Tonći Jajić
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Klis, Croatia
Toptal member since October 29, 2019
Tonći is an accomplished project and product manager with over ten years of multi-disciplinary experience. He has helped multiple SME businesses improve their efficiency and maximize their margins. Leveraging his experience, attention to detail, and leadership skills, he has nurtured and managed several large agile teams to timely deliveries of amazing projects and products. Tonći has experience in eCommerce, travel, retail, wholesale, and service industries.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Booking Apps
- Digital Marketing
- Enterprise Software
- Kanban
- Lean IT
- Scrum
- eCommerce
Work Experience
Product Consultant (Technical Account Manager)
Automattic
- Joined the special projects team, working to deliver innovative projects for unique people and worthwhile causes.
- Worked on applied AI tooling and prompt engineering and delivered several retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) prototypes to production.
- Delivered solutions in eCommerce, blogging, nonprofits, NGOs, community outreach, marketing, and more.
- Consulted on UX and functionality of various companies' products and services and delivered dozens of new product prototypes.
- Helped build a better web and spread the spirit of open source using a wide range of Automattic products and services (WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Day One, Akismet, Pocket Casts, Longreads, Simplenote, and more).
Interim Chief Product Officer
Index.hr
- Held a short-term fractional/interim CPO role for index.hr, the largest news site in Croatia, with one million daily unique visitors and 77 million monthly unique visitors.
- Audited the company's product and design processes in depth. Founded the product department. Hired talent for the roles within it.
- Oversaw the launch of one product (a recipe app), the development of another (food guide tasteatlas.com), the reimagining of the 3rd one (classified ads), the ideation of a 4rth one (vegan/superfood app), and improvements of the main one (index.hr).
Director of Operations (via Toptal)
Alma Flowers
- Joined a short-lived startup and moved the company from being stuck in development to making revenue in less than six weeks.
- Changed the company strategy to a thought-out go-to-market plan focusing on lead generation. Personally managed the initial marketing execution with satisfactory results regarding a positive return on ad spend (ROAS).
- Set up processes for operations, logistics, and fulfillment, working with farms, vendors, and suppliers to ensure fresh overnight delivery of each item. Optimized cost structure.
Business Strategy Manager
Quick Parking
- Moved from a product position into a more comprehensive (fractional) business-managing one ten days before COVID-19 hit.
- Developed and executed successful pivots into SaaS and brokerage that ensured the business's (tied to the travel and aviation industry) survival with continuing operations and development during COVID-19.
- Improved the company's market position by using a dynamic pricing strategy (lead-based bucket pricing) and expanding market offerings from 15 to 80 airports.
- Prepared the company and paved the way for US market entry.
Senior Product and Project Manager
Valcon
- Acted as a program/product manager for QuickParking (over $20 million in annual revenue), managing a mobility-as-a-service platform product with four projects, three project managers, and over 20 developers.
- Enabled a 30% increase in sales performance (average order value and conversion rate) through UX testing and conversion rate optimization.
- Ensured a 50% decrease in operational overhead and an order-of-magnitude increase in API integrator onboarding.
- Ideated and led the development of auxiliary web app services and devices that impacted important customer satisfaction metrics, such as wait times and self-help availability, and increased the returning customer rate by 20%.
- Oversaw multiple greenfield MVP projects to fast and successful deliveries as program/project manager and led one MVP development from ideation to MVP user testing in five weeks.
Product and eCommerce Manager
Family
- Led the development of the eCommerce product with a five-month break-even and a 600% three-year ROI from its inception to full market maturity.
- Managed both eCommerce operations and marketing of the entire brand (eCommerce and brick and mortar), resulting in a 30% growth of initial brand revenue, 10% YOY growth in revenue, and an average of 25% YOY growth in eCommerce.
- Started additional services initially used by the brand, such as photo studio and copywriting, which we subsequently offered as a separate service that extended business revenue.
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Intertekstil Stanic
- Managed the entire ERP stack (sales, BI, accounting, invoicing). Ensured an average 15% yearly profit increase over my tenure by leading the continuous overhead and process optimization.
- Developed ERP to serve the company's data-driven future, turning it into an off-the-shelf on-premises product and then into a SaaS product.
- Added around 30 new tools, processes, and opportunities that were previously not present or possible in the company's business.
