Portrait of Alexei Ciobanu

Product  ·  AI  ·  Leadership

Alexei
Ciobanu

Product leader guiding teams through the AI-native transition. I'm drawn to the problems where the hard part isn't the idea — it's making something genuinely complex feel like it was always obvious.

I believe most product failures are alignment failures, not execution ones. For nearly two decades I've led product — as a founder, at enterprise scale with Usermind and DocuSign, and now at PandaDoc, where AI is rewriting what the product should be.

AI-Native Product Development

Rethinking what the product should be when AI is the architecture — not shipping AI features onto existing workflows. Knowing where AI creates durable advantage and where it just resets the clock.

Platform as Leverage

Knowing when shared foundations are the unlock and when they're premature. Built too early, platform work is overhead; built at the right moment, every team above it ships faster.

Product Leadership in Transition

Growing product teams as the discipline itself is being rewritten. Less about process frameworks, more about judgment — what's worth building, and what great product work looks like when AI changes what products can be.

PandaDoc Jan 2024 — present

Director of Product Management

Leading PandaDoc's agreement experience, platform services, and design foundations. Steering the product's AI-native transition — AI-assisted document preparation, field detection, and content generation — while developing a senior product team.
DocuSign 2021 — 2023

Lead, Product Management

Led eSignature API growth and identity and workflow platform services; cut operational overhead by 80% for enterprise customers.

Director of Product Management

Led product for the journey-orchestration platform — enterprise software unifying customer data and automating journeys across channels — recognized by Forrester as a Wave Market Leader (2020). Earlier, led the platform redesign that lifted customer satisfaction 20% and adoption 25%.
Earlier 2008 — 2017

Founder, Director & Product Lead

Co-founded Retently (SaaS feedback platform) and Knowlla; scaled Linkquidator to 1,000+ paying clients in year one.
Co-founded B2B SaaS products from zero to paying customers
International Startup Weekend winner
1st
Launched Moldova's first startup incubator as Managing Director — 400+ entrepreneurs mentored
Building for Global Audiences at Scale
Upcoming
2026
Platform Product Management
Prow Conference
2024
The Black Box of Product Management
Startup Grind Chișinău
2024
Building Products for the Enterprise
ProductCon Moldova
2024
From SaaS to DeepTech
DeepTech GigaHack
2024
Self-Manage the Health of Your API Integrations
DocuSign Momentum
2022
August 18, 2026
Planning

“An OKR should live at exactly one altitude.”

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August 11, 2026
AI Product

“The acceptance rate of an AI suggestion is a UX metric before it's a model metric.”

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August 1, 2026
Roadmapping

“Roadmaps are commitment devices, not prediction tools.”

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