Digital problems need the right tools and the judgement to use them well

I work with founders and growing teams to analyse what is happening in their products, systems and operations; organise complex information, identify what matters, and turn ideas or problems into practical plans for implementation.

Sometimes that means validating a new product. Sometimes it means untangling an operational process, deciding what should be automated, reviewing an AI idea, defining requirements, or working out how an early prototype becomes something customers can actually rely on.

Why I Started Plain Digital

  • My career did not start with a carefully designed twenty-year plan. I grew up in Romania, studied Economics in Iași, worked in customer service and translation while at university; and later moved to Bucharest for roles at Hewlett-Packard and Oracle. At the beginning of 2012, I moved to London with a few hundred pounds and very little idea of what I was going to do next. There was a period without work. I tried waitressing and lasted a day. I tried cleaning hotel rooms and lasted about a week.

    Eventually, a software engineer suggested I learn project management. I knew research, analysis and business operations, but very little about delivering software. So I learned. That decision led to work across IoT, fintech, private equity software, communications platforms and large-scale digital transformation.

    Along the way I discovered something I was particularly good at: walking into complicated environments, asking a lot of questions, understanding how the pieces connect and bringing structure to them. That has remained consistent throughout my career.

  • At HomeServe, I worked across connected-home initiatives, operational systems and one of the UK's early consumer IoT products, LeakBot.

    At Preqin Solutions, I helped private equity funds implement software for portfolio monitoring, valuation and performance analysis. I later became Head of Implementations, supporting global implementations and helping establish the project management practice.

    At Vonage, I spent several years working on the transformation of internal business systems and operational processes across a complex organisation created through multiple acquisitions.

    I later moved into product leadership, working on developer platforms including Cloud Runtime and CodeHub, before joining Platform Experience to help make complex communications products easier for customers to access.

    Across those roles, my work has involved product strategy, business analysis, platform development, operational transformation, customer research, implementation planning, stakeholder management and turning complicated technical environments into something people can actually work with.

  • AI has made it possible for a much wider group of people to build software, analyse information and automate work. That is incredibly valuable. But the availability of AI does not automatically tell a business where they should use it.

    A startup can can build an impressive AI feature that customers do not need. It can choose a platform before understanding its requirements, or rapidly create a prototype without considering how it will be supported, secured or operated.

    My role is to help teams investigate where technology can create meaningful value, what it would take to implement it responsibly.

  • My natural starting point is analysis: I ask questions, review what already exists, speak to the people involved and try to understand the problem before proposing the solution. From there, I bring structure.

    Analyse: Understand the business, users, processes, systems, constraints and opportunities.

    Prioritise: Separate what is important from what is possible, and decide where product, process automation or AI could create the most value.

    Plan: Turn the findings into clear requirements, priorities, decisions, dependencies and an achievable implementation plan.

    Implement: Support the people responsible for making it happen, helping teams navigate decisions, stakeholders, risks and changing priorities.

    I am comfortable operating between business, product and technology rather than treating them as separate conversations.

  • Plain Digital primarily supports:

    • Pre-seed and seed stage founders

    • Startups moving from prototype to operational product

    • Teams exploring how to use AI within their product or business

    • Innovation teams testing new digital propositions

    • Organisations untangling complicated systems or operational processes

    • Teams that need experienced product or transformation leadership without a full-time hire

    Alongside my full-time role, working on large-scale digital platforms, I develop Plain Digital as a way to broaden my own knowledge, challenge my assumptions and continue developing my professional skills.

    Plain Digital is as much about continuing my own learning as it is about sharing what I know.

  • I have spent the last 20 years learning how organisations build, implement and operate technology. I am still learning. Education became particularly important to me after moving to the UK. Books, professional qualifications and structured courses helped me rebuild my career, improve my English and develop confidence in environments where I initially felt very out of place. That interest eventually led me to study Education and Technology at UCL, alongside programmes in Artificial Intelligence and Strategic Innovation at Oxford Saïd Business School.

    It has also influenced how I work.

    I do not believe expertise means arriving with all the answers. I believe it means knowing what questions to ask, recognising patterns from experience, investigating what you do not know, and helping other people make better-informed decisions.