- Enabled workforce mobility by standardizing tools and processes and decreased operational idleness to zero by allowing frictionless software use.
Project History
Quick Parking: Multi-product Software Program (Booking)
https://www.quickparking.comAs program manager, defined and built several products (platform and eCommerce), ensuring over 30% profit margin YoY growth.
Thanks to our software, they were able to support new business ventures and integrate new partners. Our websites ensured the migration was painless, showing a more than 30% improvement in revenue performance over previous solutions. I am currently optimizing the products and adding new features.
I acted as the program manager, agile coach, and product owner on this project. I defined the product vision, immediate and future development plans, and communicated them to all stakeholders. I continue to ensure the team is growing and that processes and flow are creating solid, long-term performance.
Intertekstil Stanić: ERP Software Development (Retail and Wholesale)
http://intertekstil-stanic.hr/pocetna/As product owner, I managed the digital transformation of the company to be data-driven by managing their ERP development.
Based on the existing ERP solution, we've worked closely with the vendor to re-engineer the entire product to suit the company's needs. This included:
- Product catalog module.
- Warehousing, retail, import, coupon, and discount module.
- Business and remote locations module.
Family.hr: eCommerce site (B2C/Retail)
https://www.family.hrLed both the development and the operations of a state-of-the-art eCommerce site, ensuring performance above expectations.
Prior to building a web shop, we did an extensive rebranding, and along with building the web shop, started to invest significantly in digital marketing.
The web shop was built and designed by an external agency and the shop itself proved to be a hit, especially when compared to its brick and mortar counterparts.
Alma Flowers: Shopify eCommerce site (B2C/Retail)
As a director of operations, acted as a project manager in ensuring that a small team delivers highly converting eCommerce site built on Shopify platform.
The shop was launched within five weeks and, coupled with other business operations, started performing and making revenue fast.
Bleiff: Platform and Portal MVP (fintech HR)
Delivered an under-budgeted and over-scoped MVP on time and on budget, while managing the scope closely with the client.
Quick Parking: eCommerce Site (Booking)
https://www.quickparking.comLed the development of an eCommerce site with 30% better revenue performance compared to the previous solution.
They've migrated from a network of smaller, regional (airport-specific) sites to a single site serving all markets.
Our website ensured that the migration was painless, showing a more than 30% improvement in revenue performance over previous solutions. I am currently optimizing the product and adding new features.
I acted as the program manager, agile coach, and product owner on this project. I defined the product vision and immediate and future development plans and communicated them to all stakeholders. I continue to ensure the team is growing and that processes and flow are creating solid, long-term performance.
Green Parking: eCommerce Site (Booking)
https://greenparkingschiphol.nl/Acted as a product owner for the booking eCommerce website built by an external agency.
Quick Parking: Administration Web Apps
Led the development of UX-oriented BackOffice and CMS web apps to support the client's administration staff.
For their administration, operations, finance, and customer care staff, I've managed (as both product owner and project manager) development of a back office and CMS web apps.
Apps were built to highest UX standards, guaranteeing the best possible information flow and shortest user paths to key platform operations.
Intertekstil Stanić: Strategy Companion Analyzer Integration and Migration
Transformed the way the company thinks about data and business analysis.
Quick Parking: Android App for Shuttle Bus Drivers
Sped up operations by leading the development of a new, fast, and properly designed Android app for shuttle drivers.
To make shuttle bus drivers day-to-day life easier (and to support operations), we're built a bespoke Android app to be used on tablet devices on each bus. Drivers can use these devices for route information, customer information, and booking management.
Family.hr: Retail Chain Standardization
Enabled frictionless human resource movement.
Typeqast: Support Service Implementation using Jira Service Desk
Successfully managed the setup of the 24/7 support service, including the team, processes, tools, sales, and operations.
- Developed internal processes to support all types of clients and projects.
- Set up multiple instances of Jira service desks and connected them to various tools. Automatized the process (including automatic SLA and automation rules).
- Tested operations, processes, and tools with a large client.
- Scaled and refined them to cover the entire client base.
After the initial setup was complete, I delegated the direct management to a customer service manager (my direct report) and only consulted on Jira-related issues.
Quick Parking: Embedded Windows Terminal Devices
Ensured smoother customer flow on the parking locations by managing the development of the Windows embedded software.
Using those terminals (with an internet connection, touch screen, license plate recognition, camera feeds, and customer care intercom link) customers can easily drive in, out and pay for their parking.
