Cristian Burac - Product Designer

Cristian Burac

Seasoned Product Designer

From startup chaos to enterprise bureaucracy, I've spent my career turning user frustrations into delightful experiences. I've learned that good design is like good ROI: measurable, repeatable, and makes executives smile during budget meetings.

I specialize in creating digital products that don't make people want to throw their devices out the window. Because if your interface makes users pause and think 'How do I...?', you've already lost them.

Experience

Translating "I'll know it when I see it" into something people can actually use, one stakeholder at a time.

Raiffeisen Bank

Senior Product Designer

Dec 2021 - Present
Bucharest, Romania (Remote)

Working on diverse banking experiences that span from customer-facing mobile apps to internal colleague tools and everything in between. Because in banking, user experience can literally make or break someone's financial day.

Key Achievements:

  • Redesigned digital banking platform (SME & Corporate) and built new functionalities that turned financial confusion into clarity
  • Evolved design system architecture for web platforms, ensuring consistent user experiences
  • Designed internal tools that made compliance officers actually smile (rare documented phenomenon)

Metabeta

Product Manager & Product Designer

Jan 2020 - Dec 2021
Iasi, Romania

Cut my teeth designing MVPs that actually had a chance of survival. Learned that 'minimalist' doesn't mean 'invisible'.

Key Achievements:

  • Product features helped secure seed round funding (investors actually liked something!)
  • Kept product roadmaps on track, ensuring commitments and timelines were clear
  • Bridged the gap between 'what users want' and 'what's technically possible'
  • Became fluent in startup-speak ('pivot', 'disrupt', 'synergy')
  • Survived on pizza, coffee and pure determination

Kira Centre

UX / UI Designer

Sep 2016 - Dec 2019
Iasi, Romania

Juggled client relationships, web design, and visual identity projects while building a franchise management platform that made sense.

Key Achievements:

  • Managed client relationships without losing sanity or hair (mostly)
  • Designed web pages that clients actually approved on the first try (miracles do happen)
  • Designed Kira Business World: end-to-end franchise platform from application to service trading

What Your Business Gets

Real outcomes that matter to your bottom line. Because pretty designs are nice, but profitable ones pay the bills.

Better Conversions

Strategic design that turns visitors into customers. Not just making things look good, but making them work good. More clicks that actually count.

Fewer Support Headaches

Intuitive interfaces that users actually understand. Less confusion means fewer "how do I..." emails cluttering your inbox. Your support team will thank you.

Faster Launch Times

Streamlined design processes that get your product to users quickly. Because speed wins, but only if it doesn't crash and burn on arrival.

Users Who Actually Stick Around

Designs that people actually want to use. Revolutionary concept, I know. Turns out users prefer clarity over confusion. Who would have thought?

Consistent Brand Experience

Cohesive design systems that make your brand memorable for the right reasons. Not the "remember that confusing website" kind of memorable.

Smoother Development

Clean, well-documented designs that developers don't curse at. Happy developers build better products. It's science. (Probably.)

Education & Certifications

Here are some certifications, courses, and workshops that attest that at least at some point I knew these things.

May 2024

UX for AI (Greg Nudelman)

User Experience Lisbon

Workshop

Specialized training in designing user experiences for AI-powered products. Learning to make artificial intelligence feel less artificial and more helpful (turns out robots need good UX too).

AI/UX Integration Conversational Design AI Ethics
Apr 2024

AI for Designers

Interaction Design Foundation

Specialized Course ID: 32505

Understanding how AI is transforming the design landscape and how designers can leverage these tools. Because if you can't beat the robots, you might as well design with them.

AI Tools Design Automation
Sep 2021

Design-led Strategy

The University of Sydney

University Course ID: E8NQKW9L3PPY

Strategic design thinking for business innovation and entrepreneurship. Because apparently knowing how to make things look good isn't enough anymore, you also need to understand why they should exist.

Design Strategy Business Innovation
Sep 2021

Foundations of Project Management

Google

Professional Certificate ID: FA3DCWP33368

Comprehensive project management fundamentals from Google. Learning to herd cats, manage timelines, and translate "this should be simple" into realistic project scope.

Project Planning Agile
Aug 2021

Product Analytics Certifications

Product School

Professional Certification ID: cert_hld5433n

Advanced product analytics and data-driven decision making. Now I can back up my design opinions with actual numbers instead of just saying "trust me, it looks better".

Product Analytics Data Analysis
Jul 2018

Human-Computer Interaction

Interaction Design Foundation

Specialized Course ID: 32505

Deep dive into HCI principles and user-centered design. Understanding how humans actually interact with technology (spoiler: often not the way we expect).

HCI Principles User Research