Trainers

Norbert Barnikel is considered by experts to be a man of the early days of digitization and is an evangelist for innovation in Germany. He has been a strategic and operational digital thought leader and advocate for the digital marketing transformation since the 1990s. His digital mindset is made up of science, research, teaching and practice. He passes on this comprehensive know-how on innovative ability and the facets of digital business transformation to companies and organizations in 9 countries and 3 continents as a lecturer. As a speaker at events and international congresses, Norbert Barnikel inspires participants with his combination of a relaxed style of presentation, understandable practical examples and everyday tips.

Björn works as a UX concept developer, user researcher and front-end developer. For him, it is important that the user is always at the centre of the work. Björn prefers to work in multidisciplinary teams so that all necessary perspectives flow into a product. In the past, he has worked with international corporations, family-run businesses, as well as government institutions and small businesses. Björn has been teaching for a long time and has led numerous in-house workshops as well as online courses.

In more than 13 years, Benjamin has gained a wide range of experience in UX conception, service and brand design, e.g. in the scaling phase of an excellent start-up, the successful digital transformation process of a medium-sized company, in a full-service advertising agency and last but not least as a freelancer. In addition to project work in the company, he is also enthusiastic about working for the company: With strategy and vision work, with cultural change and conflict resolution skills.
He is happy to share his knowledge and experience in workshops and seminars.

Luigi is an independent app and software designer, consultant and expert in the field of Digital Transformation. He has been working in the digital and media industry for more than 13 years. After his studies, he worked in the agency environment as a UX designer and was mainly responsible for the conception and design of interactive installations in the retail sector for Nespresso, adidas, Nike & Fossil, among others. Before starting his own business, Luigi worked for several years as a senior UX designer and department head for design and vision in a software company, where he designed smartphone apps and B2B platforms in the fintech, automotive and logistics segments, among others. For some time now, he has also been a lecturer for digital media at the Academy for Communication in Karlsruhe.

Almost 10 years ago, Javier traveled to Barcelona to specialize in mobile design, learning UX for apps since the first versions of iOS and Android. All his experience was put into ‘Designing Mobile Apps’ a book he co-wrote. The repercussions of this project took him to make part of different design events and conferences around the world, such as Colombia 3.0, UX Spain, UX Sofia and different editions of Campus Party. Javier has taught design at ELISAVA and IED, the two most well-known design schools in Barcelona. Besides this, he has held and co-organised design workshops in more than 15 countries around the world, from Brazil to China.

Boris Eckstein studied his skills as information architect and UX/UI concept developer between 1999 and 2005 at Kabel New Media and the BBDO Group. He is also learned Communications Manager (2003), Scrum Product Owner (2011) and SAFe Agilist (2020). Today, as a freelance UX Manager and Product Owner, he supports companies in the implementation of their digital projects. His broad range of experience includes online stores, brand websites, online advertising, eCRM solutions, apps, augmented reality features, digital signage, social networks, B2B software, e-learning, chatbots and AI-based applications. Among them are the winners of several awards.

Dr. Reinhard Ematinger combines tried-and-tested tools from Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY ®, Service Design Thinking, Jobs-to-be-Done and Lean Startup to offer his customers and participants impulses for designing, testing and implementing functioning business models and inspiring customer benefits. In addition to his international assignments as a speaker and consultant, over 100 semesters of teaching assignments at 15 public and private universities in Germany and Austria, several non-fiction books and more than 20 years of corporate experience in IT consulting, business development and corporate universities ensure the relevance and standard of his lectures and workshops.

Christine Fish is a product strategist, agile UX practitioner, and design educator working with global clients to champion co-creation, human-centered design, empathy and conceptual thinking to envision meaningful products that align with business needs.

Christian Fox is an independent UX conceptual designer, who assists companies in designing their digital products. He studied digital media and has been implementing successful relaunch and optimization projects for more than 8 years. Whether portal, shop, intranet or app – the user focus runs through all phases of his projects. Christian’s main areas of expertise are UX research, usability and prototyping.

In his 6-year career, Philipp conceived and designed web applications and mobile apps in the enterprise and EdTech environment. In addition, he was involved in building a design system for an international company and thus gained profound experience in the entire software development process. When designing the user experience, his focus is on simplicity, speed and added value. He achieves this through an optimal workflow, an iterative approach and a high level of technical understanding.

