Meet Lazar! A little over a year ago, he joined Symphony, where he currently works as a Service Delivery Manager. Lazar's unique approach inspired us to share his story, as he recently celebrated his tenth anniversary in the industry. The beginning of the story goes back much further than those ten years. As a child, he showed an affinity for both business and IT. Later in life, he embraced all the possibilities and merged those two loves. "That's where I realized I’m on the right track," Lazar started.
Striving for absolute client and team satisfaction
"Last year, I got the opportunity to join Symphony as a Service Delivery Manager, a position that oversees several key functions within the company to enable the delivery of software products. My role includes assisting the Product Manager from the client’s side in defining the product vision – as well as understanding technologies, managing a team, and creating plans and strategies that will bring that vision to life." Lazar began the story.  When asked what inspires him the most at Symphony, he immediately said freedom. "It is this unique form of freedom rooted in the trust received from the leadership and fostered through collaboration with the team and the client that gives me the ability to make decisions and shape and adjust procedures and processes. This is what sets Symphony apart from all the other companies I have worked for. I draw energy and inspiration from various sources, and the freedom and support I get at Symphony are a significant boost to my motivation to work. I often joke with my wife that my job is to be a chameleon, i.e., to change several roles during the day. First and foremost, I am the one who strives to find a balance between all of the stakeholders. And when the situation requires so, I can be a company representative, an expectation manager, a coach, a facilitator, or a diplomat. Literally, I get up in the morning, look at the calendar, pack all my shoes and roles, and off I go. It certainly comes with experience, and I'm aware that Lazar Milovic from six or seven years ago could not do the job I am currently doing. It took a lot of courses and certifications, diverse psychology and product management literature, and new technical learnings to gain that experience. I rely heavily on the intuition that grows stronger as the years go by and experiences pile up. Through my work, I am trying to ensure the people I work with both benefit and bring value at the end of the day. My mission is to engage and guide them on the path of creative work and development. At the end of the day, feeling that everyone on my team has progressed in some sense is what makes that day count. I try to participate as much as possible in everything Symphony has to offer, seeing it as an opportunity to learn and grow.”
It’s all about people!
"During the selection process, I realized how much Symphony cares about people, how important the community is, and how important it is for everyone to fit in. After only five days of work with one of the team leads, I had a feeling I knew him for at least two years," says Lazar and explains that the people at Symphony complement each other and that this makes collaboration easy and fun. What makes Lazar's work exciting? Juggling clients' requests and vision paths, understanding and translating the language of business into the engineers' language, and ensuring that the end-product they build is exactly what the client had in mind. “That being said, the role of a Service Delivery Manager is to be the catalyst for successful product rollouts," explains Lazar.
Draw Knowledge and Ideas From All Sources - Present Things as They Are!
Lazar tries to incorporate transparency and honesty into every aspect of his life. He thinks that things should be presented as they are and believes that exactly such an approach is what brought the whole team and the project to the place where they are with the client. "This leaves us room to experiment and come up with innovative ideas and strategies. Besides, I believe that a positive attitude preserves the team's energy, and we try to incorporate it into every aspect of the work. Lastly, I think my kids are my most demanding clients and team members. I realized that only when you have children can you truly know how strong your intuition is, how good your soft skills are, and how open-minded and ready to adapt you are. My family is the primary source of my energy and inspiration. Learning different things with children can be transferred into neat work methods, and vice versa," ends Lazar with a proud smile on his face.
