WHOIS …? Lucian Corlaciu

What’s your name & what techie cliché is totally true for you?

My name is Lucian (spelled like Luciano Pavarotti but without the last "o"). A fitting cliché for me is the 80/20 concept, but I try to make it 75/10 – so make it almost work as fast as possible and collect feedback.

What is your role at BurdaForward?

Technically (pun intended), I am an Executive Director at BurdaForward. I lead the AI Products Accelerator, where my team and I work on some cool initiatives. We explore which AI-driven products and features can make the biggest impact both for our users and for our internal operations.

What do you do as Executive Director?

Besides the usual responsibilities of such a role, I strive to spend more than 50% of my time with my hands dirty with code. Technology is traditionally a fast-moving domain, but since the release of ChatGPT, everything seems 10x faster. So, long story short, in my role, I try to stay up to date and feed my curiosity hunger with tech and, lately, more and more business and product "goodies." 

What is the job of your team at BurdaForward?

We are focused on revolutionizing user experiences and ensuring that BurdaForward remains at the forefront of digital media innovation. For a bit more details – check this out - https://www.burda-forward.de/tech/blog/inside-the-ai-products-accelerator-how-burdaforward-innovates-responsibly 

When & Why did you start to work in tech?

I've always thought numbers were cooler than words. As a kid, I was way more into math and physics than subjects like literature, history, or geography. Maybe I just hated memorizing stuff—who knows! But I do remember this: the horrible screech of dial-up internet actually made me smile. I’m not sure exactly when it all started, but it was probably around 1999, back in 6th grade, when our school got its first computer. Not long after, I kicked off my “official” career (a.k.a. making money) by assembling PCs and putting my CD writer to very productive use…

What is your favorite part about working in tech?

Easy – solving problems & learning new stuff every day.

What is your “tech superpower”?

Driven by principles like 'Make it work – make it better' and a focus on simple, pragmatic solutions, I strive to build tech products that are grounded in real-world needs. I move fast, working in small, iterative cycles — a strength that's amplified by my deep curiosity about adjacent domains.

And how did you use it recently? (Maybe insights to a recent project)

Hehe—every day, really. I force myself to stay focused on simple, pragmatic solutions. Deep down, I’m a bit (biiiig bit – almost a byte!) of a tech nerd, so it’s easy to fall in love with tools and start building the thing right. But building the thing right can sometimes be the exact opposite of building the right thing. If I had to guess, that tension is one of the biggest ongoing battles in engineering.

As for a recent project—well, by the time you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance it’s already been killed off (fingers crossed I didn’t just jinx it). But here’s the short version: for a new concept, I started sparring with my manager (“what do you think about…”), and within a week or two, we had a working POC. Very much in the simple-and-pragmatic category—most of the decisions (name, logo, structure, components, limits, …) were made ad hoc. If the project survives, all of those will likely be reconsidered. But this approach let us skip the weeks of meetings and debates and instead sprint to something you could actually touch & feel.

What advice would you like to give techies out there?

Stay curious, stay flexible, and don’t marry your tools and ways. Tech evolves faster and faster - what’s hot today might be legacy by next Tuesday. The only way to stay relevant is to keep learning, tinkering, and occasionally breaking stuff (even in production). Tech is a playground. Go build weird stuff.

Did you find any nice tool/software/technology/… recently that you would like to share?

Trying out new tools is basically part of my job description—I test something new almost every week. But if I had to pick the most mind-blowing tech from the past few years, it’s definitely LLMs. I’ll admit, it wasn’t obvious at first how impactful they’d be. But now? The use cases are everywhere. It’s even become a meme: “Just ask ChatGPT.”

From writing and debugging code, to challenging product ideas, generating presentation visuals, polishing blog posts (oops!), planning vacations (true story!), or just learning complex topics faster on or off work (latest rabbit hole: photography)—LLMs have fundamentally changed how I work, live, and think. It’s like having a superpower on standby.

Can we find out more about you on social platforms (LinkedIn, GitHub, Tech Blogs, Link to an article on our post…)?

Social platforms aren’t really my thing — but feel free to give it a shot ;) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luciancorlaciu/

Any famous last words?

Always be nice. Especially to the AI. You never know ;)