Martin Gude
Strategic Catalyst for Digital Products
Profile
My name is Martin Gude. I am an Experience Strategist, Product Manager, and Agile Enthusiast. I help people and teams to generate exciting ideas and turning them real.
I have a focus in design strategy, using tools like personas, scenarios, customer journeys, business model and value proposition canvas to create a product vision. I design and facilitate workshops mostly using the Liberating Structures toolbox. After that, I take the results as an input into delivery where I would write user stories from a customer and experience perspective. I am a Professional Scrum Product Owner and Professional Scrum Master.
With my strategic way of thinking and my work experience in product and program management, I bring a mix of design and content-related work with project management and customer service.
Professional Experience
since Dec. 2017
Freelancer
Senior User Experience Consultant
Working as a freelance senior user experience consultant I supported my clients to foster digital transformation. I helped to introduce agile methodologies laying out the foundations that would make further project growth possible. I also conducted strategic research and helped my clients to generate knowledge about digital transformation.
Customers
- Japan Tobacco International (via Blitzen, Berlin)
- innogy
Jan. 2020 – Sep. 2020
Senior User Experience Designer
Experience One is a digital agency with a strong focus on Customer Experience and digital platforms. With roots in the automotive industry, they follow a customer centred approach to solve their problems.
My personal focus was understanding and modelling user needs in order to lay the foundation for product development. This ranged from designing and facilitating workshops to conducting user research and creating strategic atifacts like personas.
Customers
- smart
- Mercedes-Benz Vans
- AOK Bundesverband
- KIA Europe
Oct. 2018 – Feb 2019
Senior Consultant
CGI is a leading IT consultancy. I was responsible for the employer marketing of the automotive cluster. I conducted strategic research which then translated into marketing material. I was also responsible to mentor junior colleagues to help them in their projects and career path
Tasks
- Cluster Marketing
- Mentoring Junior Colleagues
June 2016 – Nov. 2017
Senior User Experience Consultant
MRM//McCann is the digital unit of the advertising agency group McCann. During my work at the Frankfurt office, I specialized in user experience strategy for a large retail client.
I bridged the gap between the strategy and the user experience architecture units. My work ranged from strategic research translating user needs into requirements to writing user stories and creating wireframes. Furthermore, I was responsible to raise the User Experience voice in the scrum team and to drive decisions from that perspective.
Customers
- ALDI Nord
Oct. 2011 – May 2016
Freelancer
Senior User Experience Consultant
Working as a freelance senior user experience consultant I mainly focused on user experience design, information architecture and concept design, as well as strategic consulting.
The main target platforms of my work included desktop applications, mobile applications and web applications. I also did social media consulting and marketing communication.
I have worked for Fortune 500 companies like Deutsche Telekom and Daimler and for small companies like the game publisher Red 5 Studios.
Customers
- Deutsche Telekom
- Daimler
- Direct Line Versicherung
- Red 5 Studios
- Congstar – Deutsche Telekom Group
- n-tv – RTL Group
May 2014 – June 2015
Chief Experience Officer & Head of Product
PR Germany is the in-house agency of the glass fittings company KL-megla. I was responsible for strategic planning and development of the group’s software products.
My main focus there was to setup a team that creates a new software product (TEYIA) that helps glaziers to plan, create and leverage glass installations. As a Head of Product, it was my responsibility to translate customer needs into product requirements, user stories and epics. Furthermore, I steered the development of the product.
I was also involved in business development aspects like forecasting and staffing to setup a new company, which would then produce TEYIA.
Tasks
- TEYIA – a glass construction software
- Setup a new team for the development of TEYIA
- Develop early concepts of the software and envision a MVP
- Manage the requirements in a Scrum process
Mar. 2013 – Oct. 2013
Senior Information Architect
SapientNitro is one the world’s leading agencies. Its Cologne based studio specialises in mobile projects for large clients.
During my work there, I integrated and extended the interactive experience of our clients to mobile platforms. This ranged from laying out strategic basics to creating fine specifications and interactive prototypes.
Customers
- REWE Supermarket
- Aegean Airlines
- Lufthansa German Airlines
- Miles & More (Lufthansa Group)
- AUDI
May 2008 – Sep. 2011
Consultant and Concept Designer
In my work at nexum – a digital agency and consultancy based in Cologne (Germany) – as a consultant and concept designer I specialised in user experience design for web applications. My most important project was the website relaunch for the biggest Swiss retailer Coop. I was responsible for the overall conceptual design and the interaction design of most web applications.
I was part of the editorial team that launched ux·zentrisch – one of the leading German user experience blogs at the time.
