With over ten years of experience in design thinking, as a certified Scrum Master and Product Owner, Visual Facilitator and Google Design Expert, Simon is a sought-after expert for agile working and innovation development.
As founder and managing director of launchlabs, Simon has successfully set up a large number of strategic innovation projects and accompanied the managers in their transformation to an agile organization. He has also trained several thousand people in the application of design thinking methods during his career. He has designed some of today's common teaching methods and exercises himself. Based on his experience, Simon has developed furniture with partners to optimally support agile teamwork and brought it to product maturity.
From 2007 until 2010 Simon was significantly involved in building up the School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, Germany. From 2009 to 2012 he set up and managed the Design Thinking Executive Education Program at the HPI. Before this, Simon was developing crossmedial formats for the Institute of Electronic Business e.V., Berlin. As an innovation facilitator, he benefits from both his studies in Applied Media Sciences as well as his studies in Strategic Communication in social and economic contexts (University of the Arts in Berlin).
On the one hand, Simon supports start-ups as a mentor and angel investor and on the other, the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce as a member of the committee „Science - Industry“. Simon prefers working at inspiring locations; already in 2011, he has started Workation Week. Also, he enjoys acting out his visualization techniques. Playing drums in his band, Simon keeps up the beat.
Simon is Managing Partner at launchlabs. He brings over ten years of experience spanning different industries and cultures as a strategy and innovation consultant. Together with customers he focuses on developing strategies for the implementation of a sustainable innovation culture. As a Design Thinking facilitator, Systemic Coach, Scrum Master, and Product Owner he specializes in the fields of new work, agile leadership, and agile transformation.
Simon has a background in strategic business consulting with a focus on innovative mobility. Over the past years, Simon has coached and trained numerous managers from a wide range of companies and cultures in the areas of Design Thinking, agile leadership, and innovative work culture. As a lecturer at the Leibniz University in Hannover, he holds seminars on new ways of working and meaningful work since 2012. He received his doctorate from Humboldt-University in Berlin with an interdisciplinary work combining the fields of Philosophy and Organizational Theory. Simon is a certified Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Systemic Coach and the founder of Pingplus, a network of Systemic Coaches.
Simon loves Berlin, especially in the summer. Dancing in the open air. And inspiring thoughts.
Dheeraj is the good soul of launchlabs. He's in charge of organising the housekeeping, checking the reception, placing orders, caretaking and the good spirit in our spaces.
Before Dheeraj joined launchlabs he was working in hotels, managing a garage and organising motorcycle tours.
He loves everything with two wheels. When he's not meditating in the saddle, he does so on the yoga mat.
Jana is an innovation consultant at launchlabs and loves the challenge of supporting companies in their change processes. Jana's focus is always on people, because any digital, innovative or agile transformation can only be sustainable through interdisciplinary cooperation. Using collaborative, iterative and innovative methods, Jana enables her clients to discover their new selves and to actively involve them in shaping their new working environment.
Jana grew up in the Deutsche Bahn Group, where she gained her first consulting experience alongside her studies. After her master's degree, she joined KPMG's Innovation Hub, where she was responsible for trend analysis in the Blockchain & Big Data department. Before joining launchlabs, Jana worked for 2.5 years as an Innovations and Agile Coach at Deloitte. During this time she transformed large IT departments with the goal of strengthening the customer focus and establishing new agile working methods such as Scrum, Lean Change or Design Thinking.
Valentin is an Innovation Consultant, trainer, Agile Coach and certified Scrum Master. He blossoms when he sparks the joy of self-organized work in people. He brings people into the center of attention to ensure a truly user- and human-centered design of strategies, products, services and physical space. In all transformation processes that he works on, Valentin’s approach is to build on principles of purpose and sustainability as key drivers for innovation and change.
With a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences, a Master's degree in Organic Agricultural Management and work experience as a product developer and webdesigner, Valentin has a multidisciplinary background. Thereby, the red thread is always a strong sustainability focus. At HPI d.school, Valentin discovered his enthusiasm for design thinking and agile methods and subsequently used his master's thesis to integrate sustainability into the design thinking approach.
