ABAB DesignAB Design → Advisory
AB Design, 2002-2018 → Artem Babenko Advisory

I built an outsourcing company before I started advising them.

Over 16 years, AB Design grew from a small studio into a full-cycle production company: 70 full-time employees, 40 specialists in a flexible team and more than 180 delivered projects.

That is why I do not advise service businesses from a textbook. I know how sales, hiring, delivery, quality and margins connect - and when the owner becomes the constraint on growth.

16years building AB Design
70 + 40employees plus flexible team at peak
180+mobile, web and applied projects
Founder & CEOsales, delivery, hiring and P&L
ABFROM PRODUCTION TO ADVISORY
70 + 40full-time employees plus freelancers and part-time specialists at peak
Artem Babenko
Artem Babenko · Founder and former CEO of AB Design

AB Design closed in 2018. The experience of running it became the foundation of my current advisory practice.

ThenAB DesignA full-cycle digital production and outsourcing company.
NowArtem Babenko AdvisoryHands-on advisory for service businesses, product teams and founders.
What stands behind the advice

Not a presentation case. A real business with difficult decisions.

AB Design combined analytics, UX/UI, mobile and web development, applied software and support. I was responsible for both growth and the cost of that growth.

I went through the full founder cycle

I sold projects, built teams, hired managers, dealt with demanding clients, protected quality and watched the numbers. I had to make decisions when there was no perfect option and no one else to pass responsibility to.

I also went through crises, client losses, cash-flow pressure, hiring mistakes, owner overload and several rounds of rebuilding the company. That is the part of the experience that now makes my advice practical.

Clients and brands

Projects across automotive, telecom, aviation, retail, sport and technology. Not a logo wall for decoration, but experience from different business contexts.

Mercedes-Benz
Samsung
McDonald’s Ukraine
Land Rover
Jaguar
KLM
Fiat
Sport Life
UkrAVTO
Transbank
Ciklum
EDAPS
Lemförder
AAU
The experience I use today

What years of running AB Design taught me

My approach is direct because the business was direct. A strategy has to survive the market, the team, the client and the economics.

01

Positioning must help sales

A service description that makes sense only to the founder will not help the sales team or the client choose you.

02

Delivery is part of the offer

Promising more than the team can repeatedly deliver destroys margin, trust and the owner’s time.

03

Busy does not mean profitable

A full pipeline and overloaded people can hide weak pricing, poor project mix and uncontrolled costs.

04

The owner cannot stay the system

When every decision, sale and escalation depends on one person, growth eventually becomes self-defeating.

Current advisory

Where this experience is useful now

Outsourcing and outstaffing advisory is the main entry point. Product, audit and AI work remain available when the problem sits elsewhere.

Primary focus

Advisory for outsourcing and outstaffing companies

I help owners identify where growth is stuck: positioning, sales, delivery, margins, management structure or personal overload. Then we build a sequence of concrete changes rather than another abstract strategy.

  • Positioning and service packaging
  • Sales process and offer quality
  • Delivery model and accountability
  • Margins and control points
  • Reducing founder dependency
  • Repeatable productized services
What you leave withPriorities, decisions and first actions that can be tested in the real business.
How I work

No theatre, no universal playbook

First I understand the situation. Then I suggest the format that matches the problem rather than forcing the problem into a service card.

01

Context before advice

I look at the market, offer, team, product, process and economics. The visible symptom is often not the real cause.

02

A format that fits

This may be one consultation, an audit, ongoing advisory or a short series of working sessions.

03

A useful next step

After the work, you should know what to change first, what to measure and what not to spend time on.

If the task is broader

Not sure which format fits?

Start with Work with me. It brings together business advisory, product work, career formats, mentoring and the small group. Choose a direction yourself or simply describe the context.

Contact

Describe what is happening. I will suggest the most sensible format.

You do not need to diagnose the problem in advance. Tell me what is happening in the company or product, what you want to change and what you have already tried.

Short request

Context instead of a long back-and-forth

Five fields help me understand the task before the first reply.

The form sends the request to my private Google Sheet and Telegram.