Romania

Product Design

UX Design

Design Operations

Customer Experience (CX)

UX Research

Catalin Stanciu

Senior Product Designer

Usability Testing

Quantitative research

Monetisation

Product analytics

Product strategy

Prototyping

Qualitative research

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Time management

Critical-thinking

Empathy

Organisation skills

Conflict resolution

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Project management

AI/ML

Community management

Content strategy

Data visualisation

Design systems

Information architecture

Market research

User research

Product roadmap

Webflow

Airtable

Axure

Balsamiq

ChatGPT

Figma

Framer

Hotjar

HTML

InVision

Jira

Miro

Mixpanel

Notion

Adobe Creative Suite

Google Analytics

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Learn essential burnout prevention techniques and replenish physical and emotional energy.

Managing burnout

Tips for transitioning into a new role or company.

Changing roles

How to think about design career paths and what progression looks like for designers?

Design career path

How to define and execute a successful launch and managing stakeholders expectations. (eg. MVP)

Launching new products or features

Methods of prototyping and solution validation. When to use which kind of prototype (eg. Webflow, Notion, etc)

Prototyping methods and tips

Identify and define potential product problems and generating possible solutions.

Identifying problems vs solutions

Tips on how to work and collaborate with designers.

Working with designers

How to work with team members with different skill sets but towards a common goal?

Working cross-functionally

Methods and models of exploring, deciding and delivering design.

Building a design process

Managing being the only designer at your company and working with non-designers.

Being the only designer

Explore different generative and evaluative research techniques. User research synthesis and presentation.

Conducting good user research

Navigating the working relationship with PM's and engineers as a designer.

Working with product and engineering

How to set up product analytics and metrics to track success?

Leveraging Product Analytics

How to create personas, and leverage them in design.

Creating and leveraging user personas

Ways to provide constructive feedback to team members.

Giving effective feedback

Tips on how to work and collaborate with engineers and developers.

Working with engineers

How to conduct interviews, what to ask, and how to analyze your results? (eg. user interview)

Conducting effective customer interviews

• E-POS Dashboard Overhaul: Collaborated closely with business stakeholders through workshops to redefine KPIs and ensure dashboards delivered actionable insights, not just raw data. I set up a continuous feedback program to keep the dashboards aligned with the evolving needs of the business.

• E-POS Connect Platform: Took the lead on a UX audit and documented the “jobs to be done” for the platform managing traders, articles, and promotions. I worked with stakeholders to identify success metrics, ensuring each feature was optimized for real-world usability and business impact.

• AI Assistant for Franchise Management: Conducted in-depth user interviews with traders to understand their pain points and decision-making processes. I explored how we could use data on seasonality, local holidays, and community demographics to offer tailored product recommendations. Designed both a passive strategy to answer trader questions and an active strategy to proactively provide recommendations.

 • Service Design for Ordering Processes: Immersed myself in the daily lives of traders by visiting stores and conducting shadowing sessions and interviews with store managers, cashiers, and other personas. Combined qualitative findings with quantitative analysis of store data to deliver insights that transformed the ordering process into a more user-friendly experience.

Redesigned the bank’s onboarding process to provide an adaptive experience tailored to new clients’ needs—whether applying for a loan, opening a new account, or requesting a credit card. The solution integrated KYC data collection into the initial inquiry phase, eliminating redundant steps and significantly improving efficiency for both clients and employees. This required extensive collaboration with legal and compliance teams through workshops to ensure full adherence to BNR and EU regulations, including anti-money laundering and wartime protocols.

• Studio Web: Lead the design of UiPath’s first low-code web platform for “citizen developers,” enabling non-technical users to automate processes. Prototyped key automation scenarios, integrating user feedback to deliver a user-centered design. Secured project approval from the CEO and led a team of three designers to deliver the platform, which became the primary driver of new automations.

• UiPath Assistant: Redesigned the desktop automation launchpad to enhance usability and accessibility for non-technical users, enabling seamless interaction with personal automation workflows. Delivered key usability improvements, making automation tools more approachable for everyday tasks.

• Studio Pro: Contributed to multiple features, including the Workflow Analyzer and Project Dependency Mass Upgrade Tool, enhancing automation project management for RPA developers. Collaborated with stakeholders to refine and deliver tools that improved efficiency and compliance with company standards.

