Notebook
Writing
My corner of the internet — notes on building products, software delivery, and AI-assisted engineering.
Your website is a product. Ship it a distribution layer.
Rebuilding my site was the easy half. The real work came after launch: analytics, structured data, an email identity, and a newsletter that ships itself — all on free tiers.
Your next customer might ask ChatGPT: preparing a product for AI search
A growing share of product discovery now happens inside AI assistants instead of search result pages. Here's how I think about building for that channel — including why Firmoscop ships an MCP server.
Doing a PhD while shipping products
I've been running doctoral research on software delivery alongside full-time product leadership since 2018. People assume the two compete for time. Mostly, they feed each other.
SAFe without the religion: what scaling frameworks are actually for
I've delivered large-scale products through SAFe, published research on its adoption, and hold the certifications. The framework wars miss the point: frameworks are scaffolding for conversations, not operating systems.
Thirteen certifications later: what credentials are actually for
PMP, PMI-ACP, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, SAFe, PROSCI, Harvard CORe — I've collected more credentials than most people think are reasonable. Here's my honest accounting of what they're worth.
Shipping on top of government APIs: lessons from e-Factura and five state registries
Bono integrates natively with Romania's e-invoicing system; Firmoscop reads five official registries. Building on government infrastructure is a discipline of its own — here's what it demands.
My platforms are built almost entirely by AI agents. Here's the system.
J is a multi-agent development suite I designed: planners, implementers, and a review panel that ships production code for Bono and Firmoscop. The interesting part isn't code generation — it's process engineering.
Four acquisitions later: a product manager's guide to M&A integration
I led the discovery-to-delivery integration of four acquired businesses into Toptal's platform and operations. M&A integration is a product problem wearing a corporate costume.
From 6 to 13 squads: what actually breaks when you scale delivery
I scaled Toptal's Growth Product organisation from 6 to 13 agile squads and served as interim VP. The bottleneck was never the number of engineers.
Why I built Firmoscop
In Romania, answering «should I give this company payment terms?» means checking five public registries and losing an hour. I built Firmoscop to make it one verdict: green, yellow, or red.
Why software teams miss deadlines: notes from research and practice
My PhD research studies how software teams deliver — agile at scale, metrics, leadership. The most cited finding is also the least glamorous: methodology matters less than the discipline around it.
Rebuilding my website: from Lovable to code
Why I'm replacing my AI-generated CV page with a site I actually own — built for projects, research, and writing.
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