I am many things,
but not a self-made professional.
I wouldn’t be here without context,
long working hours, family, friends,
colleagues, or clients.
I’m grateful for everything.
I stay sharp and broaden my perspectives through education.
Courses
greg shove ai mini mba section school CEO
section school logo

AI for Business
Mini-MBA

Greg Shove

Greg Shove is the CEO of Section. He has been the founder/CEO of six companies -- three with successful exits. He's held leadership positions at Apple and AOL and led companies through three recessions.

Completed 2023

Smiling woman with curly hair, black and white portrait.
section school logo

The Positioning
Sprint

April Dunford

April Dunford is the bestselling author of Obviously Awesome, the industry bible on product positioning.
She is a positioning expert who has led teams at seven successful B2B tech startups and advised Fortune 500 companies on positioning their products for success.

Completed 2023

scott galloway the brand strartegy sprint section school
section school logo

The Brand
Strategy Sprint

Scott Galloway

Prof G needs no introduction but for those who don't know, Scott Galloway is a marketing professor at NYU Stern and the founder of L2 Inc., Red Envelope, Prophet, and Section.

Completed 2022

adam alter the product principles sprint section school
section school logo

The Product
Principles Sprint

Adam Alter

Adam Alter is a professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department.

Completed 2022

Animated blue energy sphere on dark background.
google cloud logo

Introduction to
Responsible AI

Google Staff

An introductory-level microlearning course aimed at explaining what responsible AI is, why it's essential, and how Google implements responsible AI in their products. It also introduces Google's 7 AI principles.

Completed 2023

scaling good services course Lou Downe
The School of
Good Services

Scaling
Good Services

Lou Downe

Embed service design in the most challenging environments with this 2-day masterclass. Develop the tools and techniques to help you lead good services at scale.

Completed 2022

Abstract black waves on red background.
The School of
Good Services

Designing
Good Services

Lou Downe

Understand what makes a good service for your users and identify critical problems in this one-day course that covers an in-depth view of the 15 principles of good service design.

Completed 2022

Smiling man in glasses with a gray background.
section school logo

The Product
Strategy Sprint

Gibson Biddle

Gibson Biddle served as Netflix’s VP of Product from 2005 to 2010, where he created game-changing product features like personalised recommendations for film and TV.

Completed 2023

I read, listen and engage in conversations. 
Books
the experience machine andy clarke bookv.s. ramachandran phantoms in the brain book
the case against reality hoffman book
free will sam harris bookThe Power of Habit book cover by Charles DuhiggBook cover for "Human Diversity" by Charles Murray.the paradox of choice barry schwartz book
adam alter irresistible bookanatomy of a braktrough adam alterthe square and the tower niall fergusongood services lou downe
Podcasts
Music
My clients, colleagues and friends are the best people to talk to about me as a professional.

Their words are humbling and uplifting at the same time.
Recommendations
Alin is the finest designer I've worked with.

I've worked in this industry for 20 years at some world-renowned organisations and never have I come across a mind like Alin's.

Alin's outlook on life and design was formed by his experiences growing up in communist Romania. People had little, so what they had needed to be treated with the utmost care and efficiency, and needed to be maximised. Everything was fixable or recycled, nothing should be discarded.

This ethos is now evident in Alin's practice. He looks to find efficiencies in his solutions with a real focus on system thinking. He has an unwavering care for the customer whilst always being aware that we design for both business and user. He looks to squeeze every last drop of value to both from each user journey or touch point, across vast digital and physical estates.

Alin is a design generalist. He excels producing Service Design and Information Architecture as his mind works fluently with complexity. He is equally capable of designing a UI and micro journeys within an experience. These skills enable him to work strategically at many levels, from designing a business to designing a UI element.

Alin offers real value to a team. He's full of ideas, strong in communication with stakeholders and ultimately the most talented guy I've worked with. He's a team player and requires little to no management. He is also a wonderful character, bringing warmth and humour to the team.