• Studio Design System: My responsibilities for this were:
- Drive the initiative within the team;
- Set up and project structure, work methodologies, and weekly syncs;
- Manage the components backlog and most importantly find the balance between having an exhaustive DS and having only the things we need and use;
- Build components;

• Activities Guidelines - My responsibilities for this were:
- Push this initiative in the company across all teams - Design, Dev, and PM;
- Inventory of all activity types and interactions patterns;
- User research to document issues with activities. This was done by conducting user interviews, shadowing RPA developers, and going thru the community forum;
- Document and disseminate all of the findings to the PM team;
- Set up the analytics needed to monitor and enable continuous improvement for all activities;
- Consolidate all the designs and write the necessary confluence specs for PM and Dev teams;
Design team mentorship;

Main objective: Develop and implement a UX Strategy to increase the UX maturity of the organization. This required us to:
  - Update the project development procedure to adopt UX specific steps like:
         Prototyping;
         User testing;
         Usability testing by the QA team;
         Analytics implementation;
   - Build and implement “Raiffeisen Design Language”. The first version of design language included:
         Design principles;
         UX Methodology & Deliverables;
         UX Evaluation procedure;
         General GUI standards/patterns;
         UX Prioritization criteria;
         Basic analytics requirements;
   - Update the RFP’s (request for proposal) to include usability grading;
   - Trainings and workshops to improve UX awareness across departments;


Secondary objective: Beside building a UX strategy I doubled as a UX Designer for internal applications. In this role my tasks included:
   - Working along with the BA in the business analysis with me focusing on the user needs and the BA playing a more technical role documenting the systems that will be impacted and writing technical specifications;
   - Building the user flows, wireframes/prototypes for the application;
   - Testing the wireframes/prototypes - User testing, A/B Testing, Guerilla testing;
   - Building high fidelity designs;
   - Define the UX analytics neededs to monitor and improve the applications;

Other initiatives
  - Conducting heuristic evaluation on existing internal applications;
  - Drive the effort to adopt an advanced analytics tool to serve; 
  - Review and alignment with the internet banking UX team;
  - Push to create end to end customer journeys;

Tools
  - Pen & Paper :);
  - Axure;
  - Balsamiq;
  - Sketch;
  - InVision;
  - Photoshop;
  - Illustrator;
  - Keynote;

• I collaborate with startups in industries like education, fintech, travel, and social platforms to design products that are intuitive, user-friendly, and built to stand out. Whether it’s discovery, prototyping, user testing, or the final design, I’m involved at every stage of the product journey.

• Beyond design, I help startups uncover their unique edge in the market, set up design teams that scale, and build teams ready to take their products to the next level.

•Projects I’m proud of:
	• Travel Booking Platform: Designed a live-search flight booking platform for businesses, delivering cheaper and more tailored options compared to traditional travel agencies. The platform focused on live results rather than cached data, offering a smoother and more reliable user experience while also providing considerable cost saving to the company.
	• Location-Based Dating App: Created a dating app that flips the script by encouraging people to meet in real-world locations instead of swiping endlessly at home.

Freelancing keeps me connected to a variety of industries and helps me stay on top of the latest design trends and best practices—something I bring back into all my work.

Responsibilities:
- conducting heuristic evaluation on all curent applications;
- creating UX general specifications and rules for the programming teams to follow;
- ensuring that all the applications deliver a consistent UI and UX;
- creating wireframes, flow diagrams, final UI designs and write HTML & CSS if required;
- collaborating with the product managers to design efficient, clean and comprehensible UI and UX given client requirements;
- identifying and promoting UX best practices;
- running usability tests, conducting interviews, organising surveys and performing other usability assessments;
- interpreting user feedback and making design decisions based on that feedback.

Tools and technologies:
- Pen and paper;
- Photoshop;
- Dreamweaver;
- Illustrator;
- Balsamiq Mockups;
- Flash;
- HTML;
- CSS.

Responsibilities:
- building, designing and maintaining the company's website;
- designing the graphical proposals for project auctions;
- discussing with the client the technical specifications and requirements;
- UI prototyping ( collaborating with the programming team leaders in order to create optimal workflows for the user );
- UI testing in order to validate the prototypes; 
- creating the GUI design while ensuring that the client's design guidelines are respected;
- obtaining the client's approval on the graphical proposals;
- creating the HTML & CSS templates for the programming teams and helping with the correct implementation;
- other responsibilities: creating animations and intros, promotional materials (business cards, booklets, etc.), creating website skins for different CMS platforms ( DNN, Joomla, WordPress ). 

Tools and technologies:
- Photoshop;
- Dreamweaver;
- Flash;
- After Effects;
- Visual Studio;
- CMS ( DNN, Joomla, WordPress );
- HTML;
- CSS;
- Silverlight (XAML).

Responsibilities:
- participating in the design of the www.dc-shop.ro website;
- the creation of promotional banners for partner websites;
- designing the weekly e-mail campaigns.

Tools and technologies:
- Photoshop;
- Dreamweaver; 
- HTML;
- CSS.

Rodrigo Orozco

UX/UI designer

In these mentorship sessions, gain the skills and confidence to answer challenging questions, demonstrate your expertise, and leave a lasting impression. We'll conduct mock interviews, provide personalized feedback, and equip you with effective interview techniques. Join this mentorship to excel in job interviews and land your desired position.

Catalin Stanciu🇷🇴

About Catalin Stanciu

Expertise

Sessions with Catalin Stanciu

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