Image: Markus Berger / Zooom
For companies producing physical goods, the change towards digital is often a painful one. Creative leadership skills are needed to understand the values and culture of the brand to make the change happen. As a leader I see my role as the enabler and catalyst for this change, and help my people grow as we make the change reality.
Harnessing weak signals, limited data, and intuition one can build scenes of possible futures. Once the futures take a shape in form of a product concept, a mobile app prototype, or an advertising mockup, it suddenly becomes real, and helps the organization to understand the opportunities.
Harnessing weak signals, limited data, and intuition one can build scenes of possible futures. Once the futures take a shape in form of a product concept, a mobile app prototype, or an advertising mockup, it suddenly becomes real, and helps the organization to understand the opportunities.
Product Management Overhaul at M-FilesSoon after joining M-Files as Senior Director of Product Design, I was invited to lead also the Product Management globally for the company. We created a new product strategy, clarified the priorities massively, and brought in more effective operations, like Big Room Planning, bi-quarterly reviews with Executive Leadership Team, and reaching actively out to internal stakeholders.
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Digital Revolution at Amer SportsBetween 2017-2020, I led design in a new category within Amer Sports Group: Connected Devices and Digital Services. Our role is to transform Amer Sports into a company that utilizes modern, effective and scalable digital solutions to reach its consumers.
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Suunto CustomizerSuunto had been talking about selling customized-per-order watches for several years. All the excercises had been inside-out, and led to nothing. In 2014, I was tasked to visualize how the customer would see and experience the service. The concept was successfully built, and today, it has created millions of euros of revenue for Suunto.
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Nokia Gear portfolioNokia Gear (Nokia Original Accessories Business Unit) was in great disarray. We pushed through a significant transformation of the portfolio, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the perceived (and real!) quality of products and driving a healthier business.
This image illustrates magnitude of the change while it helped us to drive through the new portfolio structure and design identity. |
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Nokia Entry Products: transformative insightIn mid-2000's, Nokia was seeking huge growth in the emerging markets. When renewing the portfolio, we put a lot of effort in consumer empathy, understanding whom we were designing our products for.
We created a set of target personas, utilizing strong visuals like this collage technique developed with forpeople UK. This way, we managed to drive complete renewal of the design strategy and subsequent product portfolio. Instead of just one "low" segment, we built a new range of products for multiple consumer segments. The change was profound and very successful. The revenue of the Entry Products grew significantly, boosting Nokia's business as a whole. |
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People leadershipI believe that transparent communication, positive coaching, and a good dose of independence leads to successful, high-performing teams.
The development pace of product and experience design has become too fast for traditional, layered management. Teams must be trusted with a lot of autonomy to build their skill level and to gain velocity. And, it's always important to find time to come together and celebrate the achievements! |
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Design ThinkingDesign Thinking is a profoundly modern and effective way to hunt for opportunities for brands. The idea is to involve users early in the process, find problems worth solving before locking down to any single solution, and iterating rapidly. Utilizing my network of creative leaders from Helsinki to Palo Alto, I built a specific toolkit for Suunto to make design thinking sprints easy and effective. (Image: IDEO)
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AgileOne cannot work in digital without understanding Agile. It has been captivating to realize how the principles of Agile design philosophy – Iterativeness, incremental, Transparency, End to End – are applicable not only on software design but on leadership of whole companies. We all are on a learning journey with this one as it brings new working methods in place. I am a big believer of Dual Track Agile: enabling both the research phase and the sprint phase co-exist. (Image: Harward Business Review)
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