Welcome to “Motion Force”! A series of 10-question interviews showcasing what life at Motion Software is all about. We are opening our doors for you to take a peek at what’s happening behind the scenes at Motion Software. You’ll be meeting some of our leading team members and contributors. We are ready to kick it all off with none other than our very own Ivan Dimitrov.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and the kind of person you are.
Hi, my name is Ivan, a nature lover, proud football fan, and beer drinker, currently living in London, UK. For the last 6 years, I’ve lived across 5 different countries and visited 20 more, so I’d say I love change and exploring our pale blue dot.
Why did you decide to join Motion Software as one of the leading forces?
Before joining Motion Software, for two years I worked at one of the leading German car manufacturers. As a young professional who had spent his entire short-lived career in a corporate environment, I wanted to experience the startup culture. I’d known our CEO, Christo, from before and he got me really excited about working in a fully remote and growing tech company, so the rest is history.
How do you combine your busy London city life with the demands of your role?
Luckily, the company offers a very flexible working schedule so I never really had issues combining the two. Even less so in the last 10 months, when the definition of “busy city life” changed so drastically.
What do you most like about working at the company?
Firstly and most importantly, the people I work with. I feel blessed that our team is full of young and truly interesting people from whom I can learn a lot – both professionally and outside of the office. The fact that as an organization we invest time and effort into bringing our community close and that I’ve made a bunch of close friends is quite rare and something I value a lot. Also, people at Motion Software are met with the support and freedom to pursue their professional goals.
What is most challenging about working as a Head of Product at Motion Software?
As a product manager, you engage with a number of different stakeholders on a daily basis – from your user groups to your design and software teams, to other internal teams. Understandably, all these people have different motivations and want something different from your product, so I’d say the hardest part is balancing their needs and showing them you’re listening and following your own vision.
What are you currently working on?
My team and I are currently working on a product that facilitates and automates all the core consulting operations of Motion Software. The product saves us a great deal of manual work we perform on a daily basis, all the while helping us keep track of our client requests and administration, managing relationships with our partners, and keeping our community and employees engaged and happy. It’s a versatile product specifically designed to help fully remote consulting businesses achieve better efficiency and engagement across a variety of business areas.
What does a typical workday look like for you?
My typical day is usually divided between developing our product and working with our clients in the UK and other markets. While the workload is not always 50/50, on an average day I can expect to have at least one call with our software engineering team and one with a design team, where I get updates about the progress and discuss any potential issues. It’s my responsibility to prioritize the work and make sure people understand what they’re required to do and when, so we can bring the most value to our users. When working with our clients I have to ensure that their projects are going according to plan, which usually happens over a weekly or daily call. In case there are new requirements I communicate that to the relevant internal teams. The rest of the time I try to be available for people who may need my support and dealing with ad-hoc tasks.
What is the setting you most like to work in?
The best setting to work from is one that varies often. While I love working from home and all the benefits this brings me, I feel a mixture between that, going to a physical office or coworking space and working at a remote destination gives me the most pleasure. Over the last few years I’ve worked on the beach, in the pub at the airport, at my friends’ house, on the train and who knows where else. I believe that you can work from anywhere and I say let’s enjoy that.
Which industry do you like best having a project in and why?
I love the challenge of working with clients from industries I’m not familiar to start with. This makes the learning experience a lot more rewarding and it helps me understand how different businesses operate, so I can hopefully apply those lessons and ideas to my work at Motion Software and my personal development. Recently I’ve been working on a SaaS product targeted at the data centers industry, which I found rather interesting.
The toughest situation you have found yourself in this year and what did you learn from it?
2020 was not great for anyone and I think no one would be surprised if I say the toughest thing about it was having to cope with the long periods of isolation from pretty much everyone. Combine that with the unprecedented disruption in global travel and I quickly found that the lack of new experiences can take a psychological toll on me very quickly. So I learned that we should use the opportunities to spend time with our family and friends to the fullest and protect our relationships even during difficult times.
