Aleksandar Đurić
Product Design @Toptal in Belgrade, Serbia
About
My name is Alek and I’m a designer based in Belgrade, Serbia. I’m currently working as Toptal’s Director of Product Design, where I lead and manage product design and UX writing practice by driving interface design direction, content and processes to ensure first-rate user experience in all of Toptal’s products. I gained a versatile skillset by working as a designer in small and large digital agencies—Pure Agency, Sourcebits, and Metropoly—and as a partner in publications and products like Branding Magazine and Taksiko. I have a bachelor's degree in Interaction Design from the Metropolitan University, Faculty of Digital Arts.
Work Experience
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Scaling the team from 20+ designers to 40 product designers and UX writers.
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Reorganizing Product Design to cover better collaboration and delivery between design contributor and writer contributor.
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Currently running 2 squads with 7 teams in total, covering full customer/talent journey from a landing page to any of our applications in the funnel.
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Developing new design strategies and UX opportunities in a collaboration with team members, stakeholders and other partners (SVP Product, VP Growth Product).
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Running one-man design consultancy studio that specializes in user interface and user experience.
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Running personal blog, called Minimal Alternative (currently deactivated, redesign coming soon).
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Led 5 teams: Growth Experience, Client Experience, Talent Experience, Platform Experience and Design System.
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Scaled the team from 8 designers to 22, was running full hiring process (job description, assessments, interview path).
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Prioritized and reviewed work alongside with other teams (Product Management, Engineering, Growth, Research, Marketing).
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Kept high retention rate within the Product Design team by developing career maps and opportunities for individual growth.
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Led team of several designers, covering Talent, Client and Platform Experience.
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Worked on establishing Design System within the company.
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Hired as third designer in the team.
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Had opportunity to work on full experience for both client and talent role.
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Worked on landing pages for growth/conversion experiments, sign up and onboarding experiences, and both Client/Talent Portal and Platform for internal ops.
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Owned design for internal People team tool, Client Experience tools, Collabshot, Top Tracker.
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Small product studio that was covering interface design solutions for clients such as xMatters, JustViews, Compare Business Phones.
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Was mostly owning design of in-house product — Nerve, project management and annotations tool for creative teams. Worked on landing pages and web application UI/UX.
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Worked in the design team of 30+ designers.
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Created web design solutions, native apps (iOS, Android), covered iPad apps, and smart glasses UI/UX.
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Was responsible for crafting design solutions for different clients such as SAP, Hallmark, Bank of America, ArtisVentures, Chauffeured, PKWare, Echo Meter Touch, Eruditus, Shneebs, iCelero etc.
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Involved from ideation phase, covered user journey mapping, wireframing, crafting visuals, and delivery to Engineering teams.
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Joined as first UI/UX Designer in KeepOnApps studio, Belgrade's branch of PureAgency.com (now known as Luminess).
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Worked on mobile and tablet interface solutions for brands such as Accor Hotels, Leroy Merlin, Acer, Allianz, Camaieu.
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Worked on in-house product — Passtore, web solution for generating custom passes for Apple Wallet.
- Worked with the team of designers and engineers on launching new version of Taksiko App, transportation solution for ordering taxi in Belgrade, Serbia.
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Written over 1000 posts that cover different strategies, campaigns, events and insights from global brands such as Apple, Starbucks, Google, Coca-Cola, LEGO, Facebook.
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Interviewed marketing executives and brand strategists such as Marcus Agar, Jim Prior, Martin Roll, Lars Silberbauer.
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Contributed to writing operations in the team, was involved in prioritiziation of content and publishing process.
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Participated and represented the publication in events such Marketing Kingdom, partnered with PWorld.