Quick Parking: Operations Planning Tool
Enabled cost-effective operations planning by overseeing the development of a bespoke built planning tool.
To better manage the resources (both human and vehicular) needed for each shift/day/location, we've built them a special tool to manage the ideal and most cost-effective scheduling.
Weerman: Business Management Platform
Rescued a doomed year-long project, managing to secure delivery in just three months.
For Weerman, we built a platform that was able to integrate with Floral Holland's EasyFlor ERP API and provide data for a range of owned internal and white-label solutions.
Our solutions included a Debtor Registration API, white-label administration, Laravel shop options, among others.
Weerman: Magento eCommerce Site (B2B/Wholesale)
Rescued a year-old project and secured MVP delivery in three months.
We built a Magento web shop for them that could handle tens of thousands of articles added to the system daily.
Intertekstil Stanić: Embedded Warehouse Devices
Sped up operations and logistics by managing the warehouse workflow and developing purpose-built Windows embedded devices.
To support their growing needs and logistics complexity, I managed (as product manager) a complete overhaul of their warehousing workflows while simultaneously digitalizing it.
Quick Parking: Booking and Business Management Platform
https://www.quickparking.comOversaw the multi-year development of a new bespoke platform and ensured smooth migration from the old system to the new one.
Thanks to our software, they were able to support new business ventures and integrate new partners.
I acted as the program manager, agile coach, and product owner on this project. I defined the product vision, immediate and future development plans, and communicated them to all stakeholders. I continue to ensure the team is growing and that processes and flow are creating solid, long-term performance.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in IT Systems Management
Minerva Business School - Dugopolje, Croatia
Skills
Tools
Atlassian, Atlassian Suite, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Microsoft Outlook, Jira, Slack, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Slides, Google Forms, Lean Testing, Zoom, Shopify Plus, Office 365, Trello, InVision, Zeplin, Marvel App, TeamViewer, Google Analytics, Google Optimize, Confluence, Facebook Ads Manager, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, UX Tools, Microsoft Power BI, Advertising Tools & Platforms, Angular Universal, Google SketchUp, Marvel, Chrome Developer Tools, Atom, NetSuite, KWFinder, ShipStation, Asana, TeamCity
Paradigms
Servant Leadership, Incremental Development, Implementation Project Management, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Agile, Agile Workflow, Scrum, Kanban, Agile Project Management, Lean Project Management, Agile Software Development, Management, Agile Product Management, Iterative Development, Iterative Delivery, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), Agile Leadership, Agile Delivery, Responsive Web Design (RWD), UX Design, Design Thinking, Lean, DevOps, UI Design Standards & Best Practices, Mobile App Design, B2C, B2B, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Change Management, Software Testing, Software Testing Lifecycle (STLC), Test-driven Development (TDD), Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Digital Marketing Best Practices, Requirements Analysis, Rapid Prototyping, Agile UX, Team Development, Waterfall Development, Waterfall Delivery, Iterative Design, On-page SEO, Human-centered Design (HCD), Key Performance Metrics, Desktop Web Design, Design Patterns
Platforms
WooCommerce, Joomla, Google Chrome, Google Ads, Shopify, Yotpo, Peakon, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), WordPress, Kustomer, Webflow, Magento
Industry Expertise
Booking Apps, Business Technology, Software, Textiles, Retail & Wholesale, Digital Marketing, Marketing Programs, Business Systems
Other
Software as a Service (SaaS), Web Shops, Complex Problem Solving, Creative Problem Solving, eCommerce UX, eCommerce Platforms, Online Shops, System Migration, Back-end Admin Systems, Web Services, Web Applications, Web Design, Web Development, Web UI Design, Mobile Web Design, Web UX Design, Web Project Management, Website Redesign, Web App UI, App UX, User Experience (UX), Systems Analysis, System Requirements, System Implementation, System Improvements, Information Systems, Agile Product Delivery, Enterprise Project Management, Hybrid Project Management, Program Evaluation, Digital Transformation Program Management, Business Transformation Program Management, Complex Program Management, Google, Process Optimization, Optimization, Scrumban, Scrum Product Owner, SaaS, Design, UI Design, App Design, Software Design, Mobile Design, Wireframe to Product, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), New Product Development, Business Transformation, IT Business Analysis, Business Applications, Software Release Management, Backlog Management, Remote Team Leadership, Leadership