In business and science, Lothar has acquired a broad spectrum of analytical and creative skills with which he helps managers and teams in a wide variety of contexts to develop and implement tailor-made solutions. Already during his Master’s degree in Social and Business Communication, he developed and implemented measures for communication and knowledge transfer in the Hamburg metropolitan region in a multi-stakeholder project on behalf of the German government’s high-tech strategy. In various innovation, design and consulting projects he has worked for clients such as the Otto Group, Volkswagen, SinnerSchrader, 25A0 and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences.

Hanna Hesse creates learning experiences filled with passion and enthusiasm, which revolve around the topics of human centricity with empathy, creativity and the joy of experimenting. In recent years she has taken on the creative role in projects as a service designer in a Berlin agency and has accompanied clients in various industries (e.g. insurance and financial services) in product and service development from the initial idea to the roll-out. As an independent coach and trainer, she combines her project experience with her passion to pass on her knowledge. Her goal is to inspire people with agile methods and innovative ways of working and to help them to fully exploit their own potential as well as that of the company.

Born in Vienna, she has dedicated herself entirely to service and customer enthusiasm since her combined studies in Psychology/BWL and communication sciences. For almost 20 years she has accompanied companies from a wide range of industries on their journey to customer centricity and the development of new services. Well-founded methodologically and with a creative twinkle in her eye, she ignites the spark of enthusiasm for the Touchpoint Management sales playground!

Maria is a passionate experience designer & product strategist from Berlin. Her focus is on the strategic development of digital products based on user-centric methods. After studying human centred design, industrial design and media management in Berlin and Copenhagen, she spent several years abroad where she participated in various projects. Today she works independently as a designer and supports design teams in start-ups and established companies in the development of design systems, agile product development and digital strategies. In her private life, she euphorically develops her own projects and events, which primarily deal with ethical design and technological change.

Since 15 years Niels Meier works within the IT sector and after various positions in E-Commerce and medical engineering he now supports companies as a freelance consultant and designer. As a facilitator for UX he sets people’s needs is in the center of his attention.

Maksim is a passionate Service Design & UX expert with a strategic mindset. He enjoys creating innovative, visionary yetsustainable user experiences. He works with corporations, agencies and startups and create B2C as well as B2Bsolutions.

Sebastian has been designing and creating mobile apps and responsive websites for more than 9 years. His career to date has been shaped by various medium-sized and internationally operating companies under various team constellations, which gives him a broad insight into processes, challenges and working methods. For him, the implementation of a positive user experience and a good UI design always comes first. In order to achieve this, an optimal workflow, the effective use of design software and design implementations with closeness to the code are particularly important to him.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he majored in Graphic Design, Damian Martone has been working as a UX Designer for over 10 years, as well as teaching in the University of Buenos Aires for four. In 2014 he moved to Berlin, Germany to start working for Kayak.com and since then he’s been involved with multiple companies and startups. Almost two years ago, he founded Rigma.io, a product foundry which specializes on MVP development and tech consulting, having worked with clients like Lufthansa, Coup and HelloFresh.

Katrin Mathis has been designing digital solutions with more value for more than 13 years. With a BSc in online media and an MBA in Service Innovation & Design, she brings the optimal combination of skills to support organizations in their digital transformation. With forward-looking methods, it helps to interlink internal processes in such a way that customers and employees have good experiences. She lives in Freiburg.

Bibiana Meya is a freelance user experience consultant.
She supports companies to integrate UX into their business strategy, to understand what people want and why they want it. From this, she develops products that accompany the stories of her users and make a brand perceptible in every interaction.

Joe guides teams, companies and organizations in the development of innovative products and services. He takes experience from the private sector, the academic world, from research and start-ups, and uses methods from Design Thinking and Agile to lead teams to their goals in a creative, efficient and user-centered manner. Born in Ireland, Joe studied Industrial Design, Transportation Design and Design Thinking in Germany and Spain. Prior to becoming a freelance design consultant, Joe founded a startup, co-developed the BioThinking Program at the Charité and expanded and led MEDS Workshop as its international director for 3 years.

There would be no digitalization without people. But far too often digital technologies are used without factoring the human. The result? Stress, loss of motivation, frustration, miscommunication or even critical situations. Lea Rabe has been working with this gap since 2015. In her workshops she combines the scientific insights of her masters degree in “Human factors and Human machine interaction” with very practical examples and exercises. It teaches how to find the right target group, how to find out their needs and how to design user-centered products.

