Architecting Success: Vedad Orahovac’s Journey

Welcome to the newest edition of Walter Humans, where we celebrate the outstanding professionals who make our company a success.

Today, we shine the spotlight on Vedad Orahovac, our brilliant Product Owner.

Vedad’s career path began in architecture, where he coordinated engineering teams and designed various facilities. His journey with Walter Code started with a scholarship to the Walter BIM Academy, leading to his role as a QA for Naviate for Revit. Now, as the Product Owner for Naviate Accelerate, his expertise and leadership have been pivotal to our growth and success.

Join us as we delve into Vedad’s career journey and learn more about his unique approach to achieving success.

Tell us more about your career in Walter Code.

My career path to Product Owner has been quite an adventure. I will start with a short story. During the memorable recent major power outage that impacted our country a few weeks ago — when the lights dimmed, and the coffee machines fell silent — my colleagues and I found ourselves in an unexpected situation. It was like a corporate campfire, minus marshmallows. We had no other options than to talk to each other. The question floated across the room: “Could you have ever imagined doing this job when you were younger?” My immediate response? A resounding “No!” Back in high school, Product Ownership didn’t exist the way it does now, I had no awareness of Scrum practices.

Let’s now rewind a bit. Before I became a Scrum preacher, my career started in the field of architecture. After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sarajevo, I worked as an associate architect at a Sarajevo-based architectural firm for 6 years. Here, I acquired the experience of coordinating between different engineering teams (architects, electrical, structural, HVAC and plumbing) through every twist and turn in different phases of project execution. We designed everything, from cozy residential buildings, health facilities, sport arenas, and commercial facilities — from preliminary design phase to following execution on-site. And guess what, our tools for trade were vintage software products such as the good old AutoCAD.

Then, in 2018, Walter BIM Academy was founded. They offered courses for Autodesk Revit, an advanced architectural software not yet popular in Bosnia at that time. I applied for a scholarship and got accepted as a part of the inaugural group of students. Autodesk Revit for me was a great introduction to BIM (Building Information Modeling) way of creating architectural documentation. It seemed like magic in digital form. A couple of months after completing the Revit Basic Course, I was offered a position at Walter as a QA for Naviate for Revit, a plug-in with a variety of tools for Revit. I accepted and this is where my Walter Code career begins.

As an architect and a QA, I was constantly brainstorming possible enhancements to Naviate features that could improve the overall user experience, one Revit button at a time. Soon I took the role of Scrum Master. I was continuously seeking new opportunities to learn and grow, and I instilled the importance of self-management among team members to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

As Naviate for Revit grew and new markets were introduced, there was a need for a new Product Owner for one of Naviate for Revit products. With excellent knowledge of the product and Scrum practices, I was promoted to a Product Owner for Naviate Accelerate product. I aim to continue to contribute to the team and the product by organizing, prioritizing, and clarifying the work we do and deliver to end-users.

So here I am, juggling user stories like flaming torches (metaphorically, of course — I don’t want to set the office on fire). I’m the bridge between code and dreams, making sure that what we build delights our users and makes their architectural lives easier.

And as I sip my morning coffee, I remind myself: Life is like a backlog — full of tasks, surprises, and an occasional bug. But hey, that’s what keeps it interesting, right?”

What inspired you to pursue a career as a Product Owner?

From the beginning of my work with Scrum framework I was very attracted to the agile methods for work organization. Starting as a QA I was constantly thinking about the ways we could improve our processes. This is something I started implementing once I became a Scrum Master. Since I am an architect by calling, that meant I was naturally on a quest of finding potential software improvements, and Naviate for Revit is an AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) software. Being able to organize work, define clear software requirements, and communicate all this with stakeholders is what attracted me most to the PO role.

But wait, there’s more! From day one at Walter Code, I had the privilege of working alongside a Swedish colleague Bo — the Jedi Master of Product Owners. His work ethic, knowledge, and Jedi-like calmness left a permanent mark on me. He’s my role model — the Yoda to my Luke Skywalker (minus the green skin). Bo taught me that mastering software knowledge, collaborating with stakeholders, staying humble, and constantly learning and improving are the secret ingredients to a successful PO potion.

What do you enjoy most about working as a Product Owner?

In one of his books Daniel Pink defined three factors required for satisfactory work: autonomy, purpose, and mastery.

1. Autonomy — the sweet freedom. How I manage backlog, how I refine stories, and how I communicate with stakeholders, it is all up to me. I feel the autonomy in choosing How I do the work. It is crucial for me to understand What I need to do and Why it needs to be done. With clear What and Why, How provides a lot of space for autonomous work.
2. Purpose. A Product Owner role implies maximizing the value of a developed product. As a Product Owner I aim to make the work of my teammates as easy as possible. Communicating the goal of the product, having well defined and easily understandable PBIs (Product Backlog Items) and prioritizing work that Development Team does, if done well, all lead to a smooth process of fulfilling team’s objectives. Being responsible for PBIs, little puzzle pieces which make up the bigger picture of the product, serves both my teammates and customers and gives me the feeling of purpose.
3. Mastery: The software development is a fast-changing field. Blink, and Revit has updated to .Net 8 framework. Blink again, and AI is writing code. There is a constant need for new learning and adapting. The needs of the market change and so do the software requirements. This demands constant learning and problem solving. If you manage to keep up with this, then you are rewarded with the feeling of mastery.

