Niklaus
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Niklaus

Director Digital Unit in Zürich, Switzerland

Hi

A month ago

A passionate and transformative leader with over 15 years of industry experience in digital, innovation and human-centric design. Extensive knowledge of strategic frameworks, discovery and innovation processes, concept development and a proven track record of delivering best-in-class digital products and services.

Deep experience in facilitation, mentorship, group dynamics, enabling high-performance teams and achieving long-term positive relationships with all critical stakeholders in highly complex, uncertain and volatile environments.

Work Experience

2022 — Now
Wollerau, Switzerland

Providing strategic leadership and operational management of digital products and channels. Leading growth, advancement and innovation of digital products and working in partnership with markets, sales, experience design and operations teams to enable advisors, delight customers and achieve digital sales excellence.

2022 — 2023
Wollerau, Switzerland

Global overall responsibility for all transactional Vorwerk Websites with a sales volume of 100+ Mio. EUR. Building a sustainable and scalable Omnichannel setup to complement rather than cannibalise the current sales and direct sales channels.

2019 — 2022
Wollerau, Switzerland

Overseeing Vorwerk's digital experience for all customer-facing touchpoints focused on the Cookidoo digital ecosystem (Web, App, Device) with over 4 million paying subscribers and building scalable, reusable, and shareable design solutions across products and markets.

2018 — 2019
Zürich, Switzerland

Established the digital product development department. Conception and realisation of new products and services with user-centred methods and managing several cross-functional teams.

2014 — 2017
Zürich, Switzerland

Led the mobile app portfolio of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as well as the redesign of NZZ.ch.

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