Roman Tikhonov portrait

Roman Tikhonov

Product Manager leading Onboarding and Identity at payme (TBC Uzbekistan).

Former cognitive science researcher at Carnegie Mellon with a PhD from St. Petersburg University.

Work

mentoring

Cursor Hackathon Mentoring

Helped teams choose and validate their product ideas

publication

Prediction, Explanation, and Control

How people predict, explain, and control dynamic systems

publication

Social Verification of Implicit Knowledge

How dyadic interaction shapes use of unconscious knowledge

talk

Learning Strategies from Cognitive Research

Open JetBrains lecture on evidence-based learning strategies

Timeline

Product
  1. Mentored teams at the Cursor hackathon (TBC Uzbekistan / payme). Helped choose and validate product ideas.
  2. Moved to Uzbekistan and joined payme as Product Owner, later Product Manager.
    1. Joined payme (TBC Uzbekistan) as Product Owner, later Product Manager. Own Onboarding and Identity. Tashkent.
    2. Moved to Uzbekistan.
  3. Co-founded ReviewLab.app, a product feedback platform. Shipped MVP in 2.5 months.
  4. Left academia for product at HumanteQ, moved to Armenia, and published in Open Mind plus other journals.
    1. Published in MIT's Open Mind: Prediction, Explanation, and Control — mental models in dynamic environments.
    2. Moved to Armenia.
    3. Moved into product management: PM at HumanteQ (mental health tech). Published Cognition and Journal of Cognitive Psychology papers.
Academia
  1. Moved to Georgia, then a Carnegie Mellon postdoc, while leading research and internships at St. Petersburg University.
    1. Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University (to Aug 2023). Studied prediction, explanation, and control in dynamic systems.
    2. Led Verbalization and Dynamic System Control research and launched research internships at St. Petersburg University.
    3. Moved to Georgia.
  2. PhD defended, teaching awards at HSE, a researcher role at JetBrains Research, and a cognitive hackathon.
    1. Gave an open JetBrains Research lecture on evidence-based learning strategies (100+ attendees).
    2. Researcher at JetBrains Research (to Mar 2022). Advised the Learning Research App on cognitive ability metrics.
    3. Organized the Cognitive Hackathon for Online Experiments at St. Petersburg University (40+ researchers).
    4. PhD in Psychology, St. Petersburg University. "Best Teacher" and Best Academic Advisor awards at HSE University. Led Online Communication and Trust research.
  3. Organized Paradoxes of Consciousness, a scientific conference at St. Petersburg University.
  4. Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer at HSE University. Designed award-winning courses. Began Teaching Categories research with Moskvichev and Steyvers.
  5. Launched Experiments Week, a science festival that later drew 800+ volunteer participants (through 2020).
  6. Market Research Analyst at UsabilityLab: Kano ranking of 700+ features across 16 mobile banking apps (survey n≈1900).
  7. Master's in Cognitive Psychology (with distinction). Started PhD on social verification of implicit knowledge and Stress & Well-Being research; co-authored 20+ peer-reviewed papers.
  8. Led a student satisfaction climate survey (n=124) for the Faculty of Psychology Student Council.
Undergrad
  1. Bachelor's in Psychology, St. Petersburg University. Master's thesis work on implicit learning in dyads (to 2015).
  2. Exchange semester at the University of Eastern Finland. Bachelor's thesis on gamification of group problem-solving.
  3. Led a human rights education project at AIESEC with 14 international volunteers (to 2011).
  4. Finished vocational training in web development; started studying psychology.
Earlier
  1. Moved to St. Petersburg, Russia.
  2. Born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.