About Andrei Stanescu | Lead Product Designer

Lead Product Designer | Design Systems, Accessibility & Product Strategy

I'm a Lead Product Designer who works across the full span of product design, from setting direction to shipping details. Over 15 years, mostly in enterprise software, I've moved between strategy, interaction design, design systems, accessibility, and AI-enabled workflows, depending on what the product and team needed most. I'm as comfortable framing an ambiguous problem and aligning stakeholders as I am testing an interaction or building the component library that keeps a product consistent at scale. I work directly with engineers to turn decisions into working software, and I care as much about what ships as what gets presented.

April 2026 — Present

Lead Product Designer - Design Systems

Jama Software · Technology

At Jama Software, I lead the design systems practice for a B2B SaaS platform, owning its design library, foundations, interaction primitives, and component architecture. I led the refactor of the system into a scalable, maintainable base aligned with the company's shift to AI-assisted design and development. Working closely with engineering, I standardised design tokens across platforms and author machine-readable documentation that designers, engineers, and AI agents use in automated workflows. I prototype directly in the codebase with Codex, Git, Storybook, and VS Code.

April 2019 — February 2026

Lead Product Designer

HireRight ltd. · Technology

Led end-to-end product design for a global background screening platform, translating complex operational, regulatory, and business requirements into clear, accessible experiences. Founded and scaled the organisation’s first design system, driving adoption across multiple product lines and reducing design and development effort. Redesigned the candidate-facing Applicant Center with a mobile-first approach, improving submission time and data accuracy. Also designed an AI-powered research tool for criminal-record verification, helping operations teams complete cases faster while generating approximately $470,000 in annual savings. Alongside delivery, I set the product quality bar, partnered closely with engineering and senior stakeholders, and mentored designers across the organisation.

June 2017 — February 2019

Lead UX Designer

Zapro Digital · Software Agency

As the sole in-house designer at Zapro Digital, I delivered end-to-end UX and product design across SaaS, fintech, and e-commerce projects. I worked directly with clients, founders, engineers, and cross-functional teams to turn ambiguous requirements into clear, usable products, from early concepts and user flows through to high-fidelity interfaces and shipped experiences. I managed multiple projects with changing priorities, made design trade-offs independently, and introduced reusable workflows, component libraries, and documentation standards that improved consistency across engagements.

What am I actually fixing?

It's easy to get caught up in designing solutions before fully understanding the problem. I've been developing a framework for ConScept to help avoid unnecessary work, overlooked assumptions and overcomplicated solutions by asking better questions before making decisions.

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The Age of Artificial Confidence

AI has made it easier than ever to build things, learn new disciplines and speak the language of expertise. But being able to produce convincing work doesn't always mean we understand its implications. As the boundaries between disciplines become smaller, how do we make sure our confidence grows alongside our judgement, rather than ahead of it?

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Solve causes, not symptoms

I look beyond the visible problem to understand the system that created it. Whether the challenge lies in governance, collaboration, design systems or organisational structure, my goal is always to improve the underlying conditions that allow quality to emerge consistently.

Quality is never negotiable

Every engagement receives the same level of care, reasoning and attention. Budgets influence the scope of my work, not the standard of it. When trade-offs are necessary, I reduce breadth before I reduce quality.

Build independence, not dependency

My success isn't measured by how long you need me. It's measured by how much stronger your business becomes because I was there. I share my reasoning, challenge assumptions and leave organisations better equipped to continue evolving long after an engagement ends.

Preserve the thinking

Technology changes. Teams change. Organisations change. What should endure is the quality of the reasoning behind every decision. I help organisations capture, communicate and evolve that thinking so knowledge becomes a lasting capability.

Systems Thinker

I approach every challenge by understanding the relationships behind it. Rather than treating symptoms, I uncover the underlying systems that shape products, teams and organisations.

Partners in Problem Solving

I don't arrive with predetermined solutions. I work alongside product, design and engineering teams to understand the challenge, question assumptions and build solutions that fit the organisation rather than forcing a generic framework onto it.

Focused on Lasting Impact

My objective isn't to leave behind more documentation or more components. It's to leave organisations with stronger reasoning, clearer principles and systems that continue improving long after our engagement ends.

01
Understand the foundations
We uncover the principles, needs and constraints that define long-term success.
02
Architect the system
We design the structure, relationships and rules that will guide every decision.
03
Build the components
We create the pieces that fit the system, not the other way around.
04
Enable the teams
We document, educate and align teams to adopt and evolve the system.
05
Create lasting impact
The system scales. Products improve. Users benefit. Businesses grow.