators, administrators, students, parents, and ministry officials while maintaining clear product vision and execution velocity. • Process & capability building: Established product management frameworks (roadmapping, user research protocols, data-driven decision making) still used by the organization.

• Conducted all user research through interviews and testing to inform product development for the Melodics App. • Collaborate closely with the CTO and CEO throughout the project discovery process, from problem identification to solution implementation. • Manage weekly growth experiments to enhance user engagement and product reach • Re-built the central learning pathway based on user feedback, and formed basis for features like colour-blind mode

I have worked in a health strategy team of EY Advisory, dealing with government and private health sector organisations. I have also been a part of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) team, creating process mapping, acting as a developer (BluePrism), user testing, delivering a complete proof-of-concept product to some of the biggest NZ companies.

I have been working with one of the best ICEHOUSE consultants to help direct and coach start-up businesses (from an idea to a big establishment). My role was focused on business research, organization and client relationships.

I was fortunate enough to complete Stanford design thinking school - d.school course virtually in 2018, as part of a cohort of EY strategists all over APAC. The course was heavily based on practical modules and it gave me a great applied knowledge of applying the framework with real life problems.

I got my First Class Honours in Biomedicine studying Breast Cancer gene FOXA1 and its importance in hormone positive tumour progression.