Cristian Ureche

Brand teams at franchise groups, agencies, and multi-brand companies had no way to enforce how assets were used after distribution. Existing tools like Frontify, Bynder, and Brandfolder focused on storage and sharing, but none could flag outdated or expired assets still live on websites or in active campaigns. Brand governance was reactive, not enforced.

Conducted competitive analysis across three market leaders to identify a governance gap, then defined and led product development for BrandLife from zero, a brand governance platform built around lifecycle enforcement. Shipped a self-serve Brand Portal for asset distribution, an add-ons marketplace, CMS integration strategy for WordPress and Webflow, and proactive expiration notifications to brand admins. Defined the North Star Metric and go-to-market strategy spanning agency partnerships and portal-led distribution.

Brought a market-ready SaaS platform to launch covering the full brand governance lifecycle from asset upload to expiration enforcement on live web content. Established a defensible positioning angle no direct competitor currently offers.

I worked with NEOM’s tech and digital sector to invent the future of urban living. I created roadmaps, product visions, and OKRs for product initiatives to support the development of the cognitive city. I also coordinated with the highest-level stakeholders to synchronize product initiatives with strategic objectives.

I conceived the vision, mission, and product values, setting the north star for the entire product line. I developed MVP experiments and associated KPIs and owned the roadmap for all digital initiatives related to the product line. I also led the UX optimization initiatives and product interface revamp, identified market opportunities, and opened business accounts in seven countries. I then developed a network of partners—identifying additional revenue streams—and managed the annual budgets for product development, business development, and platform operations. Finally, the business received the following notable industry recognitions:

• French Tech Ticket Laureate, Paris 2017 – Selected out of 2,000+ worldwide startups
• Smart City Industry Awards, Bucharest 2016 – Best Mobility Solution
• Silicon Valley Open Doors, Dublin 2016 – Invited European Startup
• Best IoT Startup for Business, Bucharest 2015
• Panelist and Moderator for Smart City conferences, workshops, and exhibitions

Capterra is the world’s leading software reviews and selection platform. In 2022, Capterra launched a new product initiative under my product leadership. The product had a 3x increase in traffic month over month until the end of my engagement.

I led a business analysis for the three business lines of the group concerning the strategy of adopting a digital transformation approach for the sales organization. I conducted sales process design workshops with key stakeholders, improving actions and adapting them to digital operations. I also performed a business suitability assessment for off-the-shelf CRM solutions—such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Sugar CRM—and delivered a set of digitized sales workflows, including a CRM implementation strategy.

Mntrni is a two-sided marketplace for mentoring through video sessions and talent economy acceleration. It connects experts in business, research, and personal growth fields with users seeking professional advice. Mntrni provides mobile-friendly capabilities for a tailored and personalized experience.

I handled product road mapping and planning and managed the transition between different engineering teams, addressing technical depth. I also proposed a retention lifecycle framework optimization and customer journey enhancement.

I led the database redesign according to best practices and project needs in terms of performance and scale. I successfully migrated significant database content with minimum impact on service availability: with less than 12 hours of downtime for more than 500 million records in migration. I also coordinated a product revamp for the digital archive online viewer.

Cluj-Napoca Brained City was developed under the umbrella of CLUJ IT, a cluster-based organization formed by active organizations in the information technology field. The project had a budget of $2 million and is a reference for good practices in Eastern Europe.

I drove the product design and development of Smart Access Box hardware and software: the devices and the software platform, including embedded software and iOS and Android mobile applications. I also coordinated an international team spread across Switzerland, Romania, Moldavia, and China.