Raised in Germany and Indonesia, Valentin sees himself as a world citizen. He studied Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University College Maastricht and completed his Master studies in Eco-Agricultural Management at the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde. In addition, Valentin has professional experience as a product developer and web designer - giving him a truly multidisciplinary background. At the School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Valentin discovered his enthusiasm for agile ways of working and used his master thesis to integrate sustainability into the design thinking approach.
Tobias is Innovation Consultant at launchlabs Berlin and supports companies in their innovation processes. By using agile methods, Tobias assists teams in developing human-centered design solutions.
Very traditionally, Tobias completed a business management training and added extra-occupational the Bachelors Professional Degree of Technical Management as well as Certified Technical Engineer. At the same time, Tobias became a self-employed media designer and photographer. Working for approximately 13 years in a medium-sized company, he was finally responsible for product management. During this time, he has developed an analogue taskboard for agile project management as well as the ideaframe in co-creation with launchlabs. Moreover, he has assisted companies from all industries in introducing organisational tools.
Tobias loves creativity - and lives it in many different ways: apart from photography and graphic design, he plays the piano, the guitar and he sings. Additionally, he very much enjoys to discover new cultures.
Katharina is an innovation consultant at launchlabs. She loves to work closely with clients, immerse herself in different projects and pass on her knowledge. She designs workshop concepts, moderates and coaches various formats and supports organizations in user-centred innovation. Coupled with curiosity, openness and eagerness to experiment, she wants to promote a cultural change that makes people a little happier.
Her wealth of experience with economic and cultural change processes as well as the user-centric design of strategies, products and services is based on her work as a freelance design thinking facilitator for start-ups, NGOs and large companies. In addition, she developed games to make complex coherences tangible and travelled the (corporate) world for Lufthansa as a flight attendant. Before the agile culture and method of design thinking became ingrained, she studied International Business Administration in Frankfurt until her master's degree in Strategic Communication in Social and Economic Contexts led her to the University of the Arts in Berlin. Inspired by interdisciplinary thinking, she ended up at the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam, where she completed the Basic and Advanced Track.
In her spare time she likes to explore. She strolls through nearby and distant cities, likes cinema, art and culinary delicacies. Inspired by that she comes back.
Maren is part of the Office Management Team at launchlabs, handling customer service, space rentals, invoicing practice, procurement and the organisation of housekeeping.
After studying politics, English and journalism, Maren worked as a freelancing editor and helped organising events in Berlin's gastronomic scene. Her last job as managing director in her favorite place tought her a lot of organising abilities and team spirit - as did the recent certification as Scrum Master.
Maren likes dinner with family and friends, fresh air, good music & watching the sea.
At the Launchlabs, Tassilo works as an innovation consultant and empowers people to use new methods to discover and develop opportunities and thus actively shape the future of their working environment.
Tassilo studied business administration in Cologne from 2012 to 2015, spending a semester abroad in Porto and writing his bachelor thesis on sustainability in the supply chains of the REWE Group. He subsequently moved to Berlin and Warsaw, where he completed a Master's degree in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship as well as a Master's degree in Management. At the same time he was a working student at the Berlin startup unumotors and a student research assistant at TU Berlin. During his studies Tassilo got to know new working methods such as Design Thinking and was immediately enthusiastic. While writing his master's thesis on digital business models, he completed the Basic and Advanced Track at the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam. He then worked as a product manager with a team of developers and designers to develop a digital product for MAN in Munich. During his last position before Launchlabs, Tassilo was able to gain experiences in the German "Mittelstand". As a business innovator, he supported the innovation team of the Stockmeier Group, an almost 100-year-old family run business in the chemical industry. In addition to new working methods, he was also involved in the development of new digital products. Tassilo is a certified Scrum Master.
Privately Tassilo likes to be out in nature and especially in the mountains. His hobbies include photography, website design, music and martial arts. Privately, Tassilo organises the ToolFest once a year: with the vision of mixing up the traditional working world with new methods and thus laying the foundation for new ideas and innovations.
Clemens studied communication design and has been working independently for over 10 years on various playing fields for the external presentation of his clients. In the course of his work, his focus has adapted to the increased demand for digital solutions: Wordpress, JavaScript and PHP programming offer a constantly changing environment that gives him plenty of scope for creativity and inspiration. His passion for digital brought him to launchlabs in 2018, where he works part-time to develop digital products and optimize digital processes.
