Sofascore’s blueprint for a top-of-the-line sports app: The Roadmap podcast

Watch or listen: YouTube // Spotify // Apple

Marijan Zivic is the ex–Chief Product Officer at Sofascore, where he shaped a product used by millions and led the teams behind some of its most impactful features. Now he runs Guiding Wave, where he helps companies apply AI to their product work.

In this episode, he breaks down how Sofascore chooses what to build, how they handle growth, and what he learned about leading product in a fast-moving, high-pressure environment.

What you’ll learn:

• How your product intuition shifts when you move from niche enterprise tools to a platform used by 28+ million sports fans
• How Sofascore sorts through ideas from users, research, and feedback to decide which features move the product toward being the top sports platform
• Why well-built features can still fall short when culture, event volume, or user expectations don’t line up
• How crowdsourcing from local organizers, amateur leagues, and fans became a major growth driver and created coverage competitors can’t match
• How Sofascore manages growing product complexity by avoiding feature creep and focusing on the core features users actually want and expect
• How Sofascore tests new ideas by building the smallest usable version first, and how strong Product Owners and team trust turn that into better features
  

In this episode, we discuss:

(00:00) Introduction to the episode

(02:25) How Sofascore started and why it grew the way it did

(06:00) Marijan’s path to becoming CPO

(08:53) What makes a feature successful at Sofascore

(14:33) What unsuccessful features can teach you

(20:33) Crowdsourcing and building a community around sports

(26:19) How Sofascore uses data to drive long-term growth

(28:57) Handling feature creep as the product gets bigger

(33:34) Using user feedback the right way

(37:40) How Sofascore sets and reaches strategic goals

(42:08) Deciding what works and what doesn’t

(44:38) How they assemble effective product teams

(48:53) Product manager vs. product owner at Sofascore

(54:53) How Sofascore stands out in a crowded market

Where to find Marijan and The Roadmap

Marijan Zivic

• LinkedIn
• Guiding Wave

The Roadmap podcast

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

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