Thomas Gläser

I'm a passionate product leader who has more than 10 years experience in building successful digital products for b2b and b2c. Working at the intersection of design, business and technology for well-known companies like BMW, Mozilla, Arduino and local startups. I'm particularly passionate about helping teams to build better products and executives, to build the right system to support that.

Leading a meetup series which unites around 90 professionals from the Munich UX & Product community each month at Google IsarValley as well as other Munich based companies to exchange and learn about our profession. Furthermore I mentor meetup members. Success: Fast growing community with currently almost 2.000 members

Moderating workshops for cross-functional teams to develop and test an app from idea to concept in two days using design thinking and lean startup methods (eg user research, insight synthesis, jobs-to-be-done, user story mapping and rapid prototyping). Success: Average satisfaction rating of 9 (out of 10) from my participants

I mentor and coach POs, designers and data scientists improving the Ryte suite (SEO & Website Governance tool) consisting of 5 core products to serve 1 Mio. B2B users worldwide. I focus on establishing the right culture by involving management peers, growing the product skills in my team, establishing processes and activities to grow active usage as well as monthly revenue.

Co-creator of a two-day conference and workshop event around celebrating the craft, impact and strategy of great product design. I am responsible for shaping the conference vision, defining topics, curating professional speakers from industry leading companies as well as acquiring media partners and sponsors. Leading experimentation efforts to explore new growth channels and revenue streams. Success: Launched a profitable event with 600 paying guests, sold out 8x in a row

I supported the Arduino for Education business unit to be more customer centric, improving existing solutions and test new product ideas by creating rituals of continuous discovery and delivery. I’ve developed a customized process which is further used and can be scaled throughout the organization. Success: Increased team confidence making better product decisions, discovered a new customer segment investing 10x more, streamlined user onboarding

SMP is an early stage startup building an innovative dynamic scent diffusor which suggests the right scent at the right time with the help of AI. I’ve advised and supported the founders to develop a valuable solution by conducting efficient research and innovation cycles. Success: Setup successful reference customer program and got early funding

I accompany and co-construct innovation and transformation efforts for small startups and established corporates by conducting workshops and projects. Helping them to become a more innovative and agile market players. Challenging the status quo by integrating measurable success metrics into the workflow and supporting teams to maintain focus.

I coached the CPO, product owners and contributors to enable their smart home business units to become more autonomous and gain speed. Assisting the teams to identify the USP, acquire new customer segments and leverage new channels to achieve the sales goals. Success: Tripled sales through a renewed amazon seller account, dramatically reduced the CPO of social media activities

Facilitating a weekend course focusing on how to develop digital products, starting with the customer. Participants execute research and extract insights to continue defining early sketched prototypes which can be tested right away.

I was working closely with leaders from product and design of the Open Innovation team on a platform which empowers staff and volunteer collaboration. Presented key findings based on in-depth research and recommendations to shape the product vision and strategy. Success: Successfully adapted concept after passing user tests

Working closely with the CEO, Eugene Belyaev (JetBrains co-founder) and Head of Marketing to shape the product vision and strategy of online coaching tools. I was responsible for growing, steering and coaching the international design team. Furthermore I empowered the teams to identify new opportunities and pivot to a faster growing AR/VR SaaS tool called CoSpaces. Success: Fast growth of new users/month for CoSpaces and license sales for CoSpaces Edu, AASL award: Best Apps for Teaching & Learning ‘17

I founded the multidisciplinary design studio envis precisely together with two like-minded friends. We helped clients ranging from small companies like the ebook startup Skoobe to large enterprises like BMW in improving their digital customer experiences. Our work included apps, web and desktop applications as well as embedded systems and interactive exhibits. Success: Gained first experience founding a company and leading creatives, learned how to look at design through the lens of business and tech

As part of the concept design unit, I developed interaction concepts and designs for BMW Radio Professional and the iDrive system. Success: Leading a research project about innovative in-car interactions which was presented across the organisation

User Experience Design (UX), User Interface Design (UI), Usability, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Media & Interaction Design

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