About me.
I am many things.
But I am not a self-made professional.
I wouldn’t be here without context, clients, family or friends.
I’m grateful for all.
Education.
I proactively seek opportunities to expand my knowledge and skill set.
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.
The Product Engagement Sprint
Nir Eyal
Nir Eyal is the bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable and a former marketing lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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 personalized recommendations for film and TV.
The Brand Strategy Sprint
Scott Galloway
Scott Galloway is a professor of marketing at NYU Stern and the founder of L2 Inc, Red Envelope, Prophet, and Section.
The School of Good Services
Designing Good Services
Lou Downe
Lou Downe is the author of Good Services, the bestselling book on how to design services that work and the founding director of the School of Good Services.
Understand what makes a good service for your users and identify key problems in your own service in this 1 day course that covers an in-depth view of the 15 principles of good service design
The School of Good Services
Scaling Good Services
Lou Downe
Lou Downe is the author of Good Services, the bestselling book on how to design services that work and the founding director of the School of Good Services.
Embed service design in the most difficult environments with this 2-day masterclass. Develop the tools and techniques that will help you to lead good services at scale
Introduction to Generative AI
Gwendolyn Denise Stripling, Ph.D.
An introductory level microlearning course aimed at explaining what Generative AI is, how it is used, and how it differs from traditional machine learning methods.
Introduction to LLM
John Ewald
An introductory level microlearning course that explores what large language models (LLM) are, the use cases where they can be utilized, and how you can use prompt tuning to enhance LLM performance.
Introduction to Responsible AI
Google Cloud Staff
An introductory-level microlearning course aimed at explaining what responsible AI is, why it's important, and how Google implements responsible AI in their products. It also introduces Google's 7 AI principles.
Introduction to Image Generation
Kyle Steckler
This course introduces diffusion models, a family of machine learning models that recently showed promise in the image generation space. Diffusion models draw inspiration from physics, specifically thermodynamics.
Encoder - Decoder Architecture
Benoit Dherin
This course gives you a synopsis of the encoder-decoder architecture, which is a powerful and prevalent machine learning architecture for sequence-to-sequence tasks such as machine translation, text summarization, and question answering.
Attention Mechanism
Sanjana Reddy
This course will introduce you to the attention mechanism, a powerful technique that allows neural networks to focus on specific parts of an input sequence.
Experience and recommendations.
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.
Jun 2022 - Apr 2023 • 11 mos
Product Designer at PEI Group
About
Recommendations (3)
About
An excellent opportunity to work on the foundation of a publishing business. Before updating the experience, as a designer, it is always best to understand what makes a business work and how.
For this to happen, I’ve audited and mapped the infrastructure, learning about the products and services and how they are intertwined.
Today, PEI Group owns 17 brands, each with its infrastructure, products and services. All of them offer high-quality content via subscriptions or memberships.
The overhaul will take a while, but everything is a lot easier with a solid foundation.
Recommendations (3)
James Lockwood
Head of Product Design • LinkedIn
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.
Darren Thrope
Chief Product Officer • LinkedIn
I highly recommend Alin for any product service design role. Alin is an incredibly detail-oriented and passionate designer. His ability to bring a product from concept to completion is impressive, as he is able to identify both the user and business needs. He takes the time to understand the customer and the stakeholder’s requirements and is able to deliver a product that meets both. His enthusiasm for the design process and his dedication to getting it right is unparalleled. I have personally worked with Alin and can vouch for his talent and experience in this field.
Adam Smallman
Director of Membership Programs at PEI Group • LinkedIn
Alin is an original thinker who asks smart and interesting questions to understand design objectives. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and recommend Alin to those willing to think differently about product design.
Sep 2021 - Mar 2022 • 7 mos
Product Designer at Zalando™
About
Recommendations (3)
About
I’ve joined (remotely) a fantastic team of product managers, designers and software engineers for this project. The job was to improve the functionality of an existing set of tools and design a digital platform capable of supporting multiple services in the logistics domain from scratch. But it is tough to explain the complexity of such a product in a few words.