Steffen Schilb ist freier UX Designer, Trainer und Mentor (CareerFoundy) mit mehr als 10 Jahren Erfahrung in der Gestaltung interaktiver Systeme und Services. Sein besonderes Interesse gilt dem methodischen Einsatz von unterstützender Software im UX Research und Design Prozess.

Every successful brand manages to create moments of enthusiasm in which the customer feels why a product or service is worth their time and money. In a market that is constantly saturated with new offers, strategic design decisions are the decisive step to success. Would you like to inspire your customers and interact with them in a more targeted manner? Then you have to get to know and understand your target group better! How they tick, what moves them and more importantly, what do they need? I would like to enable you methodically to develop knowledge about your target group, to systematize them for your business and to translate them into viable, target-oriented solutions. Products and services that add value to both sides – business and customer. As a strategy designer with expertise in service design, customer research and design management I work at the gap between strategic thinking and creative action. In 12 years of professional experience I have been active in various roles in the creation process. I am particularly enthusiastic about working with different people and mindsets.

Irina Schmitt is an art historic and designer, teaching design and systematic communications. She is currently living and working in both St. Petersburg and Cologne.

Stefan Schmitt is experienced designer, consultant, trainer and speaker with more than 15 years experience in analyzing, planning, developing and designing websites, web portals, e-commerce solutions, marketing tools, software, mobile apps and social media applications.

For her daily work, Ulrike uses her knowledge and experience from over 10 years of digital strategy and design thinking as well as her skills as a systemic coach and yoga teacher. She supports colleagues and teams every day with new impulses and creative input and thus creates inspiring processes, products and trainings. With the firm conviction that innovations can only be created in an appreciative, collaborative and positive environment at the interface of people, technology and business, she embarks on a journey of discovery and creates spaces in which digital transformation can grow and valuable learning experiences can emerge.

Dinko Verzi is a freelancing digital designer, consultant and developer. He is conceptualizing, designing and developing digital products such as websites, apps and web applications for the last 15 years. He focuses on the combination of design and development as well as on prototyping.

Yanna is an international design consultant with more than 10 years of professional practice in user experience and service design, and a strong focus on customer research. She guides and supports teams in large organizations and start-ups in their innovation journey. Yanna specializes in the early stages of product or service development, designing experience concepts and validating their value proposition with target customers. She applies a range of design research methodologies to map customer needs and deliver valuable insights and strategic direction for the business.

Shahira works as a freelance art director and lecturer and gives workshops on brainstorming, design basics and all aspects of branding. She has over 20 years of agency experience, including living and working in New York. For 10 years, she was senior art director at Jung von Matt, where she looked after national and international clients such as Mercedes-Benz, for whom she accompanied a launch into the Chinese market in Beijing, among other things. After Jung von Matt, she headed the marketing department of a company before setting up her own business.

As a trainer and consultant, Anna is particularly interested in bringing people into action and thereby initiating learning processes and making further development possible. Her passion is Active Learning. With the help of interactive tools she also conceives creative processes and supports her participants to change their perspective, to make new experiences and to create new ideas. “The success of a training is shaped together with the participants and adapted to their individual practice.“ Based on this she conducts both trainer coaching and advanced trainings them as workshop coach.

Erik is a strategic designer with many years of experience as a freelancer, in agencies and on the corporate side. Innovation and research projects in Japan, China, USA, Uganda and in Europe. Among others for Deutsche Telekom, Bosch, B/S/H, BMW, Deutsche Bank and Samsung. Erik lived in Japan for several years where he researched technology and design culture and led service design projects. 

Dominique Winter supports companies such as Rewe Digital or Obi Next in developing exciting digital products using methods from agile coaching, UX management, and competence-oriented organizational development. His practical experience is complemented by many years of research, thus combining theory and practice to create a successful mix.

As a freelancing content strategist and certified scrum master Babak provides help towards self-help and supports companies in developing and implement a documented content strategy.

He also works as a lecturer at the Rheinische Fachhochschule Cologne and teaches there with emphasis on creative leadership and content strategy. As a blogger he writes about topics such as content strategy, agile management and creative leadership on www.babak-zand.de