Seven questions to our Team Lead Customer Experience

7 questions to
Team Lead
Customer
Experience,
Daniel

Microsoft 365

Daniel Schitthelm (Team Lead Customer Experience, Berlin office), written by Katharina Schlüter

Since October 2016, Daniel has been working in the design team at Avenga. Creating and designing digital applications is his daily business. Time for a short interview – time for seven questions to our Avenga colleague!

Daniel, what are you working on right now?

A service portal for a large insurance company. It will allow customers to manage contracts, make appointments, and use other consulting services. We first exchanged ideas with the client, then carried out the corresponding research, and finally developed a first concept based on a click dummy. The prototype served as a means of further exchange with the customer. Real designs are currently being developed from the prototype; here I coordinate directly with the customer and internally with the project management and developers. I always try to put myself in the role of the user in order to achieve an intuitive user experience for the finished product.

What is an important part of your work day?

Definitely coffee! At the moment, I’m trying to limit myself to two cups a day. My typical start to the day: Briefly go through the most important mails, check relevant blogs and news sites, and then concentrate on my tasks.

What was the crucial factor for your decision to work for Avenga?

I’d been working in the traditional agency world for quite a long time and was looking for a new personal challenge. Avenga’s projects have an enormous appeal: You work for renowned companies on sophisticated solutions such as configurators or complex portals. Here I not only draw a beautiful interface, but also have the chance to understand the system behind it, and to actively participate in its design.

But the personal level was also decisive. The informal interviews were totally pleasant. It was the perfect match. The team structure, i.e. the fact that many UX designers and developers sit in one place, and the opportunity to work directly with the customer, is super. The premises are also pleasant and of course, there are the various benefits, especially our events. It’s nice to sit and chat with colleagues once a week at the team breakfast or meet at Fridays@5 for a beer in our kitchen.

Daniel

Your tools. Your rules. What do you like working with most?

My Macbook, of course. Then Sketch. Using it, I can get from the first rough layout to the prototype very quickly. Pen and paper for scribbling and for quick notes are a must. Not to forget my ‘Urbanears’ headphones to block out distractions when I want to concentrate on my work or talk on the phone with the client. And of course, to have music in my ears.

Which three websites do you visit the most?

I’m on the road on quite a few sites, this is not so easy. My top 3 are muz.li as an aggregator for design and tech topics; zeit.de to keep me up to date with daily world events, and giphy.com to provide me with my daily dose of cat gifs.

And in private – what do you like doing in your free time?

In my spare time, I like to explore other countries and cultures together with my wife. We love driving across countries by car. Only this May, we drove across the USA, 7,000 km from the east to the west coast. On arrival at our destination, I could have started all over again – immediately. Otherwise, in summer, I’m attracted to the water or to the beer garden with friends. In the cold season, binge-watching on Netflix and Co. is definitely on the agenda.

Early riser or late riser?

More of a late riser! The snooze button is a really stupid invention… My alarm clock goes off at 7:30 a.m. and if things go badly, I don’t get up till an hour later.

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