Design

All articles about Design
I never wanted to do sales, but now I love it
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

I never wanted to do sales, but now I love it

Design Management Sales

⚡ I never wanted to do sales, but now I love it. Why? Because I don't see it as such.In my first company, which I started at age 18, I was the designer.Then I acquired a startup (Coffee Circle) from Berlin as a client by going to some university event and talking to the founder. I wrote it off as a luck.Next, I got recommended to the guys at Treatwell to build their website and booking platform.After university I was hired as a project manager at AMERIA AG. Soon, I did account management too (fo

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Ever wondered about those weird labels?
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Ever wondered about those weird labels?

Design Entrepreneurship Product

⚡ Ever wondered about those weird labels? There's an entrepreneurship lesson in there:The founders were entering their recipe into a contest about a 100 years ago.One worked on the actual drink, the other designed the label.At the day of the contest they realized that the label was too big for the bottle.Due to a lack of time they slapped it on anyway.They lost the contest, but one of the judges told them to keep the product design because it made their product stand out.The lessons?𝟭. 𝗠𝗩𝗣 >

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I don’t make money to keep it.
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

I don’t make money to keep it.

Design Entrepreneurship Technology

I don’t make money to keep it.My life goal is to build a place or institution that teaches young humans creativity, courage and entrepreneurship.I was fortunate enough to have learned these things from my parents and grand-parents, some good teachers and most of all:being at the right place at the right time: the late 90s, early 2000s when the internet started exploding and I got access to so much knowledge and communities I could never have dreamed of - all from my desk in a small village near

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As humans, we are successful because we are so effective at collaboration
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

As humans, we are successful because we are so effective at collaboration

AI Design Technology

⚡ As humans, we are successful because we are so effective at collaboration and being friendly towards each other. Sounds counter-intuitive? That's my personal biggest takeaway from "Humankind - a hopeful history" (German: "Im Grunde gut") by Rutger Bregman. In fact, Homo Sapiens even outperformed Homo Neanderthals even though they had a bigger brain. The book reviews a lot of psychological science, history and narratives to prove in detail why being "good" is an evolutionary advantage. It's complete.

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Whoever calls me “boss” will be fired
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Whoever calls me “boss” will be fired

Design Innovation Technology

Whoever calls me “boss” will be firedSounds a little bit too radical? I agree and honestly I haven’t executed that until now. But why the radicality?I want to build an organisation, a system that consists of people thinking for themselves. For the type of work that we do (problem solving for organizations that want to drive change and innovation) this is absolutely necessary.As an organization we can only thrive if we bring different ideas and thoughts to the table, even if I don’t like them. Th

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If I had had chatGPT as a script kiddy…
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

If I had had chatGPT as a script kiddy…

AI Design Technology

⚡ If I had had chatGPT as a script kiddy…When I was 16, I developed a website from scratch. What did it do? Well, today the best equivalent is medium.com.I only was a bit too early ;)The feature set was the same.Only that back then no frameworks existed for web development. Javascript as a language was dying. That was way before it got resurrected. There was no stackoverflow. No Udemy or Coursera or Codecademy. Barely any YouTube, but surely no tech or programming related channels.And I didn’t k

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Innovators, stop obsessing over processes!
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Innovators, stop obsessing over processes!

Corporate Innovation Design Management

Innovators, stop obsessing over processes! They will get you nowhere.Your biggest challenge as a corporate innovator?To keep the speed of learning as high as possible. Most don't manage to achieve this.In big organisations it's easy to get caught up in trying to build the perfect process. Or in strategizing about which field to explore next. Or in convincing management to invest in the next step.And why?To create an illusion of safety and security that simply doesn't exist when doing non-increme

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Overwhelmed with a task and don’t know where to start? DDD to the rescue
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Overwhelmed with a task and don’t know where to start? DDD to the rescue

AI Design Technology

In our daily practice we're regularly tasked with creating solution in areas that are not familiar to us.For example, for our client STIHL we had to develop an e-learning solution that addresses firefighters and teaches them tactical skills for challenging deployments. I had never before anything to do with firefighters. So how do we approach such a task? Domain Driven Design is one method that can help here if applied correctly: ✅ Domain Driven Design is an approach to developing solutions

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Experiments in Business Design
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Experiments in Business Design

Business Design

In Business Design it is critically important to continuously run experiments and test new ideas. Here are the top 5 reasons why this matters: 1. Discover new opportunities: By trying out new ideas and concepts, companies can open up new target markets and improve their products and services. 2. Create competitive advantages: Experiments offer the chance to differentiate from competitors and develop unique solutions. 3. Minimize risks

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Overwhelmed with a task and don’t know where to start?
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Overwhelmed with a task and don’t know where to start?

AI Design Technology

Overwhelmed with a task and don’t know where to start?In our daily practice we're regularly tasked with creating solution in areas that are not familiar to us.For example, for our client STIHL we had to develop an e-learning solution that addresses firefighters and teaches them tactical skills for challenging deployments.I had never before anything to do with firefighters.So how do we approach such a task?Domain Driven Design is one method that can help here if applied correctly:✅ Domain Driven

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Why Design Thinking is nonsense
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Why Design Thinking is nonsense

Design Design Thinking Technology

Who hasn't struggled with the question of what design thinking actually is and what it's supposed to be good for? The method is on everyone's lips, but hardly anyone seems to understand it properly.In this post, I want to clear up why Design Thinking makes no sense and can be misleading.Design Thinking is a method that is used especially in the creative industry. It is based on the principle of "empathy-centered design" and starts with people's needs.The approach is supposedly simple: put yourse

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Why Design Thinking is nonsense
Philipp Hoffmann
Philipp Hoffmann

Why Design Thinking is nonsense

Design Design Thinking Technology

Why Design Thinking is nonsenseWho hasn't struggled with the question of what design thinking actually is and what it's supposed to be good for? The method is on everyone's lips, but hardly anyone seems to understand it properly.In this post, I want to clear up why Design Thinking makes no sense and can be misleading.Design Thinking is a method that is used especially in the creative industry. It is based on the principle of "empathy-centered design" and starts with people's needs.The approach i

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