Niklaus

Niklaus

Director Digital Unit in Zürich, Switzerland

Strategic leader with 15+ years of experience driving growth and delivering value in industry-leading companies. Expert in blending digital innovation with traditional business models to achieve sustainable impact. Solid reputation in leading multinational teams, developing business strategies, and managing stakeholder relationships. Proven ability to distil complexity, leverage constraints, and deliver high-impact results in fast-paced environments.

Work Experience

2022 — 2024
Wollerau, Switzerland
  • Led Vorwerk’s digital strategy, driving annual revenue growth into the nine-figure range, with substantial contributions from digital leads.

  • Oversaw a budget exceeding EUR 15M, achieving cost efficiencies while maintaining high-quality standards.

  • Facilitated six-figure sales of Thermomix units through optimised online channels.

  • Supported M&A and market expansion, integrating business units using the global design system.

2022 — 2023
Wollerau, Switzerland
  • Directed e-commerce strategy for Vorwerk’s transactional websites, overseeing sales of EUR 100M+.

  • Resolved initial resistance and established effective collaboration across seven markets.

  • Implemented a demand and prioritisation process, reducing time-to-market by 50%.

2019 — 2022
Wollerau, Switzerland
  • Directed the digital experience strategy for the Cookidoo ecosystem.

  • Doubled the Cookidoo user base from 1.5M to 3M subscribers.

  • Expanded the design team from 2 to 6 FTEs.

  • Built a global UX community of 25+ members.

  • Developed and implemented a global design system, enhancing quality and reducing costs.

  • Led the team to win several awards for Thermomix-created recipes (Red Dot Design Award, iF Design Award, UX Design Award Public Choice).

2018 — 2019
Zürich, Switzerland
  • Founded and led NZZ’s digital product development.

  • Managed the market.ch project from inception to completion, overseeing strategic development, pricing, branding, and design.

  • Developed an intelligent news personalisation service for Google’s Digital News Initiative.

2014 — 2017
Zürich, Switzerland
  • Managed the native app portfolio for NZZ, leading strategy, design, and execution.

  • Directed the redesign of NZZ.ch, introducing a digital-only subscription model.

2010 — 2011
2008 — 2010
2007 — 2008
2005 — 2006
2003 — 2005
Niederwangen, Switzerland
2002 — 2003
2001 — 2002
Bümpliz, Switzerland

Education

2017 — 2019
2008 — 2010
Swiss Federal Certificate in Communication Planning at SAWI
Bern, Switzerland
2006 — 2008
Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems at Berner Fachhochschule
Bern, Switzerland
2003 — 2004
Higher Education in Business and Administration at FEUSI
Bern, Switzerland

Certifications

2020
Certified SAFe® 5 Agilist from Scaled Agile, Inc.
2014
Scrum Product Owner from aragost ag

Speaking

2015
Challenges & applications of mobile technologies at University of St. Gallen
St. Gallen, Switzerland
2014
Fachevent #1 mTrends at smama
Zürich, Switzerland

Awards

2022
iF Design Award for Cookidoo® Created Recipes - provided by Thermomix® from iF Design
2022
UX Design Award Public Choice for Cookidoo®: Created Recipes from IDZ International Design Center Berlin
2022
Red Dot Design Award for Cookidoo® Created Recipes - provided by Thermomix® from Red Dot Design Award
2018
Best of Swiss Apps Award Silver in Design from Best of Swiss Web
2018
Best of Swiss Apps Award Bronze in User Experience from Best of Swiss Web
2011
Edi.11 Gold from Swissfilm Association

Volunteering

2010 — 2012
2005 — 2010

Side Projects

2023

For 2023 I decided to further work on my feedback and reflection skills. This will also mean spending more time working with my teams at Vorwerk and supporting, mentoring and role-modelling how a healthy feedback culture should look like. I reworked the training material that served me well in the last few years and decided to open-source it.

2019

TeamKit provides a practical solution for teams everywhere to work towards improving team culture and experience. It is a self-facilitated team formation process which encourages teams to use the right tools or methods during team formation. TeamKit enhances effectiveness by focusing on “how“ teams come together and define their journey ahead. Importantly, TeamKit does not require any prior knowledge of team formation.

2017

A simple but essential core set of rules to guide us towards better solutions.

Contact

LinkedIn
Medium
GitHub