If you are in need of a designer who is capable of making real positive change within your business, then do not think twice about hiring Alin.
There is no doubt Alin is among creme de la creme of the design talents, except you don't need my reference to know it - simply verify this by checking his portfolio. Let me use our time wisely and share how Alin will enrich your team.

He will propose solutions showing empathic understanding of users needs and economic understanding of the business cases. He will think ahead and care about the project like the father cares about his children - taking care of their health and security. He will show curiosity and won't be afraid to challenge introduced concepts with great ideas and deep philosophy.

He will provoke the team to grow, help them reflect and learn more about themselves while bringing a lot of smiles. He will quickly establish himself as an unreplaceable part of the team, setting the bar exceptionally high for anyone to follow and before you know it, he will become your friend 🖖
I worked with Alin on the Sony PlayStation content pipeline project. Alin has a relaxed, honest, friendly attitude which makes collaborating with him extremely easy and enjoyable. He very curious about science, technology, human behaviour so there was always interesting topics to discuss with him daily. He is great fun to work.

Even during peak delivery phases on the project Alin always reminded focused, detailed, endeavouring to have all the UX flows, wireframes and visuals to their complete, aligned standards for Sony and BAs. One of his key contributions was introducing a change log with files to track frequent updates to wireframes made by multiple designers due to changing business requirements. It aided greatly in documenting reasonings on each iteration leading up to sign off.

He is passionate about great, no fuss user experience (and tasty fresh food!). He is switched on to technology trends and sharing insights into how he imagines the user interaction with the brand, its services and products is transforming. He will surely be a great member to an organisation looking to explore, develop new levels of user experience.
Alin is one of the major contributors in designing Zalando’s first, middle, and last-mile transport platform. Alin has it all, he is well organised, creative, diligent, highly focused, hands-on and a fast learner. All these attributes were critical when trying to build a product from scratch by redoing the entire existing process, which involves reaching out to a lot of people, understanding the as-is process, defining the product, designing it, and finally helping in the development phase. Being a fast learner helped him understand the domain quickly and choose the right path to success.

Alin is not only a great product designer but also a well-rounded product manager and can add value to any part of the product life cycle. His vision and energy to make things happen are contagious and they helped us achieve great goals at Zalando. One of the best product designers I have worked with for sure. Alin is my go-to person. Whenever I need product-related brainstorming, solution, or just bouncing ideas I make sure to reach out to him, as he is the best. He has been collaborating with my teams for a year now, and on top of being a great product designer, I would say he is my strongest counterpart in product management.

A very easy-going person to work with. He has been a strong inspiration to me as he always went the extra mile and found great ways and ideas to quickly solve problems. Words aren’t enough to summarise Alin’s contribution. I share a personal bond with Alin because we may not think alike, but we ensure we feel we are being heard, convince each other until we are on the same page, and only then make sure we move ahead in the product journey.
Alin has earned a great level of respect from everyone he has worked at Zalando with.
Alin is not only a very talented designer, but also a very likeable person. If you think you have a complex design project and need someone to come in and add value fast, this is the person to talk to.

I’ve interviewed a lot of designers, but interviewing Alin was memorable. He did not only add value from day one when I hired him, but shared already helpful insights during the interview. When Alin joined Zalando, he demonstrated that he has has a sharp mind and immersed himself quickly into the topic.
In no time he became an integral part the transportation team as their first designer, and a valued member of the wider design community.
I can't recommend Alin enough. He played a fundamental role in Mashroom product development. Alin joined us when we desperately needed help with creating a prototype. He brought not only a great user experience expertise with him, but also so much needed management skills, research and data collection, reporting and proper communication with development team. Alin is a great user advocate and always proposes win-win solutions for business.
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This website is an overview of my work. Are you interested in my processes or details about the projects I've worked on?
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Copyright © Alin Buda. All rights reserved. Trademarks, brands and some of the images are the property of their respective owners.
Some images were sourced from Pexels™ and Unsplash™.
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