Join us at DUMBO

From Wishful Thinking to Outcome Driven Innovation

Forget gut feelings, tech-driven hype, or copying the competition. You can cut through assumptions and uncover exactly what your users need right now—clearly, directly, and backed by real evidence. Learn how to build features that genuinely enrich your customers’ lives while driving meaningful business
growth.

🌟 About the talk:
In this talk, we’re going to share the exact process we used to help congstar ditch internal wish lists and market guesswork. We’ll show you how we strategically informed product development in a commodity market by applying the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework.

🗣️ About Robert Goesch:
Robert is the co-founder of the Cologne-based design studio DUMBO. But first and foremost a designer with more than a decade of experience. He has worked with strong brands such as Lufthansa, Yello and Congstar as well as global industry giants such as Telekom, AXA and EnBW. He helps product teams of all sizes to envision and design top-tier products that succeed in the digital race. His unconventional approach puts behavioral patterns at the heart of design and has already helped millions of people to make progress.

🗓️ Date: 5 February, 2025
🍸 Talk: 18:00, Drinks: 19:00
📍 Location: DUMBO GmbH, Dürener Straße 341, 50935 Köln

This is more than a case study—it’s a playbook for unlocking hidden opportunities and making product decisions that truly matter. Ready to move from wishful thinking to Outcome-Driven Innovation? See you soon!

Rethinking Design Through the Lens of Degrowth.

About the Speaker:

Julia brings extensive experience as a service designer, regenerative practitioner and innovation strategist, with a career spanning more than 15 years in large public and private organisations including the NHS, Adidas, AbbVie, Sanofi, Livework and Engine Service Design. Inspired by Ostrom’s Nobel Prize-winning research on ecological transitions, Julia fosters regenerative cultures through design within organisations. Her focus is on developing an innovation mindset that prioritises planet-centred design.

Julia’s expertise lies in planetary health, with a significant portion of her career dedicated to improving health outcomes through design while promoting wellbeing. Her PhD research explored how service design practices can contribute to planetary health and regenerative business models, addressing pressing sustainability challenges. She holds a PhD from the University of the Arts, London and a master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art, École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris, and Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. Julia is also recognised internationally for her contributions to service design and lectures on the topic across Europe and beyond.

What’s the topic?

In this talk, Julia will draw on her PhD research to emphasise the need to shift design practices towards degrowth. Echoing Antonio Gramsci’s insight that “the old world is dying, and the new one struggles to be born,” the session will critically assess the challenges posed by our current economic landscape and the role of design within it.

By establishing a theoretical foundation for degrowth, we will examine conflicts between perpetual growth and sustainable living. Julia will introduce alternative economic frameworks emerging from the degrowth movement and conclude by reflecting on the transformative potential of integrating degrowth principles into design practices. As part of a short-term project focused on designing for degrowth, this talk aims to raise awareness among designers about the need for degrowth and to inspire practical reflections on design project work.

Navigating challenges in the Service Design process

Want to be a supportive partner for public organizations, city administrations, and ministries, as well as in collaborations with leading companies? We’ll showcase and discuss how we can manage the challenges when jumping into this process and providing support in specific phases, such as Prepare, Ideate, or Test. In this cozy and inspirational roundtable, we’ll share our experiences, ideas and visions with each other.

Marcel Befort
Marcel graduated at KISD in Design Management in 2006 before working in Strategic Brand Management for the BMW Group and as assistant professor and researcher in the field of Design Strategy at Wuppertal University. In 2012, he founded Sensity together with Guido Wolff. Marcel supports companies by implementing design and innovation processes in their organizations.

Lisa Hunger

Lisa completed her Bachelor’s degree at KISD in 2019 with a focus on Service Design. She has been working as a researcher at Sensity since 2019, specializing in user tests and workshops. She is also currently a Master’s student in the Public and Social Innovation cluster at KISD.

Sensity Office
Bismarckstraße 30
50672 Köln

The talk starts at 18:00 h.

On January 31st, Thoughtworks Cologne welcomes you to the next round of Service Design Drinks! We will discuss how designers shape society, about privilege, inequalities and planet-centric versus human-centric design. How do we use the tools in our tool boxes to be agents of change?

Thoughtworks Cologne,
Lichtstraße 43i,
50825 Köln,
Eventspace on the 5th floor

The talk starts at 18:00 h.

The talk will be held in English.