Client: Zalando

Role: Creative Direction, Strategy, Organization Design, Digital Product

Zalando was started in 2008 by Robert Gentz and David Schneider, funded largely by Rocket Internet as “Zappos for Europe.” The company had grown incredibly quickly as the first mover in a market with no significant competitor. At the time I started working with Robert, the company was starting to look to what was next in their evolution and needed to build a strong design capability to get there.

I scoped and directed an initial project to define a strategy for Zalando’s evolution. After this initial strategy work, I started 3-year program to establish a design studio in Berlin inside of Zalando’s headquarters. “The Studio” was staffed by existing Zalando employees, five new hires, and five IDEO designers. The purpose of this studio was to train talent on design process, design new products and product features for Zalando, build a product process that integrated design and engineering, and create a new organizational model that brought engineering and design together.

In addition to this core program, I scoped and directed a project to work with the Zalando C-suite to define, communicate, and activate Zalando’s purpose and vision for the future across the organization.

Summary of the strategy work - from a search-based fashion retailer to a platform that would be "the starting point for fashion."

Identifying other behaviors / ways to engage fashion to expand the role Zalando could play.

Establishing The Studio, which ran for three years in Berlin.

The first project of The Studio was to create a hiring page to ramp up to a headcount of 15 designers.

Designers at work in The Studio at Zalando HQ

Product prototypes - this one was an experiment overlay fashion on the playlist model from Spotify.

Collabry was another prototype app to explore the relationship between fashion influencers and Zalando.

Seen At was a prototype app that launched and ran for 8 weeks during and after Berlin Fashion Week as a platform to share streetwear looks.

What The Studio learned from in-market prototypes were then incorporated into the core product.

And the team started to work mobile-first, which was not the case prior to the insights The Studio was generating.

The Studio later got into IRL service prototyping, especially around a phenomenon known as "Zalando Parties," in which people would order bunches of clothes with their friends, try them all on, and return the great majority of them due to Zalando's g

Another program focused on articulating Zalando's purpose in a months-long collaboration with the C-suite.

We then built an experience to communicate the purpose to the whole organization with a stand-down and visit to "The Purpose Festival."

Defining moments in Zalando's history were brought to life.

Influential leaders from within the organization led discussions.

Employees had a chance to interact, ask questions, add their perspectives.

The three years of work with Zalando culminated in an organizational design to integrate The Studio (design) with the product team (development).

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