Berlin, 2023 - colorfy
Mann+Hummel — Sustainability & Service Innovation
From regulation to service-led value creation
Context
Mann+Hummel wanted to explore the business implications of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)—both for the company itself and for its customers.
The directive introduces new requirements for how organizations measure, report, and improve their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. For Mann+Hummel, this raised a strategic question:
How might the company support its customers in improving their ESG performance by leveraging its expertise in water and air filtration - beyond selling products alone?
The project aimed to investigate whether regulatory pressure could be reframed as an opportunity for service-led, sustainability-driven business models.
The project is covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). No confidential data or internal materials are shown.
Approach
As Principal Service Designer, I focused on framing the service challenge, designing the exploration process, and structuring a roadmap that connected sustainability goals with business and service opportunities. My work combined research, strategic sensemaking, and co-creation:
→ Research & analysis
I investigated Mann+Hummel’s customer landscape, product portfolio, and market segments to understand:
- current sustainability and ESG practices
- existing CSR frameworks and reporting challenges
- customer priorities related to water and air quality management
This research helped identify where filtration expertise intersected with emerging ESG needs.
→ Value proposition development
Based on research insights, I articulated and iteratively refined a service-oriented value proposition.
This work focused on clarifying:
- who the service would create value for
- which ESG challenges it could credibly address
- how Mann+Hummel’s capabilities could be extended beyond products
The value proposition was reviewed and validated with the client throughout the project.
→ Stakeholder alignment
I worked closely with internal stakeholders, sustainability experts, and industry partners to:
- gather diverse perspectives
- test assumptions
- identify collaboration and innovation opportunities across the ecosystem
→ Co-creation & ideation
I designed and facilitated a series of co-creation workshops with key stakeholders.
These sessions enabled joint exploration of:
- service-based business models
- sustainability-driven value creation
- alignment between customer needs and Mann+Hummel’s strategic objectives
The project resulted in a new product–service business concept built on top of Mann+Hummel’s existing water and air filtration technologies.
Rather than focusing on a single product, the concept reframes filtration as part of a broader service offering supporting customers in addressing ESG and CSRD-related challenges.
Key outputs included:
- a validated service value proposition
- a coherent business model narrative
- a structured roadmap for internal development and testing
Outcome
The concept progressed into the next internal incubation phase within Mann+Hummel.
Beyond the specific business idea, the project helped:
- shift the conversation from compliance to strategic sustainability value
- align stakeholders around a shared understanding of ESG-driven service opportunities
- demonstrate how regulatory frameworks like CSRD can inform future-facing, service-led innovation
The work contributed to Mann+Hummel’s broader ambition to expand its role in sustainability—from product supplier to long-term partner in environmental and social impact.
Berlin, 2021-22 - Edenspiekermann
Volkswagen — Strategic Foresight & Future Experience Vision
Context
Volkswagen set out to strengthen its long-term planning and decision-making by exploring the future of mobility at a systemic level. Facing rapid technological change, shifting societal expectations, and increasing environmental constraints, the organization needed a way to look beyond incremental innovation and ask a broader strategic question:
What could mobility look like in 2050 - and how can that understanding inform decisions made today?
The project aimed to translate long-term foresight into a shared vision and actionable UX direction, supporting alignment across strategy, design, and innovation teams.
The project is covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). No confidential data or internal materials are shown.
Approach
As Senior Design Strategist, I focused on applying strategic foresight to a concrete business context and ensuring that long-term exploration resulted in usable, decision-oriented outputs. My contribution spanned trend and ethnographic research, and vision translation:
→ Research & sensemaking
I supported and synthesized trend, ethnographic, and systems research across mobility, urbanism, sustainability, technology, ethics, and consumer behavior.
This work helped frame key forces of change using a STEEPLE perspective, identifying uncertainties and long-term drivers shaping future mobility ecosystems.
To ground abstract futures in human experience, we developed future user archetypes that served as reference points for experience design and strategic discussion.
→ Scenario planning & backcasting
I contributed to the development of future mobility scenarios, exploring alternative trajectories toward 2050 and identifying a preferred future aligned with Volkswagen’s strategic ambition.
Through backcasting, these long-term scenarios were connected to near- and mid-term implications, helping teams reason about what actions would be required over time.
→ Vision & concept development
Building on the scenarios, I played a central role in shaping a future UX vision looking 20–30 years ahead. This included defining future UX principles to guide design decisions and developing future experience journeys that illustrated how mobility could be experienced in both near and far futures.
