Ivan Petrovic is the creator and CEO of Insightful, a well-known provider of software for tracking employee productivity. He is responsible for a 70-person international team and has won seven awards in G2’s Winter 2023 Report. Ivan splits his time between working from home and at his Belgrade office, and spends more time with his family and taking his dog for late-night strolls. He gives concepts life by allowing staff to research new ideas and present their findings to him or their managers.
The creator and CEO of Insightful, a well-known provider of software for tracking employee productivity, is Ivan Petrovic. Ivan, a former cybersecurity expert turned business guru, is in charge of a 70-person international team. Seven important awards were given to Insightful in G2’s Winter 2023 Report, further solidifying its position as a market leader. Visit insightful.io for more details about Ivan and Insightful.
What goes on in your usual day, and how do you make sure it is productive?
I start my day by spending time with my little daughter because I have one. Then the job starts. Since my workweek crosses several time zones due to our team’s global distribution across four continents, asynchronous communication is crucial.
I start each day by reviewing my emails, texts, and work from the day before, and I then prioritize my tasks using this information. I am careful not to allow these inputs control my day or make me obsess too much since doing so may easily make me lose focus on what is most important.
I split my time between working from home and working at our Belgrade office, which offers flexibility and is in line with our company’s emphasis on flexibility. I really think that productivity is influenced by both what you do outside of work and what you do when you’re working. After work, I’ll spend more time with my family, which gives me more energy for the evening. I also enjoy taking my dog for late-night strolls, but occasionally I’m guilty of cramming in extra Zoom meetings while we stroll Belgrade’s parks.
How do you give concepts life?
My staff is allowed to research new ideas and present their findings to me or our managers. We do little tests, review the outcomes, and then change or eliminate the concept rather than accepting or rejecting ideas based on their original attraction.
We support a culture of research and invention and invest in cutting-edge concepts. It is crucial to adopt the mindset that failure is not something to be feared or avoided. If we do this, we will stop evolving and become too cautious. Instead, it’s important to frame failure as a necessary part of developing new ideas. And if something fails, it only gives us additional data to consider when making decisions in the future.
Which fashion trend most motivates you?
The fact that our tools are made for hybrid work and that it has been our working paradigm for a while now intrigues me. The data we gather from companies using our software supports my belief that it is the most productive working paradigm. Why do I have such strong opinions on hybrid work? Since flexibility forms its basis. Additionally, this freedom raises workers’ productivity, sense of ownership, and wellbeing.
Additionally, we are making large wagers on the well-established trend of the digital transformation of corporate operations. For many years, corporate processes have gradually and naturally evolved as a result of digital transformation. But what we’re seeing right now, especially at the business level, are companies that are determined to not only manage the digital transition but to accelerate it. I’m curious to see what the workplaces of the future will look like, and we aim to play a key part in them, given the advent of AI, the continuous acceptance of SaaS solutions, and the growing capacity of data analysis.
What is a productive habit, specifically?
Being able to listen effectively is more of an innate quality than a habit, yet it allows me to be very productive. It might sound strange that I say that my superpower is listening since there are so many books and bits of advise about productivity. Not the most important item on any “productivity tips lists” Nevertheless, although being mostly disregarded, it has a big influence on productivity.
I am able to make better judgments, decide where my time is best spent, and better assist my 70 workers by actively listening to my team.
What advice would you give to yourself in the past?
I would advise my younger self to practice patience, make better plans, and have self-assurance. However, I don’t think my younger self would pay attention.
I think that as we become older, we become more patient. It has a contradictory quality. Although we have more free time when we are young, we are also more impatient. Self-assurance promotes more independence in both life and business. This trust is acquired through experience and hard effort, with the exception of those extraordinary people who exude unwavering self-confidence.
When I was younger, I didn’t understand what planning meant. I hadn’t made any prior plans; I had just started off in every way. It would be challenging to convince the younger version of myself to make plans, but if I had, the road to success would have been clearer.
Tell us anything that practically no one seems to agree on.
It’s still feasible for blockchain technology to be used in revolutionary ways. The greed of “early adopters” has, however, prevented its wider acceptance.
What is one thing you usually do that you also encourage others to do?
The same advice I would give my younger self applies to you: be patient, develop better preparations, and have trust in yourself. You will ultimately find success if you constantly perform these three things.
What do you do when you’re overwhelmed or unable to concentrate?
I take a stroll to get my mind off things. Every evening, I take my dog for a stroll through the Belgrade neighborhoods and parks near my home.
What is a tactic that has helped you grow your company or advance your career?
Being alone from the beginning has helped us develop. It gave us better agility, flexibility that enhanced productivity, and access to a wider talent pool outside of our immediate area at a time when few firms were focused on remote work.
I’ll sneak in a second tactic here as well: we have always placed a strong emphasis on dedication in addition to expertise when hiring. Being impressed by someone who has many years or decades of expertise or who has worked for a significant company is straightforward. Experience is unquestionably important. Will they, however, be as devoted to the position? We heavily consider this while making recruiting and firing choices.
What is the biggest failure you’ve ever had in your career, how did you overcome it, and what did you learn from it?
My efforts have mostly proven unsuccessful. Being an entrepreneur always entails this. An example of this is Workchain, my old business. Instead of receiving checks once a week, twice a week, or monthly, people might now get paid instantly for their job thanks to blockchain-based software.
We had a fantastic staff and product, but it was hard to get traction, so I decided to shut it down. It’s interesting to note that several businesses now effectively provide this real-time payment service. I think our problem was that we provided bitcoin payment, but neither employers nor employees were ready to use it. Simply put, the adoption cycle was still too young for us.
Failure emphasizes how crucial it is to properly choose your market. You must be careful while selecting your market. No matter how fantastic your product is, if you choose the wrong market, there is no turning back and making things right. Instead, you must change course or give up on the project.
Which business idea would you be prepared to impart to our readers?
A smart business idea is to connect and harmonize sales and marketing data. We’re completing this operation internally utilizing backend systems that we’ve created because there aren’t many complete tools available. The possibility to build this solution and help the large majority of enterprises that either handle it internally (custom) or not at all is enormous.
It might be challenging to link marketing expenditures to sales when using several channels and a sales staff. The suggested remedy deals with this problem. You may operate more successfully and maximize your return on investment if you can precisely link marketing activities to sales results.
What applications do you use to increase productivity? What is its use?
Some of the tools that help me be more productive are Insightful.io, Jira, Slack, Google Workspace, and ChatGPT.
What was your best $100 buy recently?
Today, finding something of real worth for $100 is challenging. The best investment I recently made, though, was a subscription to OpenAI, in my opinion.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast that has been really valuable to you?
For B2B SaaS, I would highly advise choosing Survival over Thrival. For Seed/Series A businesses, it provides a great foundation for growing go-to-market tactics.
What movie or TV show have you lately enjoyed, and why?
Succession. I appreciate how it examines the advantages and disadvantages of achieving success in business, particularly the role that connections have in reaching the top.
In addition to what you accomplish while working, productivity is also influenced by how you use your free time.
Consider failure a typical outcome of exploring novel ideas. As a result, if something fails, we will know more about what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future.
Being alone from the beginning has helped us develop. We were given more freedom and flexibility, which increased our productivity and allowed us access to a wider talent pool outside of our immediate area.
Insightful.Applications like io, Jira, Slack, Google Workspace, and ChatGPT are a few that help me be more productive.
Be persistent, revise your plans, and have confidence in yourself. You will ultimately find success if you constantly perform these three things.
For further information
You can check my site or contact me on LinkedIn
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