Clemens has always loved to work in a cross-functional way. Before studying communication design at the HTW Berlin, he worked as a designer in a film production office, as an assistant in automotive photography and as a freelancer, which he expanded during his studies. This allowed him to experience the realities and challenges of professional practice in the creative business early on. His professional insurance was to be broadly positioned in the range of services he offered. To say yes, to learn more and to cultivate creative diversity suits his nature. He has worked with many clients from a wide range of business areas, offering design, advertising, programming and photography.
Today he is not only speaking PHP and JS, but also some Chinese and Berlinerish. As a native Berliner you have to maintain your dialect in conversation with the natives. After his studies, he learned Chinese in South China, where he worked for a Hong Kong film company. In addition to cameras, he needs bicycles, drums, books and of course technology around him. But he doesn't want to forget to live sustainably and to recharge his energy from time to time in nature.
Harry is part of the launchlabs management team. In addition to his strategic responsibilities, his area of expertise includes overseeing major training programs for long-term clients. He is engaged in long-term strategies on how organizations can transform themselves in terms of user-centricity and agility. Harry has been firmly rooted in the design thinking scene since 2008. In addition, he is also a certified Scrum Master.
In his information management studies, he focused on how an organization builds and shares its knowledge. With this focus he started at the HPI School of Design Thinking in 2008 and was responsible for the curriculum as Track Manager. He then started as a facilitator at launchlabs and built a training program for a global consultancy. Since 2016, he has been part of the executive team and, in addition to the training formats, is responsible for human resources management.
With his interest in Romanesque and Gothic architecture, he can be found in the churches and cathedrals of Europe. He also indulges in motorcycling which takes him from Mecklenburg to Saxon Switzerland. Otherwise, as an Austrian, he misses the mountains and compensates with hikes around the lakes of Brandenburg.
Dutch Design in the house! Kristine advises, designs and conducts workshops and trainings in agile, human-centered methods with a lot of passion (and a charming accent). She is a certified Scrum Master as well. She aims to make the (working) world a bit more beautiful and innovative. Kristine is passionate about creating a space and a drive for products, services, and processes that truly have value.
After studying communication and business administration in Nijmegen, Kristine worked for several years as a Change Management consultant during which she developed an in-depth understanding of the variety of challenges the different companies faced. She went on to further her development as a blended learning/project manager, always seeking to help people develop according to their strengths and work environment. After studying design thinking at the Design Thinkers Academy in Amsterdam she couldn’t stop! Her love for innovation and for the city of Berlin brought her to launchlabs.
Kristine has truly wide interests in various things and people. She likes to sing, improvise in theatre, loves nature and seeks to explore the world on long-distance journeys whenever she can.
As head of operations and consultant for business development, Berit drives internal projects and processes at launchlabs. Together with partners, for example, she has assisted to co-create Design Thinking furniture and flexible whiteboards; both are now combined under the new brand "what if we fly". Her knowledge as a certified Scrum Master and Product Owner helps her to set up and implement agile projects.
Before working at launchlabs, Berit has played a key role in establishing the Graduate School at the Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Germany, being in charge of the programme management for the six interdisciplinary Master's programmes in business and economics. She has gained valuable experience in science management, be it in academic self-administration, quality assurance and accreditation procedures, internationalisation or change processes due to the merger of university and university of applied sciences. Prior to her university career, Berit has, on the one hand, successfully contributed to the "Queen's Awards for Enterprise: Sustainable Development" while working in the Marketing and Business Development Department of an international engineering company in the UK; on the other hand, she spent a three-month research visit at the University of Toronto - thanks to a scholarship as part of her Master's degree in English Language and Literature, Educational Theory and Economics.
Her Danish prename reveals her northern origin. In Berlin, she enjoys cycling or stand up paddling in the surrounding waterways.
Sarah is the first point of contact for all questions concerning office organization.
She has a comprehensive overview and manages appointments, calendars, personnel and organizational issues, current events as well as general communication at launchlabs. She is also in charge of purchasing, is in contact with service providers, organizes housekeeping and creates an atmosphere in the innovation loft.
She is where it all comes together.