Training, Transformational Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Leadership Strategy, Leadership Development, Leadership, Enterprise Software, Software Integration, Software Innovation, Software Implementation, Software Development, Software Development Management, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), PMO Development, Web App Development, Organizational Development, People Development, Learning & Development, Continuous Development (CD), IT Service Delivery, Microsoft 365, Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Onboarding, Resource Allocation, Thought Leadership, Sprints, Sprint Planning, User Stories, Conversion, PMO, Backlog Grooming, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Web, Estimations, Scope, Communication, Consulting, Agile Coaching, Agile Sprints, Scrum Master, Lean IT, Lean Development, Product Design, Projects, Project Delivery, Project Discovery, Project Tracking, Project Rescue, IT Projects, Teams, Team Leadership, Team Management, Team Mentoring, Product Ownership, Product Owner, Project Management, IT Project Management, Project Management Office (PMO), Software Project Management, Mobile/Web Project Management, Business, IT Management, Facebook, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Project Analysis, Project Initiation, Project Planning, Project Scheduling, Project Scoping, Project Development, Project Design & Management, Digital Project Management, Project Lifecycle, Project Leadership, Project Closure, Project Consultancy, Project Consultation, Digital Product Management, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Sprint Ceremonies, IT Program Management, Project Management Operations, Scope Management, Delivery Management, Culture Management, IT Consulting, Executive Consulting, Business Consulting, Process Improvement Project Management, Jira Administrator, Project Timelines, Project Controls, Business to Business (B2B), Online Business, Team Building, Multi-functional Teams, Discovery, Discovery Workshops, Discovery Management, Product Discovery, Customer Discovery, Stakeholder Analysis, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Interviews, Sprint Retrospectives, IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Services, Planning, Rapid Application Development (RAD), Warehouse Management, Systems, Systems Thinking, CRM Systems, System Flow, eCommerce Payments, Mobile eCommerce, WebApp, Web API, APIs, API Testing, SEO Tools, SEO Audits, SEO Content, Website Audits, Web Content, Website CMS, Content Management Systems (CMS), Web Design Strategy, Interactive Web Design, Web Marketing, Website Migration, Mobile Web, Website QA, Website Testing, UX Analysis, UX Research, UX Process, Holistic UX Design, Mobile UX Design, UX Thinking, Innovative UX, UX Strategy, Mobile UX, System Design, System Development, Enterprise Systems, System Testing, System Integration, Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems, System Administration, International Projects, Project Management Infrastructure, Project Administration, Program Development, Atlassian Plugins, Google Maps, Google Advertising, Google AdSense, Google Maps API, Google Drive, Agile DevOps, AWS DevOps, Payment APIs, Payment Gateways, Digital Payments, Online Payments, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), CRM Design, PSD Design, Enterprise Application Design, Enterprise Design, Android UI Design, Mobile UI Design, User-centered Design (UCD), Interface Design, Interaction Design (IxD), Information Design, Process Design, Design Sprints, Design Strategy, Design Guidelines, Behavior-driven Design, Enterprise Product Portfolios, Product Operations, Product Support, Product-market Fit, Product Growth, Product Launch, Product Conceptualization, Product Comparison, Product Benchmarking, Process Improvement, Process Ownership, Business Plan Consulting, Business Processes, Process Management, Technical Support, Customer Support, Remote Support, Business Research, Business Requirements, Business Testing, Business Design, Business Delivery Management, Business Management, QA Test Plan Management, Customer Experience Management, Test Management, Transition Management, Global Team Management, User Management, Innovation Management, SLA Management, Knowledge Management, Goal Management, Change Leadership, Manual Software Testing, Software Sales, Legacy Software, Development, API Development, UI Development, App Development, Mobile App Development, Front-end Development, Back-end Development, Mobile Development, Influencer Marketing, Internet Marketing, Online Marketing, Paid Advertising, Facebook Marketing, Brand Marketing, Gmail, Google Search Console, Klaviyo, Startups, Early-stage Startups, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Mobile UI, Mobile App Testing, Technical Leadership, Documentation, Reporting, Reports, Use Cases, API Integration, Prototyping, Cloud Platforms, Risk Management, Workflow Tools, Integration, Operations Tools, Warehouse Operations, Monitoring, Lean Startups, Product Development, Agile Deployment, Scrum Coaching, Lean UX, Web UX, Web UI, Product