It has been quiet on this blog for a while and the reason is simple. I decided to switch from being a freelancer to being employed starting September 2018. I now work as User Experience Consultant at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich.

Some people I told about this change reacted with surprise – why would you give up the flexibility of being a freelancer and trade it in for 9-5 work at a big corporate enterprise. Why?

Freelancing was fun, but did not quite work out for me personally (at this moment). The main drawbacks I experienced was that working alone really sucks (even though my friends at Mates provided a great social network and workspace for me). Now I am part of a team, where I can work both independently and in collaboration with others and I can approach my colleagues anytime for sparring, which I find extremely valuable. Also, I am looking forward to new challenges and topics that I am exposed to. The industrial world is heavily affected by digital transformation, and user experience design plays a big role in that: How do you design a great human robot collaboration? How do you design the user experience of a blockchain application? How do you design for an AI-driven system where the output is volatile, uncertain, and not really explicable for the user?

If you like to get in touch regarding these or related topics, I am more than happy to hear from you!

Here’s to new challenges!