Toms Varpins
Toms Varpins

How I work

Curiosity

My curiosity has always led me to adventures.

When I was 12, I deleted system files from a friend's computer trying to make room for paint drawings and Flash games and broke the operating system.

Figuring out how to fix it sparked a lifelong interest in understanding how things work beneath the surface.

That’s how I approach product problems. I ask questions, dig into the details, and keep pulling at the thread until I understand what’s really going on.

Systems

The thing I’m designing is rarely the whole problem.

I like to zoom out and understand how the different parts affect one another before deciding what to change.

That means getting close to the technical details, understanding constraints and dependencies, and thinking through edge cases and what happens downstream.

Sometimes the best design decision isn’t to change the thing in front of me, but to fix what’s connected to it.

Collaboration

I don't believe design happens in isolation.

The people closest to a problem often know things I don't, so I try to get them involved early. I work closely with engineers, product people, and subject-matter experts throughout the process.

We share what we know, challenge assumptions and build a shared understanding of the problem which shapes what we can realistically build.

Good collaboration isn't about getting everyone to agree. It's about bringing the right perspectives together to make a better decision.

Judgment

Good design isn't about having the answer immediately.

It's about knowing how to make a good decision when you don't have all the information, then testing those assumptions in the real world.

I use prototypes, user feedback, data, and what happens after we ship to see what works and what doesn't. The goal is to make a thoughtful call, learn from it, and improve.

I take responsibility for making the thing better, even when the problem isn't neatly inside my job description.

Curiosity

At 12, I deleted system files from a friend’s computer..

..to make room for paint drawings and flash games. Fixing it got me hooked on how things work under the surface. I still approach products that way: ask questions and keep pulling the thread until I understand what’s really going on.

Systems

The screen I’m designing is rarely the whole problem.

At Printify, store creation was losing merchants partly because of a modal another team owned. I get close to the technical details and dependencies first, because sometimes the fix lives next to the thing I was asked to change.

Collaboration

The people closest to a problem usually know things I don’t..

..so I bring them in early. At the Register of Enterprises, every department knew its own step but nobody had mapped the whole process. A few workshops and one huge diagram later, everyone was working from the same picture.

Judgment

I rarely get all the information before I need to decide.

So I make the call, then check it with prototypes, user feedback, data and what happens after launch. And if the problem sits outside my job description, I still take responsibility for fixing it.

GitHub

GitHub

@tomekks

LinkedIn

in/toms-varpins/

Resume

open resume

Email

@tomekks
in/toms-varpins/
open resume
@

Hi, I'm Toms!

I like messy problems with more questions than answers.

My background is in IT systems and business analysis, so I know what engineering can build and what the business needs.

I dig in, bring in the right people, and turn the answers into something the team can ship.

Outside work

Cares about sound

I collect music for different moods.

I go to concerts and watch rock and jazz musicians shred and wonder how their fingers noodle that fast.

Naturally, I picked up playing guitar and started making my own sounds.

Walks a lot

I’ll happily walk across town for dinner or end up on a mountain just because I can. It’s how I think.

Keeps learning

I need to know the Why and understand How things work. I’ll happily go down a rabbit hole on almost anything that catches my attention.

Word from colleagues

He brings a rare mix of strategic thinking, technical competency and leadership.

Krists Tauriņš

/

Product Manager, Printify

His exceptional UX skills and ability to grasp the bigger picture consistently stood out.

Lorant Toth

/

Design Systems, Kinsta

His contributions were essential in securing pilot projects for our startup.

Boris Lunoff

/

VP of Operations

Things I've done

+9%

New stores created three months after launch, after a six-month 18% decline.

E-commerce, Printify

AI

I’m building TabbyTab, an app that turns songs into guitar tabs you can play along to. Recognizable, not note-perfect.

Audio processing, TabbyTab

1B

Transactions in the first month of N26’s SEPA payments. I turned the German central bank’s spec into product requirements.

FinTech, N26

-62%

Median time to first deployment, down from 8 minutes to 3, after I removed the paywall and rebuilt the flow.

Dev tools, Kinsta

82%

Of first business registrations in Latvia were rejected. I designed a system that catches those errors before submission.

Government, Register of Enterprises

10 months

Designed a remote agent support service that became the startup’s main profit driver.

Live Chat, tawk.to

Toms Varpins

Site
Work
AI workflow
About
Links
GitHub
Resume
LinkedIn

Toms Varpins

Site
Work
AI workflow
About
Links
GitHub
Resume
LinkedIn

Toms Varpins

Site
Work
AI workflow
About
Links
GitHub
Resume
LinkedIn