Sabrina Orban

Launched a DTC pet gift box brand in Romania from scratch — a category with no established local competition. Built the full operation solo: product curation, brand identity, Shopify store, supplier relationships, fulfillment, and customer experience. Grew Instagram from 0 to 600+ followers through original TikTok and Instagram video content and strategic giveaways. Seeded initial traction via Meta ads and UGC creator partnerships, then transitioned to organic — 50+ orders and returning customers with no active paid advertising, at ~$20 per box over five months.

Peppermint is an AI assistant that passively captures work context and surfaces personalized memory and insights — a hard product to ship, combining privacy-sensitive data capture, LLM orchestration, and real-time UX across macOS and web. Owned product strategy, design of AI-native experiences (memory, privacy, contextual chat, proactive notifications, MCP integrations), engineering, and QA — 165 commits across Swift/SwiftUI, Next.js, and Python/FastAPI in three months. Collaborated with an engineer to build and ship the Windows version of the app. Identified a critical onboarding failure: users were abandoning before granting screen capture and mic permissions because the app asked for trust before demonstrating value. Redesigned the flow to lead with a concrete value moment first — permission grant rate improved from near 0% to ~40% in an early cohort of 25 users. Data showed fewer than half of users found the original "magic suggestions" feature useful — the team cut it and pivoted to persistent memory with MCP integration, letting users connect Peppermint's memory directly into Claude and Codex. Nearly all users in the cohort adopted the MCP connection and actively used it in their workflows.

Oversee cross-functional “pods” (Creative Direction, AI, Library, Community) to align design, tech, and business goals. Drive AI innovation: integrate personalization engines, LoRA style packs, and trend-based creative workflows. Manage hiring processes for UX/UI and creative roles, shaping a multidisciplinary team. Provide senior-level advisory across product design, AI innovation, and creative direction. Build and nurture company culture, with a strong focus on collaboration and creative excellence.

Designed and shipped multiple product experiences for Outsite's coliving platform in React and Next.js, working directly with engineering across the full design-to-code cycle. Every launch moved the needle: homepage redesign cut bounce rate by 31%, Deals Hub increased bookings for deal properties by 17%, Team Retreats page drove a 22% lift in group bookings, Membership page redesign improved application rate by 12%, and a dynamic What's New section increased navigation to featured locations by 27%.

A joint venture focused on web design and development, providing businesses with user-centered solutions. As a co-founder, I lead product strategy, design, and frontend development, ensuring seamless integration of creative and technical elements to deliver high-quality web experiences for our clients.

Designed end-to-end user experiences for various AI products, working alongside developers to enhance the usability and functionality of the products. I was responsible for translating complex concepts into intuitive, functional interfaces, utilizing design tools such as Figma, and implementing the frontend with React and Next JS

Led the design efforts from idea validation to successful launch, managing the design team and overseeing product design and development. I worked closely with cross-functional teams to implement solutions based on user feedback, using tools such as Figma, React, and Tailwind to ensure the product was intuitive and user-friendly. These efforts significantly improved user engagement and retention by 50%.

Led the design for the Sparkle platform, focusing on the online Burn platform, an official partner for the 2021 Burning Man festival. My role involved workshops and design explorations to migrate the platform from Web2 to Web3. I also redesigned the Admin area to improve usability and functionality. Additionally, I worked on designing a proposed NFT market that was never implemented.

Managed both design and development teams, providing customer support and conducting sales and onboarding calls across Europe. I was responsible for optimizing the user experience and ensuring smooth communication between customers and the development team.

Collaborated with Apple's design team to integrate Human Interface Guidelines after the app was accepted into the Apple Enterprise Program. My work contributed to the app reaching over 20 million downloads, focusing on the user interface and overall user experience.

At Nymea, I worked on highly specialized IoT solutions and smart home platforms, focusing on creating scalable, user-friendly interfaces for cloud-connected devices.

Worked as a frontend developer in a web design agency, developing websites, web apps, and hybrid mobile apps using Angular, Ionic, and React. I collaborated closely with clients to ensure their needs were met, delivering high-quality, user-centric solutions.