How do you prioritize features and requirements for a product? Can you tell us how you decide what’s most important to work on?

Now the question about the never-ending quest of Product Backlog management. Prioritizing work to be done is a process that requires delicate balancing of stakeholder’s wishes, team capacity and deadlines. I will try to break down the process of prioritizing into smaller parts.

• Ideas Portal — a place where all the work originates from. Here, anyone can submit and vote for improvements and new feature ideas. I review this regularly with Product Managers. But it is not a popularity contest. Not only top voted ideas are prioritized. Features recognized to bring the most value to the future product are most important. Often these features are not yet foreseen by our customers. This means that to place a successful product, a Product Owner needs to be one step in front of the market.
• The next step is to plan how to develop and test this selection of features. Every three months one batch of features is selected for development and testing for a quarterly release. The capacity of the team plays a big role in prioritization here. This largely influences what gets into scope. If QA resources are low, research and POC are prioritized over work that requires testing.
• After the Product Backlog is built, further prioritizing needs to be done in terms of development start dates. Does feature A need to wait for feature B to be done first? Dependencies linger. It is important to include the Development Team in setting the priorities here. They are the ones creating the increment of work and they should have a say in how they deliver what the Product Owner defined.
• As features are developed, unknowns are discovered, and Product Owner needs to fill in the blanks here. It is very important for the team to be transparent so that irregularities are detected early, and adjustments can be made in time.

In summary, prioritization is not a solo act — it is a symphony. The Product Owner conducts, stakeholders hum along, and the Development Team jams. Hopefully, autonomy, purpose, and mastery also hum in the background. And as the curtain falls on each release, I hope our software leaves the audience — our end users — clapping, cheering, and maybe even doing a little encore dance.

What is your experience with agile methodologies? Can you tell us how you’ve used them in your work?

At the start of my career, I was lucky to join a seasoned Scrum Team. It was easy to catch up with scrum practices and for my beginner eyes there weren’t many evident challenges. The software was delivered on time, no one was complaining.

However, very quickly the team grew, many new people joined. At that time, I had the role of a Scrum Master, and it was my responsibility to make sure everyone in the team understands Scrum framework.

This is when I embarked on a quest for Scrum knowledge which resulted in me obtaining two Professional Scrum Master certificates. This was a eureka moment for me. I understood the meaning of the saying Knowledge is power. Obtaining voluntary education has empowered me and opened my eyes to many benign, but faulty practices in my team and it has given me inspiration for many improvements that were introduced from then on.

Delving into the Scrum guide, I discovered sacred pillars of Scrum. Those are transparency, inspection, and adaptation. These principles are my guiding stars, not only in applying Scrum framework in the workplace, but also in everyday life. In personal life I translate transparency into authenticity, inspection into introspection and adaptation into change. I believe a constant improvement is desirable and possible and with using Scrum framework as a helping tool, this becomes easy.

What do you love the most about your team?

My beautiful Accelerators. The characteristic I respect the most about my team is the ability to self-organize. There are many pre-requisites to self-organization, but the most important one is respect and treating each other as professionals.

I love helping teammates overcome obstacles, but I am the happiest when I plan and define work in such a way that they don’t require me. I love it the most when my teammates overcome obstacles and find ways to remove impediments on their own. Also, if one person finishes work earlier, they usually help others instead of taking on new work, which shows that they are aware of the importance of achieving the agreed common goal rather than getting the extra work in.

What are your favorite after-work activities and hobbies?

As an architect, I am deeply passionate about interior design. That’s why I really love making my living environment as enjoyable as I can. I love spending time at home, making DIY wonders, decorating, redecorating, reorganizing and so on. There are always some home-improvement projects going on at my place. I spend a lot of time attending to my (too big) plant collection, trying to save my last few remaining calatheas from their certain death. But after some time, indoors bore me and then I love leaving the house and spending time outdoors. I enjoy hiking, even in the afternoons after work. I also have a passion for photography. Right now, I am more inspired by taking photos of landscapes than urban environments.

I still collaborate with other architects for whom I do 3D renderings and animations. This takes up a significant amount of my after-work free time, but I do enjoy it immensely. Building a 3D model from 2D drawings and then turning it into a photorealistic rendering is a very satisfactory process.

Since I sit a lot at work, a lot of my free time is devoted to healthy living and exercise. This includes daily gym, swimming, sauna, and meal preparation.

Conclusion

Vedad Orahovac exemplifies dedication, innovation, and leadership in his role as Product Owner at Walter Code. His unique career journey from architecture to product management showcases his adaptability and commitment to excellence. Vedad’s contributions have significantly impacted our organization, and we are excited to see what he accomplishes next. Thank you for joining us in celebrating Vedad’s success and learning more about his inspiring professional path.