A couple of years ago, Ioana and I already recorded a podcast together. Back then, the conversation was about design, tools, and work inside the system.
This time, everything felt different. We met again not to “catch up” — but to reflect. To slow down. To talk honestly about what happens when your professional identity dissolves, when titles stop working, and when the systems you helped build no longer feel aligned with your values.
Ioana recently found herself in San Francisco, at an Adobe AI summit for creators. When asked to introduce herself in a room full of filmmakers, illustrators, and technologists, she froze. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t explain who she was.
Product designer? AI educator? Artist? Creator? Business owner? And then she realized: everyone in the room was going through the same identity crisis.
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Welcome to the season of Growthmates — The Creator’s Path
This episode of Growthmates — The Creator’s Path is about allowing uncertainty instead of fighting it.
Ioana speaks openly about:
losing a stable professional identity
burnout and moral conflict with the tech industry
questioning whether more AI really means a better world
and the moment she asked herself: “When do we optimize for humanity?”
After years of working at UiPath and Miro, building award-winning AI products and teaching others how to design with AI, Ioana hit a breaking point.
She no longer believed that impact could only be made inside large systems. So she stepped out. Not into a clear plan — but into space.
The freedom to be without a fixed identity
This conversation isn’t about career growth, tools, or how to “stay relevant” in the AI era. It’s about what happens after everything you used to be stops making sense.
When titles dissolve. When the system you believed in starts to feel misaligned. When productivity no longer answers the most important questions.
A couple of years ago, Ioana Teleanu and I recorded a podcast about design, work, and building inside tech companies. This time, we met in a very different place.
Ioana had just returned from San Francisco, where she attended an Adobe AI summit for creators. Surrounded by filmmakers, artists, and technologists, she was asked a simple question: “So, who are you?”
And for the first time in her life, she couldn’t answer.
“I froze. I realized I had no idea how to introduce myself anymore.”
Ioana Teleanu, AI x Design (ex Miro, UiPath)
Product designer, AI educator, artist, creator, business owner — none of the labels felt fully true. And then something clicked: almost everyone in that room was experiencing the same identity crisis.
When the system stops giving answers
After years at UiPath and Miro — building award-winning AI products, teaching others how to design with AI, and speaking on global stages — Ioana hit a breaking point.
Not because she failed. But because she started questioning what all this optimization was actually for.
“At some point I started asking myself — when do we optimize for humanity?”
Burnout wasn’t just exhaustion. It was a moral and philosophical conflict with the tech industry’s obsession with speed, scale, and sameness.
So Ioana stepped away from certainty. Not into a clear plan — but into space.
Art, uncertainty, and asking better questions
One of the central shifts we explore in this episode is how Ioana reframed creation itself. Design answers questions. Science answers questions. Art raises them.
She talks about how burnout pushed her toward art — not as an escape, but as resistance. As a way to question technology, power, aesthetics, and the future we’re collectively building.
“I stopped trying to explain myself — and started experimenting instead.”
Without art school, credentials, permission. Just curiosity, intuition, and daily visual research.
Freedom before clarity
For the first time in years, Ioana allowed herself to:
pause without guilt
explore without a fixed outcome
stop optimizing for money
and fully commit to experimentation
Ironically, this was also the period when she started earning more than ever before. Not because she chased growth — but because meaning came first.
We talk about why:
doing “half-work” on many things leads nowhere
experimentation requires commitment, not side projects
money often becomes a byproduct, not a goal
Creating a connection, not performance
This episode is also about sharing work without performing.
Ioana tells a quiet story about posting something on Instagram that almost no one saw — and how it led to a deep human connection that mattered more than any metric.
You don’t need virality. You don’t need to be loud. Sometimes reaching one person is enough.
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