About

Hi, I'm Iva.

Depending on where you found me, you've got one of two impressions.

If it were Instagram, I'm the person who is very invested in ice cream, joy, and trying new things.

If it were LinkedIn, I'm the person who spent six years running support operations across Southern Europe, through earthquakes, lockdowns, regulatory deadlines announced a week before they took effect, and where "burned vehicle" was an actual part of my work week.

Both are accurate, both are me. This website is where the second one gets written down.

The work

I've spent over a decade building operations and teams, mostly in high-growth companies where the map hasn't been drawn yet.

At Uber, I launched the company's biggest branded support centre in Central and Eastern Europe, hired 100 people in 10 days to meet a compliance deadline, moved an entire in-person operation to virtual in 24 hours when the first lockdowns hit, and helped launch UberBoat, which is harder than it sounds because there is no road at sea for GPS to follow. I led teams through incidents that still feel unreal to explain and through some of the best moments of my working life, often in the same week.

Now I'm Head of Operations and Business Development at Treblle, where the problems are different, but the shape is familiar: strategic planning, compliance certifications, board decks, investor data rooms, managing burn, and finding 450K of annual savings hiding in a spreadsheet.

What I actually do, underneath the job titles: connect dots across teams, products, and priorities. I build the frameworks that let other people move quickly. And I leave people and businesses better than I find them.

The rest of it

I love martial arts. I try things. Gadgets, food, workouts, restaurants, experiences, doing hard things, and enjoying the process. Then I report back honestly, including when the answer is "don't bother."

I pay attention to women doing hard, interesting things, and I cheer at them loudly. Some of the most useful things I've done online have been connecting the right people simply by giving a shout-out.

I collect ideas that have changed how I operate: from Extreme Ownership and “Discipline = Freedom” by Jocko Willink, to 1% by James Clear, and more recently, the notion that you can increase your luck surface area by taking action.

What this blog is about

Notes from the field on operations, leadership, and the parts of the job nobody puts in the job description. What I got right, what I got wrong, and what I wish someone had told me first.

I'm not a certified coach, and I'm not selling a course. I'm someone who has done the thing and is writing it down while it's still fresh enough to be useful.

If something here is useful to you, or you want to talk about operations, building teams, speaking, or working together, my inbox is open.

Zagreb, Croatia.