Result
The project resulted in a coherent future UX roadmap that translated foresight into concrete strategic assets. Key outputs included:
- a shared vision for future mobility experiences
- future UX principles to guide long-term design decisions
- experience journeys illustrating implications across time horizons
- identified opportunity areas with potential to become game changers
These artifacts enabled teams to reason about the future in a structured and human-centered way, rather than relying on abstract trends alone.
Outcome
The UX roadmap supported Volkswagen in:
- aligning stakeholders around a long-term mobility vision
- strengthening strategic conversations across design, innovation, and planning
- connecting future exploration to present-day decision-making
Beyond the immediate outputs, the project demonstrated how foresight can be operationalized - not as speculation, but as a tool to inform strategy, guide UX direction, and support organizational alignment in the face of uncertainty.
Milan, 2021 - THINGS
THINGS × BVA Doxa — Data-Driven Service Innovation
Context
THINGS and BVA Doxa set out to explore a new partnership at the intersection of design-driven innovation and customer experience research. The ambition was to introduce fresh value into the market by combining:
- THINGS’ product- and service-led design approach, and
- BVA Doxa’s expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and ethnographic research
The central challenge was not simply to collaborate, but to define a shared value proposition and repeatable offering that could translate research insight into tangible, market-relevant innovation. At the beginning of 2020 - just before the pandemic - the partners initiated a series of workshops to align perspectives, capabilities, and strategic intent.
Approach
As Senior Service Designer, I designed and facilitated the co-creation process that led to a shared innovation framework and service offering. My role focused on structuring cross-disciplinary collaboration, enabling sensemaking, and turning insights into a concrete, client-ready proposition.
→ Value proposition co-creation
I orchestrated and facilitated a series of workshops involving THINGS and key BVA Doxa stakeholders, including marketing leadership and quantitative and qualitative research teams. The workshops were designed to:
- surface complementary strengths and overlaps
- align on a common view of innovation and value creation
- articulate a shared narrative grounded in human behavior and data
This process resulted in a joint value proposition centered on a data-driven, human-centered approach to innovation - transforming research insights into desirable experiences with measurable market impact.
→ Framework & offering design
Building on the shared value proposition, I supported the definition of a structured innovation framework and the design of a modular service offering. The resulting framework combined:
- research and trend analysis
- scenario building and sensemaking
- co-creation and concept development
This was translated into two complementary service formats under the Innovation Boost offering:
- Panoramic Workshops, providing a broad, strategic view on innovation across industries and themes
- Immersive Workshops, tailored to specific organizational challenges and innovation goals
Image (below): workshop design
Result
The project resulted in:
- a shared, articulated value proposition for the THINGS × BVA Doxa partnership
- a repeatable innovation framework bridging research and design
- a market-ready service offering structured as Innovation Boost
The framework was designed to be adaptable across industries while maintaining a consistent methodology and quality standard.
Outcome
The partnership was officially launched in the summer of 2020.
The Innovation Boost framework was subsequently applied in collaboration with BVA Doxa clients, including Edenred and Europ Assistance, across domains such as:
- sustainability
- mobility
- home & family
- health services
Through pilot engagements, the framework was validated as a tool to:
- align stakeholders around innovation opportunities
- translate research insight into actionable service concepts
- support clients in navigating complexity and making informed strategic decisions
Beyond individual projects, the work helped establish a shared way of working between design and research disciplines - demonstrating how data-driven insight and service design can reinforce each other to create meaningful, market-relevant innovation.
Milan, 2020 - THINGS
Brief
Designing an interactive report that visualizes and manages financial data for analysis purposes within the financial sector.
*Data cannot be displayed, so the process is explained instead.
Context
The Planning and Control Department at Intesa Sanpaolo Banking Group required a digital tool that is easy to share during internal meetings. The objective was to have a real-time interactive overview and report for visualizing and monitoring corporate data.
Role
Senior Service Design Consultant
Internal Dashboard
My primary role revolved around managing and ensuring alignment among all stakeholders throughout the dashboard design process. Additionally, I was tasked with facilitating knowledge transfer regarding the design approach and methodologies employed, empowering the internal Project Owner to expand the dashboard ecosystem.
Picture: the dashboards ecosystem
Expected Benefits of Going Digital:
- Providing an easily shareable tool for monitoring financial performance.
- Offering real-time support in interpreting data, analyzing trends, and facilitating decision-making.
- Creating intuitive and interactive visualizations of various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their levels of segmentation.
- Tailoring different dashboards and views to meet the needs of various user groups.
