Maximilian Speicher
Lead and Consultant: UX, Research, & Product
Experience
Nov 2023 - Present
1 year 4 months Barcelona, Spain
RemoteStrategy Advisor
neverdone.
Advising a Munich-based UX design startup on strategy & research topics
Sep 2021 - Present
3 years 6 months Barcelona, Spain
RemoteDirector, Product Design
BestSecret Group
Lessons Learned:
- How to build, coach, & grow a product design team & implement corresponding design, DesignOps, & ResearchOps frameworks
- How to manage & direct cross-departmental design & research projects with a variety of stakeholders
- How to extend design capabilities beyond the e-commerce business unit through a "show, don't tell" approach
Key Results:
- "The best design team [they] had ever seen," according to one C-level executive
- +4 NPS & 8 new brand partners through a B2B-focused rebranding & redesign of the entire online shop (web & app)
- A 3.2% increase in order value through the design of a new shopping cart
Apr 2021 - Present
3 years 11 months Barcelona, Spain
RemoteCo-Founder & UX Consultant
Jagow Speicher
My side-business for management & strategy consulting, & independent research
May 2020 - Sep 2020
5 months Düsseldorf, Germany
RemoteProduct Owner, Online Shops
C&A
Responsible PO for the agile teams (frontend & backend) developing C&A's 10 online shops. Oversaw the successful & disruption-free migration to IBM WebSphere Commerce v9
Oct 2018 - Aug 2021
2 years 11 months Düsseldorf, Germany
HybridUX Manager
C&A
Lessons Learned:
- How to build, coach, & grow a UX & experimentation team, incl. the steering of 2 external agencies
- How to develop & implement UX & personalization strategies for the e-commerce department
- How to develop & implement an innovation framework for the e-commerce department, & consult on extending it to the retail business unit
Key Results:
- Grew experimentation & research from virtually zero to 100+ online experiments & 150+ user studies over the course of 3 years
- An accumulated 7-digit increase in revenue p.a. through the conducted experiments & user studies
- Nearly 8% revenue uplift through discovering & highlighting the C&A online shop's unique value propositions
Mar 2017 - Sep 2018
1 year 7 months Ann Arbor, United States
HybridPostdoctoral Researcher
University of Michigan
Lessons Learned:
- How to manage & lead research projects at one of the world's premier research universities
- How to teach classes on interaction design on the B.Sc. & M.Sc. levels
- How to contribute to & shape the strategy of an academic research lab
Key Results:
- 7 research papers at top-tier international conferences
- 3 awards at top-tier international conferences
- Co-invented a new prototyping method for designing AR/VR experiences, called 360theater
Mar 2015 - Feb 2017
2 years Aachen, Germany
HybridVP, Data Analytics & CRO
bitstars
Lessons Learned:
- How to navigate a startup during its early & growth stages
- How to develop SEA, social media advertising & marketing, & newsletter campaigns
- How to build a brand & write a brand book
Key Results:
- Grew users of HoloBuilder.com by 4400%, using data & online controlled experiments
- Decreased customer acquisition cost by 80%, from $10 to $2
- Significantly influenced the pivot to becoming a construction tech company, which led to the acquisition by Faro for $34 million
Summary
I support businesses in creating user experiences and products that put them ahead of the competition by deeply understanding their customers and crafting effective strategies.
A McKinsey study found that companies with superior UX capabilities and customer centricity have 6.4%p higher revenue growth p.a. than their competitors. Other research puts the ROI of good UX at 9900%. That's what I do. I make customers happy and businesses successful.
I'm a lead & consultant with 12+ years of experience in UX, research, and product. As Design Director at BestSecret and UX Manager at C&A, I've had the opportunity to build and grow top-tier UX teams from scratch. Besides, I've worked as VP of Data Analytics & CRO at an AR/VR startup and as a researcher at Unister and the University of Michigan. Throughout my career, I’ve gained extensive experience in developing strategies, implementing design & innovation frameworks, leading & growing UX teams, as well as branding & marketing.
I have a PhD in computer science and have published 40+ research papers on UX, design, & human–computer interaction that have been cited more than 1500 times.
Languages
German
Native
English
Advanced
Spanish
Elementary
Education
Jan 2013 - Aug 2016
Chemnitz Univ. of Technology
Dr.-Ing. · Computer Science · Germany · magna cum laude
Sep 2010 - Apr 2012
ETH Zürich
Master of Science · Computer Science · Switzerland
Oct 2008 - Aug 2010