This new line of products is servicing not only the activities related to shipments inside Zalando’s warehouses but the logistics domain, everything that moves on the first, middle and last mile. These internal applications allow the creation/ managing of contracts and pricing, onboarding of Freight Forwarders and Carriers, transport planning, yard and dock management and Invoice Reconciliation.
Recommendations (3)
Sneha Golechha
Product Lead at Zalando • LinkedIn
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.
Achim Grunwald
Product Management and User Experience Enthusiast • LinkedIn
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.
Shalini Pasupuleti
Product Manager at Zalando • LinkedIn
I had the pleasure of working with Alin on one of the Zalando’s last mile products. It was a learning experience for me in many ways.
My most favourite thing about Alin is that he is always in high spirits, and the same enthusiasm reflects in the people around him as well. Professionally, he is very hard working, passionate, diligent, considerate of others’ ideas, stays on top of things and most importantly he has this ability to think clearly even amongst a lot of chaos. I wish him success in all his endeavours.
Nov 2020 - Jun 2021 • 8 mos
Product Designer at Zalando™
About
Recommendations (3)
About
I’ve joined (remotely) this project to help Zalando shape its digital infrastructure. A great and complex project set to replace old and siloed tools used to manage the logistics around its warehouses spread around Europe.
Backed by the solid knowledge of the team, my role was to (re)design the foundation and logic of the logistics platform, shape the flows and create the user interface for a plethora of applications.
For eight months, I’ve worked on onboarding and management of the freight forwarder partners, planning transports and tours, yard and dock management and invoicing applications. The list goes on, and the complexity of relationships for datasets grows exponentially.
In my experience, only one other project done for the maritime industry came close to the complexity of this one.
But it is not over. I’ will join the project again in September of 2021 and continue the work for the platform—an exciting opportunity to solve problems and be part of a great team.
Recommendations (3)
Sneha Golechha
Product Lead at Zalando • LinkedIn
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.
Achim Grunwald
Product Management and User Experience Enthusiast • LinkedIn
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.
Shalini Pasupuleti
Product Manager at Zalando • LinkedIn
I had the pleasure of working with Alin on one of the Zalando’s last mile products. It was a learning experience for me in many ways.
My most favourite thing about Alin is that he is always in high spirits, and the same enthusiasm reflects in the people around him as well. Professionally, he is very hard working, passionate, diligent, considerate of others’ ideas, stays on top of things and most importantly he has this ability to think clearly even amongst a lot of chaos. I wish him success in all his endeavours.
Dec 2018 - Aug 2020 • 1yr 9 mos
Senior UX Consultant at Mashroom™
About
Recommendations (3)
About
This project was the most engaging service and product design project I have participated in. With a young, dynamic team of designers, product owners and managers, I went through a challenging journey to help change how properties are rented and sold in the UK forever.
Working on these projects offered me a front seat to the transformation already happening in the real estate industry. From the developing phase to the launch of the MVP, this project required maximum effort to create intuitive services with great support and no dead ends.
A fantastic collaboration with an international team of capable professionals. The biggest takeaway from this project is the exercise in designing a complex service and the products from its foundation.
Recommendations (3)
Alexander Badalyan
CFO at Mashroom • LinkedIn
Alin has a “mind palace” where he consolidates and meticulously analyses user, product/development and business requirements, which gives him the ability to effectively transform an idea to an actionable prototype. He has a solid vision backed by years of experience, and is an extremely talented and passionate designer that is not afraid of challenges of complexity. Alin is is also well-versed in branding and can get involved on multiple facets of the business to ultimately reflect on product design. He helped us a lot on our journey from a very early stage vision of a product to one of the most comprehensive experiences out there. He also has a great personality and is fun to be around with.
