Mihaela Draghici
Product leader | Helping cross-functional teams speak the same language, and work better together
Lisbon, Portugal
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Mihaela is a product leader with 15 years experience in building B2C and B2B global products and leading product teams in various industries, from education, e-commerce, to affiliate marketing and automotive.
She's led and scaled cross-functional teams, launched new products, and worked closely with business, design, engineering, and leadership teams in complex environments, while shifting away from a project mindset and towards a user-centric and outcome-oriented approach.
Mihaela believes that putting people first, both end-users and teams, is the key to creating great products.
Throughout her experience, she identified that most product teams don’t fail because of strategy, or lack of skill. They fail because they are not truly aligned in how they understand the work.
She now helps product leaders and cross-functional teams uncover hidden misalignment, clarify how they communicate, and build and speak the shared language needed to make good decisions and deliver outcomes that matter, faster.
Topics include:
- cross-functional collaboration
- outcome-driven product development
- inclusive leadership
- language & alignment in cross-functional teams
After my sessions, audiences typically:
- recognise how language quietly shapes collaboration and decision-making
- see why well-intentioned teams drift out of alignment over time
- gain practical ways to surface hidden assumptions in their own teams
- rethink “alignment” as an ongoing leadership responsibility, not a one-off event
Most importantly, leaders leave with a sharper lens for spotting problems before they turn into delivery failures or team friction.
My talks are grounded in real team dynamics, not idealised models, and they challenge people to look honestly at how they work together.
Area of Expertise
Topics
From Code to Context: How a Shared Team Language Unlocks Better Products
Across organizations, teams donʼt slow down because they lack
frameworks, strategy, or skill.
They slow down because they use the same words to mean different
things: “Doneˮ | “Experimentˮ | “Valueˮ | “Priorityˮ | “Technical debtˮ.
People agree in meetings, then execute differently, leading to rework,
delays, and frustration. This isnʼt a communication skill issue.
Itʼs a meaning alignment problem across roles, levels, and domains.
This workshop makes that invisible problem visible in a practical,
hands-on session.
A hands-on workshop to surface hidden misalignment between product, design, engineering, and business, and give participants a practical tool they can take back to their teams.
Participants will:
- See how identical terms fracture across disciplines and
seniority levels
- Experience how alignment breaks even among highly capable
professionals
- Learn a concrete method to surface and resolve these gaps
quickly
Breaking Silos: The Shift from a Software Delivery to a Product Development Mindset
This talk introduces how Volkswagen Digital Solutions is taking steps towards a successful transition from software delivery to product delivery lifecycle, highlighting the challenges and the innovative tactics to break down traditional silos within the product teams as well as between “the business” and "IT".
Learn how the Volkswagen Group established new delivery centers across Europe to foster interdisciplinary product teams, and the hurdles they overcame.
Mihaela will share hands-on examples of their unique approach to get “the business on board", offering a glimpse into their working models and approaches on engagement and collaboration between the product teams and stakeholders.
This talk is an exploration into digital transformation, with practical examples, offering key takeaways for those aiming to break silos and cultivate a collaborative environment within their organisations.
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