During her training as a hotel clerk and while working in one of Berlin's largest hotels, Sarah gained a lot of experience in various areas.</p><p>Before that, she worked in the social field and took on responsibility as a group leader and child care manager at an early age.
Sarah loves discovering Berlin by bike, strengthening her balance in yoga and letting her creativity run wild in the kitchen.
Laura is an Agile Coach and Innovation Consultant at launchlabs. As a certified Scrum Master and Design Thinking Expert, she empowers companies to systematically address the challenges of new work realities and supports them in the sustainable implementation of agile and creative processes and methods.
Laura completed her Bachelor's degree in Theatre Studies and Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Free University of Berlin. There, where she focused on the intersection between the humanities and social sciences. In her final thesis, she explored the dynamics of performativity and theatricality in popcultural media. During her studies, Laura also worked at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and assisted in the several theatre productions of the Deutsches Theater Berlin.
With a steadily growing enthusiasm for transdisciplinary connections and practical (theatre) work, Laura found the Basic- and Advanced Track of the Design Thinking course at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam to be an ideal setting to contribute her experience to interdisciplinary teams and grow new skills. From 2017 to 2020 Laura worked as a freelance human-centered designer and innovation strategist. During this time, she taught digital and future skills in numerous soft skill formats as a trainer for the Google Zukunftswerkstatt Germany, accompanied a medtech start-up in its product development as a user researcher and managed a non-profit consultancy for social enterprises. As part of her self-employment, she advised political institutions, including several federal ministries, and worked as an agile coach not only in the corporate sector, for example for the Robert Bosch Foundation, SAP or Die Bayerische, but also in the cultural and social sector.
Her passion for the (performing) arts regularly drives Laura to the numerous theatres in Berlin and the museums of the cities she visits. There she draws new inspiration and explores different artistic perspectives on social discourses.
As an innovation consultant with design expertise and a lot of start-up experience, Laura supports companies on their path to innovation and transformation. She is a certified Scrum Master and trained workshop facilitator. Her mission at launchlabs: to bring innovation practices from the start-up world into experienced companies. Methodical, engaging and with a good dose of fun.
Laura studied human-centred design and design thinking methods throughout her bachelor's degree in Interactive Media Design and her master's degree in Leadership in the Creative Industries. During her studies, she immersed herself in the start-up scene and worked as a user experience designer on concepts and interfaces for hardware and software products – for a wide range of target groups: from e-bike riders and hoteliers to students from Vietnam and China. Always along for the ride: strong conceptual skills, curiosity and a lot of empathy for a collaboration at eye level.
Laura loves podcasts – listening to them and recording them herself. When she's not behind the microphone talking about design and the future, she's out exploring other Berlin neighbourhoods (and the world in pandemic-free times). In her leisure time, she is committed to her passion for mental health at the start-up Sisu Health, which she has supported since its founding. At home, she not only tends to her growing jungle of plants, but also finesses the perfect sauces for bibimbab and dumplings.
Sepideh is an innovation consultant and Agile coach at launchlabs. As a psychologist, she always keeps people in mind when it comes to innovation processes and changes in the work context. Her passion is to get people moving in workshop-based formats, to rethink work with them and to develop solutions together with the help of innovative tools. Her goal is to empower her clients to master and shape the new demands of the working world themselves.
Growing up in Bremen, it took Sepideh to Zurich, Hildesheim and Berlin for her studies. She was particularly interested in experimental research in social and decision psychology. Sepideh had her first contact with innovative methods at the Wagniswerkstatt of the Humboldt University in Berlin, where she developed a web-based solution for a start-up in an interdisciplinary team using the design thinking process. Intrigued by how much can be achieved in such a short time with the right mindset and method box, she deepened her knowledge alongside her psychology studies at her working student job at the SAP Innovation Center and later at a change and innovation consultancy. She was always able to link her psychological know-how to her work and apply it in a targeted manner.
Growing up between Persian and German culture, Sepideh knows how to dine well and be on time for appointments. She spends her free time exploring new places - preferably with friends or her family. She cares a lot about equal opportunities and educational justice, which is why she has repeatedly been involved in social projects over the years. Convinced that the success of a state should also be measured by its citizen's well-being and not just by its gross domestic product, Sepideh uses "Happy Life Hacks" to explore the question of what really makes people happy.