Andrei Bujor-Blanaru

A dynamic product manager renowned for crafting high-impact, zero-to-one products that redefine markets. With a proven track record in spearheading initiatives that significantly boost user engagement and retention, I excel in translating visionary ideas into tangible solutions that resonate with users. My expertise lies in deploying cutting-edge engagement and retention strategies, ensuring each product not only meets but exceeds market expectations. Outside of revolutionizing product landscapes, I'm deeply passionate about mentoring aspiring product managers, sharing insights on navigating the complexities of product development and market penetration.

Projects

Groups Product Public Release

Led the product team to release the collaboration product to the general population and achieved 300,000+ weekly active users (WAU). I joined the company—one of the world's largest services marketplace—as a senior product manager for the collaboration suite comprising several products that facilitated better interactions between both sides of the marketplace during the project delivery. One such product was Groups, a shared workspace product designed to manage users' projects better. When I joined, the product had little traction and was primarily used as an internal tool. Upon conducting user research and analyzing the usage data, I identified a few critical quick wins and created the strategy for the product to be released for the general population. This included releasing new features to create value for our users and ensure a healthy marketplace adoption. Among these was the ability to communicate at scale with thousands of users, real-time notifications, and threaded conversation. The features and product delivery to the general population were supported by experiments and A/B tests that I designed, which informed and validated our initial assumptions about the product. The product grew to 300,000 weekly active users (WAU) within the first month after release.See More

Redesign and Relaunch of an Aviation Job Search

Led the product team to the complete overhaul of the marketplace's back end and front end. Defined the go-to-market strategy and the rebranding of the product. Shaped the product delivery in an agile way of working. Aviation Job Search is the market leader in recruitment for job-seekers and employers in the aviation niche. I joined the team as a consultant for one part of the e-learning division. Still, I ended up leading the redesign initiative as a senior product manager to speed up the delivery of this critical business project during a unique time in history—the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic disrupting the recruitment and aviation niches, it was a strategic goal to make this delivery as lean as possible and provide value fast to the massively affected industry by the global lockdowns. Therefore, I led 80+ customer discovery sessions with both sides of the marketplace to understand the core value proposition we had to deliver upon. I also created a framework for experimentation that allowed us to dual-track our design and delivery to move at pace while validating our implicit assumptions. Finally, I released the product to overhaul the back-end architecture, data structure, UI/UX, and rebranding. See More

Release of the Viscuri Marketplace

Co-founded and led the product delivery of the Viscuri marketplace. Viscuri was Romania's biggest vinyl records marketplace. I co-founded the company with one of my best friends, a music producer, and led the product development side. Vinyl records are one of the hardest products to transition from offline to online selling because of the particularities of the target audience. It required a lot of hands-on user research and lean experimentation to identify the most valuable parts of the physical experience we should bring online. By taking a lean approach to delivery, we were able to release multiple MVPs and test them at vinyl fairs with real users to validate some of our key assumptions. I created the go-to-market strategy around the core value proposition derived from the user research and successfully sold out most of our digitized stock offered to our beta testers in a week. The product achieved profitability within the first year of launching and became the market leader shortly after. Following multiple rapid iterations, which added upon the core value proposition, the product grew to become the niche market leader in Romania.See More

Work History

Product Manager

Passionfruit- Spearheading the innovative development of a talent marketplace for marketing professionals, enhancing the platform's core experience through user-centric solutions. - Leading a cross-functional team to deliver high-impact features that aligned with business objectives and user needs, fostering a culture of experimentation and agility. - Using data-driven decision-making to optimize platform performance and user engagement, identifying growth opportunities and improving the user experience through comprehensive user research and feedback initiatives.

Enterprise Product Manager

Cox Automotive Inc.Dec 2021 - Nov 2022 • 1 yrCox Automotive is the World's largest automotive service provider with products all across the value chain from build to trade and disposal. I led our enterprise product that connects across the entire vehicle journey. - Strategically advised senior leadership on product validation, design, and delivery, driving the successful launch of a connected solution across 15+ brands. - Developed and implemented an Enterprise Product way of working, enhancing team capabilities in design and delivery frameworks through coaching. - Led UX research to map end-to-end customer experiences, identifying key gaps and opportunities that significantly improved customer satisfaction and retention.

Senior Product Manager

Freelancer.comFeb 2021 - Dec 2021 • 11 mosFreelancer.com is the World’s largest talent marketplace by number of users. - Drove significant growth for the platform's main engines, increasing Weekly Active Users (WAU) 10x and user-generated content significantly, which improved user retention and experience metrics. - Accelerated the delivery of high-value features, contributing to a substantial increase in 90-day retention rates within the active user base. - Implemented a UX and UI redesign that significantly enhanced user experience and performance metrics.

Senior Product Manager

Friday Media GroupJan 2020 - Feb 2021 • 1 yr 2 mosFriday Media Group is one the UK’s largest, independently run, internet & media services business. With over 40 companies spanning different niches from recruitment to car dealerships. - Led a globally distributed team in the complete overhaul of 18 API-driven web applications, significantly reducing time to market for key deliveries. - Managed the strategic roadmap and product delivery, aligning with the business model pivot that integrated e-learning with recruitment products, resulting in cost savings.

Product Management Consultant | Founder

The Apricot CompanyJan 2018 - Jan 2020 • 2 yrs 1 moFounder. The Apricot Company offered product management consulting services to a wide-range of businesses. - Directed product development overhauls, managing strategic roadmaps and leading cross-functional teams in a dual-track Agile environment, reducing lead time and operational costs significantly. - Evangelized customer development, establishing feedback loops and enabling customer interviews to enhance product offerings.

Product Lead | Co-founder

Viscuri.roJan 2013 - Jan 2018 • 5 yrs 1 moCo-Founded Viscuri with the vision of merging the joy of browsing a vinyl fair with the simplicity of buying a product online. The product helped vinyl collectors fill their long wishlists with quality products through an experience that surpassed the traditional one and delighted its users for years. - Developed and executed the strategic roadmap from market research to MVP development, achieving profitability in the first year and substantial year-over-year growth thereafter.

Product Manager

AnticariatulTau.roJan 2009 - Jan 2013 • 4 yrs 1 moLed the way towards popularizing ecommerce in an extremely traditional niche and opened the door for many other businesses to follow through and disrupt the old world. Throughout my time there, it held the title as the undisputed market leader for 4 years in a row. - Defined the product roadmap, achieving an 80% market share and leading position for four consecutive years, with significant growth in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) and high customer satisfaction rates.

Product Marketing Manager

AnticariatulTau.roAug 2008 - Jun 2009 • 11 mos- Defined the product roadmap, achieving an 80% market share and leading position for four consecutive years, with significant growth in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) and high customer satisfaction rates.

Education

Universitatea din București

Bachelor of Arts - BA, Art History2006 - 2009

National College of Computer Science

Bachelor's degree, Computer Science2002 - 2006

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