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
Result
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 UX 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 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 future mobility ecosystems.
To ground abstract futures in human experience, we developed future user archetypes that served as reference points to create user journeys and strategic discussions.
→ 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.
→ UX 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
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
Financial Data Strategy & Visualization Platform
Context
Intesa Sanpaolo required a more effective way to visualize and share financial performance data. Existing reporting formats were static and fragmented, making it difficult to:
- share insights efficiently during meetings
- interpret data in real time
- compare performance across multiple dimensions
The goal was to design an interactive, shareable dashboard that would provide a real-time overview of financial performance and support data-driven discussions.
Due to confidentiality, no data or internal visuals are shown.
Approach
As Senior Service Design Consultant, I led the design process with a focus on stakeholder alignment, structured UX development, and capability building.
→ Alignment & scoping
I worked closely with stakeholders to define:
- business requirements and KPIs
- user needs across different roles
- technical constraints (Power BI, tablet usage)
This phase ensured a shared understanding of scope and success criteria.
The dashboards ecosystem.
→ UX framework & roadmap
I structured the project using a clear UX framework, covering:
- AS-IS analysis to understand current reporting practices
- Strategy & scope definition linking business and user needs
- Information architecture and wireframing to define dashboard structure
- Prototyping and visual design to enable interaction and usability
Each phase was delivered as a validated “UX chapter,” ensuring continuous alignment with the client team.
Source: JESSE JAMES GARRET, The Elements of User Experience
→ Interaction & visualizazion design
The dashboard was designed to support:
- KPI monitoring and segmentation
- multi-level drill-down into data
- filtering by country, time, and data type
- comparison against the budget and the previous year
- weekly trend analysis
The focus was on creating intuitive, interactive visualizations that support real-time interpretation and decision-making.
Draft of the information architecture.
→ Capability transfer
Alongside delivery, I facilitated knowledge transfer to the internal team, enabling the Project Owner to independently extend and scale the dashboard ecosystem.
Result
The project delivered:
- a structured dashboard ecosystem tailored to different user needs
- an interactive prototype built for real-time data exploration
- a validated UX framework and design system for future development
The solution translated complex financial data into clear, navigable, and actionable insights.
Outcome
The dashboard enabled the organization to:
- improve data accessibility and shareability in internal meetings
- support real-time interpretation and faster decision-making
- align stakeholders around a single source of truth
Beyond the tool itself, the project established a scalable foundation for data visualization, enabling internal teams to expand and evolve the dashboard ecosystem over time.
Cover image credit: Carlos Muza @unsplash
Milan, 2019 - THINGS
Privacy Control for Connected Devices
B-SMART - Human-Centered Data Transparency
Context
B-SMART, a research-funded initiative, explored how to improve privacy control and data transparency in ecosystems of connected devices.
As connected products expand across domains such as smart mobility, smart homes, retail, and wellness, users face increasing difficulty in understanding:
- what data is collected
- how it is used
- who has access to it
At the same time, regulations such as GDPR require organizations to adopt privacy-by-design principles, integrating data protection into products and services from the outset.
The project aimed to develop a Proof of Concept (PoC) for a user-centered approach to privacy, making data practices clear, accessible, and actionable across touchpoints.
Approach
As Service Designer, I contributed to the end-to-end process, combining research, sensemaking, and co-creation to translate regulatory and technical complexity into user-centered solutions.
→ Research & insight generation
I conducted exploratory research on privacy and GDPR, complemented by:
- qualitative interviews to understand user behaviors, concerns, and expectations
- a validation survey to test emerging insights
This work highlighted key challenges, including low awareness, lack of transparency, and the complexity of managing data across multiple actors and contexts.
Survey results.
→ Ecosystem & journey mapping
Based on research findings, I contributed to mapping user journeys and service ecosystems across multiple industries.
This helped frame privacy not as a single interaction, but as a distributed experience across devices, services, and stakeholders.
→ Co-creation & concept exploration
We facilitated a series of international workshops with participants across Europe to:
- validate research insights
- reframe challenges into opportunity areas
- generate solution concepts collaboratively
Outputs were synthesized into structured concept directions, identifying recurring patterns and potential features.
Peer review in order to incorporate multiple perspectives and reduce risk of confirmation biases.
→ Concept development & prototyping
From these directions, we defined and refined concept briefs, translating insights into tangible solutions.
Selected concepts were further developed into prototypes, culminating in a Proof of Concept demonstrating how privacy information and controls could be integrated into user experiences in a clear and consistent way.
Result
The project delivered:
- a set of validated user insights and privacy principles
- mapped ecosystems and journeys across key industries
- multiple concept directions addressing data transparency and control
- a Proof of Concept prototype illustrating a human-centered approach to privacy
The work translated complex regulatory and technical requirements into concrete, user-oriented design solutions.
Outcome
The project demonstrated how privacy-by-design can be operationalized across connected ecosystems.
It provided:
- a user-centered framework for approaching data transparency and control
- validated concepts for improving clarity, trust, and user agency
- a foundation for future development of privacy-aware products and services
More broadly, the work contributed to shifting privacy from a compliance requirement to a design opportunity, enabling organizations to build more transparent and trustworthy user experiences.
Cover image credit: Matthew Henry