Roadmaps, Product Strategy, Product Planning, Project Reporting, Teamwork, Product Management, Project Budget Management, Lean Product Development, Social Media, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Marketing, Google Tag Manager, IT Support, Facebook Ads, Instagram, Instagram Marketing, Offshore Team Management, Distributed Team Management, Client Management, eCommerce, eCommerce Management, eCommerce Analysis, Analysis, Business Analysis, Analytics, Agile Program Management, Agile Software Testing, Agile Transformation, Quality Control (QC), Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Management, QA Testing, Software QA, QA Leadership, Project Design, Project Estimation, Project Evaluation, Introspective Project Research, Project Management SRO, Project Support, Project Finance, Project Coordination, Product Research, Product Transformation, Team Productivity, Product Delivery, Product Vision, Budget Management, Expectations Management, Management Reporting, Task Management, People Management, Program Management, Problem Management, Account Management, Line Management, Marketing Management, Brand Management, Software Consulting, Web Consulting, Technology Consulting, Startup Consulting, Management Consulting, Migration Planning, Cloud Migration, Migration, Finance, Technical Product Management, Technical Project Management, Technical Program Management, Program Design, Product Marketing, UX Flows, Web App UX, Social Networks, Social Networking, Business Agility, Business Planning, Business Intelligence (BI), BI Reporting, Accounting Software, Scrum Testing, Technical Consulting, Waterfall Methodology, Android Design Guidelines, Head of Product, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), Large Language Models (LLMs), ChatGPT, Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), OpenAI, Operations, CTO, IT Strategy, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Module Development, Model-driven Engineering (MDE), Billing Systems, .NET, Entity Framework, Angular, AngularJS, JavaScript, Python, Web Hosting, Website Management, Website Optimization, Web Platforms, Website Performance, Progressive Web Applications (PWAs), Web Research, Web Servers, Web Scraping, Web Server (IIS), Web App Security, Web Technologies, Dynamic Websites, Operations & Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS), Document Management Systems (DMS), Quality Management Systems (QMS), Embedded Systems, Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), Operating Systems, Information System Audits, Business Transformation Project Management, Service Delivery Project Management, Integrated Program Management , Google SEO, Google Material Design, Google Display Network, Workflow Optimization, Funnel Optimization, Platform Optimization, Profit Optimization, InVision Studio, JSON, Lean Experiments, Lean Research, Lean Portfolio Management, Lean Analytics, Lean Budgets, Human Resources (HR), Product Reviews, Product Information Management (PIM), Productivity Improvement, New Products, Business Process Refinement, Business Process Re-engineering, Process Testing, Process Transformation, Process Innovation, Business Process Optimization, Process Control, Process Flows, Process Analysis, Business Process Automation, Business Process Analysis, Process Development, Process Documentation, Business Process Flow Diagrams, Business Process Flow (BPF), Business Process Modeling, Process Modeling, Process Mapping, Email Support, Key User Support, Executive Support, Chat Support, Business Rules, Business to Consumer (B2C), B2C Marketing, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Technical Business Analysis, Business Ownership, Business Operations, Business Advisory, Business Administration, Business Strategy, Small Business, Solution Architecture, Business Development, Business Coaching, Business Services, Business Models, Resource Management, Time Management, Technical Delivery Management, Talent Management, Issue Management, Incident Management, Order Management, Operations Management, Operations Management Systems (OMS), Management Systems, Automation Software, Distributed Software, Windows Desktop Software, Financial Software, Rapid Development, Interactive Web Development, Web Development Strategy, Tech Development & Implementation, Presentation Development, Strategy Development, Dashboard Development, Feature-driven Development (FDD), GUI Development, Content-first Design & Development, Staff Management & Development, Email Marketing, Marketing Research & Analysis, Marketing Platforms, Affiliate Marketing, SEO Marketing, Data-driven Marketing, Content Marketing, Microsoft Teams, Notion, Clang, Pricing, Pricing Models, Semrush, SMS Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Fintech, Business Process Management (BPM), Technical Hiring, SAP BusinessObjects (BO), Chief Product Officer (CPO), Jira Administration, eCommerce UI, eCommerce Design, Branding, Brand Building, Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Content, Technical Project Monitoring, Strategy
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