Croat Develops System for All of Amazon in Eight Weeks
Vedran Brozović, Product Manager at Amazon and President of ACAP in Seattle, shared his journey from Cibona junior to key projects at the tech giant on the Cronnect podcast.
Vedran Brozović, Product Manager at Amazon and President of ACAP in Seattle, shared his journey from Cibona junior to key projects at the tech giant on the Cronnect podcast.
Vedran Brozović, a product manager at Amazon, developed a sales forecasting system with his team in just eight weeks, which is now used across the entire company. He shared his journey from the basketball courts of Cibona to Seattle, where he has been building a career at one of the world's largest tech companies for six years, on the Cronnect podcast hosted by Tomislav Tipurić.
In addition to his role as a product manager at Amazon, Brozović serves as the president of the Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP) chapter in Seattle and is the director of this year's milestone tenth ACAP conference. In the conversation, he revealed how discipline, teamwork, and a willingness to take responsibility-qualities he honed in sports-led him to work on projects that impact Amazon's operations.
Before stepping into the world of big tech, Brozović's days began with practice before school, continued with academic obligations, and ended with a return to the gym. He says it was this rhythm that built the habits he now applies in the business world.
"The bulk of the work happens in silence. It always reminds me of the empty Dražen Petrović hall, the sound of the ball, the squeaking of sneakers, and working on yourself when no one is watching," Brozović said on the Cronnect podcast.
After completing his economics studies in Zagreb, his professional path led him to Amazon in Luxembourg and then to Seattle in the United States. Over six years with the company, he has covered finance, business analytics, and tech product management.
As a product manager, Brozović and his team developed a system for Amazon's major sales events. The mechanism projects sales of individual items on an hourly basis, enabling sales, marketing, and supply chain teams to make decisions about inventory, promotions, and local demand almost in real time.
The initiative was delivered in just two months with a limited team and was later rolled out across Amazon. According to Brozović, such feats best illustrate how artificial intelligence has transformed the product development process. Today's product managers no longer need to approach engineering teams with just paperwork and requirements; they can build a working prototype in advance, test the idea, and quickly determine its real value.
Alongside his work at Amazon, Brozović is deeply involved in ACAP, an organization that connects Croatian-American professionals, entrepreneurs, scientists, and students. ACAP currently has around a thousand regular members and a network of over five thousand individuals across the U.S. Among its key projects is the Career Hub, which has so far connected dozens of mentors and experts at various career stages.
The value of this professional community was personally affirmed by podcast host Tomislav Tipurić, who noted that ACAP helped him find lawyers, accounting assistance, first customers, and the connections needed to start a business in New York.
The tenth annual ACAP conference will take place from October 2 to 4, 2026, in Seattle, with between twenty and thirty volunteers working on its organization. The initiative will bring together technology, healthcare, business, sports, arts, and questions of Croatian identity.
Announced keynote speakers include Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure; Hrvoje Benko, an expert with experience at Microsoft Research and Meta Reality Labs; author and speaker Kristina Kuzmič; and others. Frederick Appelbaum, a prominent expert in blood cancer research and therapy. Brozović emphasized that the conference offers participants a rare opportunity for direct contact with professionals who are hard to reach in everyday business environments.
In the closing remarks, Brozović encouraged young people from Croatia not to fear international experience and moving to larger markets. He believes that major careers in technology, finance, and consulting often cannot be achieved without stepping outside Croatian borders, but he does not see leaving as a permanent renunciation of one's homeland.
"I would encourage people to leave Croatia and give it a try, especially while they are young. The experience of working in large international companies is invaluable, and one day it can be brought back to Croatia," Brozović said on the Cronnect podcast.
Such experience, he believes, can provide Croatian companies, startups, and academia with knowledge and perspective that are hard to gain by operating only in a limited market.