Customers
- Coop (Switzerland)
- REWE Supermarket and REWE Group
- Telefónica O2 Germany
- Soennecken
- Hertha BSC Berlin
- Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League)
Dec. 2003 – Feb. 2010
Freelancer
Concept Designer and Webdeveloper
Whilst studying media informatics, I started to work as a freelance concept designer and web developer. Starting with smaller local clients, I worked later on for my upcoming employer nexum. After being permanently employed by nexum, I reduced my freelance projects to a minimum.
The main target platforms of my work included desktop applications, mobile applications and web applications. I also did social media consulting and marketing communication.
In most of my projects, I was responsible for the whole development process starting with user experience design, information architecture and interface design heading over to html implementation and CMS development.
Customers
- Samsung Electronics
- KL®megla
- FDP and Junge Liberale Oberberg
- Junge Union Oberberg
- nexum
- Agentur Lichtblick
- Agentur BO-TE
Jan. 2007 – Nov. 2007
Graduand: Consulting and Concept Design
I worked at Pixelpark as a graduand in the consulting and conceptual design department. I mainly worked within the European Union Information Society Technologies research project »LIVE – staging of Media Events«. I designed and developed a model for recommending interactive live television to viewers. This work served as a basis for my Master’s Thesis.
Project
- Designing and developing a recommendation engine for interactive live TV - EU research project »LIVE - staging of Media Events«
Universities
Sep. 2004 – Jan. 2008
Media informatics, Master of Science
In my postgrad studies at Cologne University of Applied Sciences I mainly focused on human-computer interaction, interaction design and digital media. Furthermore, I enrolled for courses in development methodology, project management and accessibility.
I wrote my Master’s Thesis in collaboration with Pixelpark within their research project »LIVE – staging of Media Events«. The paper based on my Master’s Thesis has been accepted for EuroITV 2008
Projects
- Master's Thesis: »Recommender Systems for Live-Transmission in interactive Television: Gathering and Rating User Feedback«
- MyFH project to develop a central directory server at Cologne University of Applied Sciences
Apr. 2004 – Aug. 2004
Computer Science, Master of Science
My main subjects at University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg were Colorimetry and color theory, object-oriented component architecture, medical informatics and theoretical computer science.
Oct. 2000 – Mar. 2004
Media informatics, Bachelor of Science
During my Bachelor’s studies, I focused in human-computer interaction, multimedia development project management and operating systems.
In my Bachelor’s Thesis – in cooperation with the Cologne University of Applied Sciences’ Institute of Automation and Industrial IT and Siemens – I evaluated the web-based e- learning course SIMATIC-telestart.
Projects
- Bachelor's Thesis: »Usability Evaluation of a Web-based e-learning course«
- Mobile Media: Design an application with photo geocoding
- Concept design and development of an SMS server for communication between students and university
Honorary appointments
since June 2018
Co-Organizer of the Berlin Based User Experience Barcamp UXcamp Europe
Feb. 2015 – Jul. 2016
UX Camp West
Co-Organizer of the Düsseldorf/Cologne Based User Experience Barcamp UX Camp West
Apr. 2011 – Dec. 2014
Better Experience
Co-Organizer of the »Design for …« action conferences in Cologne
Publications
June 2008
Predicting future user behaviour in interactive live TV
Martin Gude, Stefan M. Grünvogel & Andreas Pütz. (2008). In Tscheligi, M., Obrist, M. & Lugmayr, A. (edt.), Changing Television Environments, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 5066, pp. 117-121, Springer Verlag
Nov. 2007
Martin Gude. Master's Thesis.
Skills
Languages
- German (mother tongue)
- English (fluent)
- French (fluent)
- Swedish (basic knowledge)
- Dutch (basic knowledge)
- Hebrew (basic knowledge)
Methods
- Customer Journeys, Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas
- Liberating Structures
- User Stories, User Story Mapping, Business Process Models
- Card sorting, ethnographic research and evaluation
- Personas, scenarios and usecases
- Wireframes and prototypes
Certificates
- Professional Agile Leadership™ I (PAL I) – 2023
- Professional Scrum Master™ I (PSM I) – 2018
- Professional Scrum Product Owner™ I (PSPO I) – 2014
- IELTS General Training – 2012: 7.5
Tools
- Paper, pencils, flip charts, whiteboards and stickies
- Miro, Mural
- Axure RP, UXPin
- Jira, Confluence, git
- Microsoft Office, Apple Keynote and OmniGraffle
Contact
m@martin-gude.com
Profiles