Project Roadmap, and UX Chapters
During the kick-off of the project I shared with the stakeholder the project roadmap and the activity plan. I introduced the design process - the UX framework - presenting in details each step and identifying the expected outcomes:
At the project kickoff, I presented the stakeholders with the project roadmap and activity plan. I introduced the design process, outlining the UX framework and detailing each step, along with the anticipated outcomes:
︎ AS-IS Analysis
︎ Strategy & Scope
Mapping Business Requirements
Identifying Users’ needs
Outlining Technical Requirements & Constraints
Conducting Desk research
Referring to Data visualization Handbook
︎ Structure & Skeleton
Information Architecture (IA) & Wireframing
Exploring Templates
Selecting Charts
Developing an Interactive Prototype
︎ Surface
Creating a Visual Library of Elements
Establishing a Visual Style guide
The delivery comprised a series of UX chapters presented in a presentation format. Each chapter underwent validation by the client's design team before being shared with the Project Owner. The final delivery included a presentation and an interactive prototype.
Source: JESSE JAMES GARRET, The Elements of User ExperienceTechnical requirements
Data visualization tool: Microsoft Power BI
Device: tablet
Image: Highlights from desk research
Image: first draft of the information architecture
Dashboard Structure
The dashboard structure was designed to fulfill the following business requirements (BR):
BR1 - Visualization of operational KPIs
BR2 - Visualization of KPIs segmentation
BR3 - Drill down into segments (2 levels of data)
BR4 - Filtering KPIs by type of data, countries and date
BR5 - Comparison of all KPIs against Budget (both absolute and percentage) and against Previous Year (both absolute and percentage)
BR6 - Weekly trend snapshot
Cover image credit: Carlos Muza @unsplash
Milan, 2019 - THINGS
Brief
Development of a Proof of Concept (PoC) for establishing privacy controls on connected objects, aiming for an easily understandable and comprehensive user experience across all touchpoints within the ecosystem.
Role
Service Designer
User Research
B-smart, a research-funded project, is dedicated to adopting a human-centric approach to privacy control and data transparency in relation to connected objects.
The research project primarily focuses on the following industries: Smart Mobility, Smart City, Smart Home, Wellness, Retail.
1 -Secondary research
I initiated exploratory desk research on the topic of Privacy, with a specific emphasis on GDPR: understanding its functioning, data protection principles, and the challenges it poses for both companies and users. I sought inspiration, benchmarks, and consulted academic papers, articles, and reports on data transparency.
Privacy by design, a crucial regulatory requirement under GDPR, mandates that brands integrate data protection principles into the design of any new product or activity.
2 -Primary research
Concurrently, the project team opted to recruit a convenience sample of participants from our personal and professional networks, outlining two research approaches:
︎ Remote interviews: Conducted with at least 10 individuals, aimed at grasping consumers' current behaviors, concerns, needs, and sentiments. The questions revolved around process understanding, clarity of explanation, expected time frames, and frustrations..
︎ Validation survey: Designed to gather feedback based on the insights derived from the interviews.
Image: survey resultsInsight Generation
Collaborating with the project team, I derived six key insights:
- Awareness as the initial step.
- Rapid flow of data.
- Involvement of unknown parties.
- Fair value exchange.
- Different moments have different prices
- Complexity in navigating the topic.
Image: peer review in order to incorporate multiple perspectives and reduce risk of confirmation biases.Scenarios
Working with the project team, I formulated five scenarios considering:
- What: The nature of collected data
- Why: The purpose behind data collection.
- How: Methods employed by devices to manage data collection.
Highlights, and Concerns.
User Journey and Ecosystem Mapping
Based on the findings of the discovery phase, we were able to illustrate high-level customer journeys and ecosystem maps for each industry considered in the research: Smart Mobility, Smart City, Smart Home, Wellness, and Retail.
Co-Creation Workshops
THINGS organized a series of workshops across Europe in Milan, Prague, Ghent, and Norrköping. We presented the outcomes of our research phase and then encouraged participants to collaborate in generating potential solutions based on our key findings.
4 Workshops | 10 participants | 3 facilitators
Workshop’s Agenda:
- Introduction
- Presentation of the research outcomes
- Presentation and validation of B-smart insights
- Design challenges: How-Might-We
- Collective & Individual brainstorming sessions
- Concept sharing & Feedback
Concept Development
Upon returning to the office, I organized the workshop outcomes by identifying recurring patterns and categorizing them into:
- Wall of ideas [magenta]
- Wall of features [blue]
From this we derived six Concept-Briefs. The subsequent step involved engaging a class of design students to further develop these concepts and create prototypes.
Example: Concept-Brief, based on Insights #1 #6
What: Developing an augmented label that serves for both spaces and devices, clearly communicating data collection, usage, transparency, and security.
Why: The absence of standardized privacy protocols leads to risks.
The most promising concepts were refined, and prototypes were implemented to design the final Proof of Concept (PoC).
Cover image credit: Matthew Henry