Thomas Gläser

Passionate leader of teams creating successful digital products

Angestellt, Director Product Experience, NEW WORK SE

München, Germany

Skills

Leadership
Produktmanagement
User experience
User Research
Innovation
Design Thinking
Lean Startup
Strategic Design
Business Model Innovation
Produktentwicklung
Scrum
Organisationsentwicklung
Produkt
Workshop
Product strategy
Produktportfolio

Timeline

Professional experience for Thomas Gläser

  • Current 9 months, since Aug 2022

    Director Product Experience

    NEW WORK SE
  • Current 5 years and 2 months, since Mar 2018

    Trainer, Coach & Speaker for Product Strategy

    Thomas Gläser - Design & Lean Business Innovation

    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.

  • Current 6 years and 4 months, since Jan 2017

    Founder & Mentor

    UX & Product Community

    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

  • 2 years and 4 months, Apr 2020 - Jul 2022

    Director Product (XING Events)

    NEW WORK SE
  • 2 years and 3 months, Jul 2018 - Sep 2020

    Trainer for Lean UX & Smart Product Leadership

    Brainbirds GmbH

    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

  • 5 months, Sep 2019 - Jan 2020

    Head of Product (Interim)

    Ryte

    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.

  • 7 years and 5 months, Jun 2012 - Oct 2019

    Co-founder & Organizer

    push.conference - envis precisely Events GmbH

    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

  • 5 months, May 2019 - Sep 2019

    Manager Product Management & Agile Coach (Contractor)

    Arduino

    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

  • 1 year, Oct 2018 - Sep 2019

    Startup Advisor

    SMP (aquired by Symrise)

    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

  • 1 year and 6 months, Mar 2018 - Aug 2019

    Product Management Consultant

    str84wd Products UG

    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.

  • 9 months, Sep 2018 - May 2019

    Manager Product Management & Agile Coach (Contractor)

    innogy SE

    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

  • 2 years and 10 months, Apr 2016 - Jan 2019

    Guest Lecturer for User Experience

    LMU-München

    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.

  • 6 months, Mar 2018 - Aug 2018

    Design & Innovation Strategist

    Mozilla

    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

  • 4 years and 5 months, Sep 2013 - Jan 2018

    Head of User & Product Experience

    Delightex GmbH

    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

  • 5 years, Jan 2009 - Dec 2013

    Co-founder, Managing Director & Design Lead

    envis precisely GmbH

    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

  • 1 year and 10 months, Mar 2007 - Dec 2008

    Interaction Designer

    BMW Group

    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

  • Director Product

    XING Events GmbH

Educational background for Thomas Gläser

  • 5 months, Oct 2007 - Feb 2008

    Informationsdesign

    FH Joanneum Graz (Erasmus)

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

  • 3 years and 6 months, Mar 2005 - Aug 2008

    Kommunikationsdesign

    HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd

    Schwerpunkt Interaktionsgestaltung

  • Wirtschaft

    Fachoberschule Augsburg

Languages

  • German

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  • English

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Wants

Erfahrungsaustausch
Gründer und Startups
Peer-to-peer communication
Austausch von Ideen

Interests

Basketball
Reading
Running
Swimming
Connecting people

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