Irini Sala
Senior Marketing Executive at Mashroom • LinkedIn
Alin Buda definitely knows his stuff! I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alin throughout my first year at Mashroom and I’ve never met anyone more openly passionate about his field. Alin does not like things done superficially and will always go the extra mile to dig deep and find drivers that motivate and lead human behaviour. As a consumer behaviour graduate myself, hearing about Alin’s experiments, conducted both professionally and during his spare time, has been truly interesting and inspiring. All the insight Alin has acquired throughout his experimenting then translates into an in-depth knowledge of UX that always puts the consumer first. I honestly recommend Alin, not only as an exceptional UX consultant but also as an insightful connoisseur of consumer behaviour.
Stepan Dobrovolskiy
Founder of Mashroom • LinkedIn
I can’t recommend Alin enough. He played a fundamental role in Mashroom product and service 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.
Mar 2018 - Nov 2018 • 9 mos
Senior UX/UI Consultant at 90% of Everything™
About
Recommendations (4)
About
A fantastic opportunity to be part of a dramatic transformation in the maritime industry. Like a few other industries, the marine industry was stuck in the last century regarding its connected services. With an extraordinary team of designers, project managers, technicians and developers, I’ve worked on a few essential features/products as part of a complex fleet administration service.
From research to prototyping and testing, almost everything was new for me and unexplored territory for the industry. From automating processes for vessel audits to organising and optimising vessel itineraries, I was part of a revolution that will forever change how services are provided in the maritime industry.
Besides the challenges that helped me grow and the challenges of an industry set for transformation, one of my most important outcomes was learning exciting facts from very experienced people. I’ve left the project richer.
Recommendations (4)
Zuzana Dobrovolna
Design Thinking Facilitator | CX Consultant • LinkedIn
I had a pleasure working with Alin on various User Experience prototypes and projects across a robust platform. I thought I was a prototyping geek, but Alin took it to the next level. He’s an Axure Wizard, seriously amazing. Apart Alin being an experienced Senior UX Designer, I’ve also enjoyed our lunch debates about all sorts of topics. He’s a deep thinker and problem solver who is capable of looking at the world through many different lenses.
Daniel White
Chief Experience Officer • LinkedIn
Alin is one of the rare breed of designers that just produces very carefully considered and well executed product designs and prototypes. His ability to take a conceptual idea and translate it in to a workable prototype is second to none. I had the pleasure of having Alin on my team for a little under a year and he’s left a lasting positive impact on my team both professionally and personally. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work with him again and highly recommend him to anyone.
Andy Kwedo
Lead Front-End Developer • LinkedIn
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 un-replaceable part of the team, setting the bar exceptionally high for anyone to follow and before you know it, he will become your friend.
Peter Chermanowicz
Lead Front-End Developer • LinkedIn
I had a real pleasure to work with Alin on a large-scale, complex project for maritime industry. Alin proved to be one of the best UX/UI designers I’ve ever worked with. His ability do deeply analyse the user flow and user experience requirements was beyond of what I have ever seen. He turned a blurry, sketchy vision of the product to a series of interactive, well thought through prototypes and designs, perfect for the developers to work with. I truly hope our paths will cross again in the future.
Dec 2016 - Jun 2017 • 7 mos
Senior UX Designer at Reply • Sony PlayStation™ MOLT Project
About
Recommendations (2)
About
To manage all the games produced worldwide, Sony PlayStation™ needed a custom platform, a solid system accessible from anywhere by Sony™ and its partners, a framework that can manage any game development project, and it is also integrated with Sony PlayStation™ Store.
Tending to the needs of 10+ user types requires a robust user experience and a consistent user interface. I delivered both for all work packages I was involved in.
Recommendations (2)
Andy Iosifescu
UX Manager • LinkedIn
A passionate and resourceful designer, Alin has the ability of finding positive approaches to problem solving no matter how hard the task at hand is. His skills have polished over the years, having being faced with real world challenges but also by a personal drive to improve and persevere. Both a master of soft skills and a passionate technologist, Alin expertise and positive approach is a guarantee that projects outcomes will improve with incremental changes that will change team morale and understanding, ultimately resulting in better products reaching their target audience.
Jay Suthar
UX Manager • LinkedIn
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.
Books and podcasts.
Here are a few books that shaped my views on design.