The story
From spray cans to product systems.
Most product leaders start in business analysis or engineering. Nenad Ivanovic started in public visual culture — graffiti, design, film, and community — then carried that same instinct into digital identity and, eventually, into leading growth and AI-native product for a healthcare technology company. Every stage combined creativity, technology, organization, and measurable impact. This is how the pieces connect.
- From
- Zaječar → Belgrade → Salt Lake City
- Disciplines
- Graffiti · Design · Identity · Film · Product
- Now
- VP of Product, Nursa
Six chapters, one instinct.
01
From 2004 — Zaječar & Belgrade
Graffiti & visual culture
It started in the streets of Zaječar, Serbia — spray cans, aliases (Shotri and Mons), and a subculture that ran on graffiti, snowboarding, music, and events. Nenad wasn't just painting; he was organizing scenes: artistic and executive director of KZS Tresh Seshn, an early MTV TV commercial, and the visual identity for the East Fort music festival.
Public visual culture taught him the fundamentals he still uses — how to make something legible at a glance, how to build a crowd, and how to ship work that lives out in the world, not behind glass.
- Graffiti
- Event production
- Brand identity
- Community
02
2010 — 2011 — International festivals
Film & storytelling
That creative circle became a film. Nenad was part of the creative team and acting ensemble of Tilva Roš, which won Best Feature Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, premiered at Locarno, and travelled to 20+ international festivals — Rotterdam, Warsaw, Thessaloniki, Miami, Buenos Aires, San Francisco — earning a European Film Academy Prix FIPRESCI nomination for European Discovery.
Filmmaking sharpened a product skill in disguise: how to hold an audience's attention, structure a narrative, and coordinate a lot of people toward one finished thing on a deadline.
- Film
- Storytelling
- Sarajevo Best Feature
- Locarno
03
2013 — Present — Belgrade & beyond
Design craft & recognition
He trained at the College of Fine and Applied Arts in Belgrade, earning a state-funded place and scholarship on merit, and turned creative instinct into a discipline. Across web, mobile, identity systems, and complex app workflows, his work contributed to 20+ web design awards — recognized for both visual quality and effectiveness.
At AlsterCloud he led a full UI/UX team building web, mobile, wearable, and Apple TV products, plus the company's visual identity. He joined Toptal's top-3% global network and began treating design as a business capability: understandability, alignment, trust, and action — the natural bridge into product.
- UI/UX
- Design systems
- 20+ awards
- Toptal top 3%
04
2015 — 2022 — Sweden
Digital identity & trust
As design lead for Verisec / Freja eID, Nenad helped translate security, regulation, and authentication into experiences people could actually trust — work connected to Sweden's first mobile-based electronic identity for a government use case, at assurance levels requiring regulatory and certification review.
Collaborating with backend, security, legal, and external authorities under GDPR and eIDAS shaped his core framework: security UX isn't only about making systems safe — it's about making people feel safe. Sometimes friction is a feature, when people understand why it's there.
- Freja eID
- Sweden's first mobile e-ID
- GDPR & eIDAS
- Security UX
05
2013 — Present — Belgrade & the region
Community & education
Alongside the client work, he built the scene he wished he'd had. He helped organize 10+ Belgrade Behance portfolio reviews — one drew 1,000+ participants, among the largest of its kind globally — and led the group that brought Adobe 99U Local to Belgrade, one of only 28 cities worldwide. In 2013 he founded Lege Artists, a nonprofit connecting creatives across Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Hungary, and Slovenia.
He also taught: a certified 8-week UX/UI course at SAE Institute, judging at BEST Design Week, and speaking at UX Belgrade, Voxxed Days, and Adobe's 'Creatives vs. Tools' panel. Developing other people became part of how he works.
- Behance 1,000+
- 99U Local Belgrade
- Lege Artists
- SAE Institute
06
2018 — Present — Nursa
Product leadership & AI
Every thread came together at Nursa, a healthcare staffing marketplace where Nenad was one of the first hires — first as founding designer, now as VP of Product. He led the migration of ~40,000 pages to Webflow in 19 days, scaled the platform toward ~100,000 pages, and drove roughly 10x organic growth in year one (one key section grew ~35x) on a site that got 70%+ faster.
Today he leads Nursa's shift to AI-native product development — the throughline of his work now. He built Nursa Study, a net-new product line, from prototype to paying enterprise customers in a single weekend, sparking a company-wide change: 200+ employees building with AI, the seven-year core platform rebuilt ~12x faster, and roughly ten SaaS tools retired. He has keynoted at Webflow Conf on exactly this future.
- VP of Product
- 40k pages / 19 days
- AI-native
- Webflow Conf keynote
Sarajevo
Best Feature Film — Tilva Roš, premiered at Locarno
Webflow Conf
Opening keynote participant, Chicago
1,000+
Attendees at a single Behance review he organized
99U Local
Brought to Belgrade — 1 of only 28 cities worldwide
20+
Web design awards across projects
Top 3%
Toptal global freelance network
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