About me
I'm a design manager and career coach who is passionate about building effective design organizations and helping UX professionals navigate the challenges of building UX careers.
Being a dad is the best design job ever.
Designer at Heart
I’m a UX design manager, career coach, and proud father of two lovely little "chaos-causers".
Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, I am deeply in love with my intense, diverse hometown with all its grit and mix between small-town vibe and international flair. No wonder I find inspiring UX folk from all over the world all around me. Throughout my career in design and UX, I have been fortunate to connect with some passionate, inspired, and creative peers, many of which have helped me grow and some of which I was able to help develop successful careers along the way.
Even if the saying „the whole is larger than the sum of its parts“ might feel a little dated these days, It holds true for the work we do as designers in UX.
In order to build valuable products and services, we must connect the dots between needs, limitations, and business requirements just as much as we need to connect and collaborate with our peers in product and engineering. Success depends on teams functioning well, above individual excellence.
In my work as a manager, focussing on building strong relationships within the design team as well as with other partners of the organization has always been a high priority. By building trust in each other’s reliability, safe spaces for learning and personal growth, and a culture of collaboration beyond discipline borders, my teams form bonds that often last way beyond our shared time in a company.
While many of the things I do today aren’t strictly hands-on design work any longer, everything remains design-infused, whether it is finding a suitable organizational structure, establishing a new design process, or setting up the perfect growth path for one of my team members, I approach all challenges with a need for understanding before solutions, empathy for different needs and perspectives and excitement for learning in iteration. Should I ever get stuck, after all, it happens to the best of us, I’m not afraid to take a step back, ask uncomfortable questions and give it another try.
Having gone through roughly 20 years in the design industry, with different roles and responsibilities. I found that only some things that glitter are gold and that sometimes reaching your goals is only the first step in uncovering who you need to be next. I no longer strive for the next bigger and better role for myself. My career is founded on my values of connection, belonging, respect, teams, hard work, and passion, and I have come to realize that the most sustainable growth is achieved when you grow together. So I am happy to take on new responsibilities with the needs and maturity of the teams I lead.
Passionate UX Designer
People Focussed Manager
ICF Trained Coach
Community Memberships & Engagements
My Resume
Professional Experience
Helping mid-career UX professionals build impactful UX careers and UX teams become efficient collaborators and effective business units through career mentoring & coaching.
As the director of Design & UX, I scaled the Homedays design team
to a fully-fledged organization that delivers customer-centric design throughout all product areas and builds consistent customer experiences that contribute to business goals.
I was a member of the directors' round and the strategic circle, contributing to the organization's strategic planning and steering.
Brought on as the first dedicated design manager, I took over responsibility for setting up UX design practices aligned with agile development and established product management routines. In collaboration with product management and engineering leadership. We founded a principle of equitable partnership, with each discipline contributing differently but equally important.
Promoted to Creative Director after only two months, I took over responsibilities for the design team. Established a full-fledged UX practice in alignment with agile development practices. Hired and managed all UX/UI designers and external design collaboration.
Joined the leading social media platform for reconnecting classmates in the DACH region as a UX designer responsible for the web experience of members.
Lead UX Designer responsible for diverse clients like the Berliner Fernsehturm, Star FM radio station, and start-ups like Greta & Starks, Quobyte, and Lockbox. My responsibilities stretched from stakeholder management, project management, and UX/UI design to front-end implementation. As the first UX designer, I established early UX practices in the agency's portfolio.
Leading UX Designer for the Berliner Forschungsplattform Gesundheit (health intelligence platform), a joint venture with Charité and Vivantes, two of the largest German healthcare providers. In my role, I was responsible for the user experience of medical practitioners in clinics and clinic trial centers.
Built websites, and marketing solutions, designed corporate identities and corporate communication for SMEs and agency clients in various industries including the commercial real estate sector.
Hired after a successful freelance collaboration, I was employed as an Art Director responsible for web design, corporate identities, and corporate communication for the commercial real estate sector, including large-scale property developers like Hines, BEOS, and Vivico Real Estate.
Built websites, and marketing solutions, designed corporate identities and corporate communication for SMEs and agency clients in various industries.
Co-founder and CEO of a Berlin-based design agency focused on designing corporate identities, marketing, and web design solutions for SMEs.
Education
Coaching Training recognized by the ICF as a comprehensive education to attain the ACC credentialing level.
Lead, motivate and inspire others by rallying around a clear purpose.
Create a culture of innovation by increasing your team’s capacity to
experiment.
Certified Professional for Usability and User Experience: Essential concepts and methods of usability and user experience and their application in practice.
Diploma in New Media Design. Formal design education, focusing on web design, branding, and art direction.