ABOUT

Black and white portrait photo of pavel reissmann on dotted backround

Pavel Reissmann

Leader | Designer | Strategist


Versatile and adaptable professional who helps industry-leading organizations reach next-level performance with
customized technical, product, operational, and people-centric business solutions. Offering extensive knowledge of the design process – from planning to scaling and everything in between. Skilled at conducting intensive research to uncover novel insights and quickly see new ideas come to life. Highly technical with an ability to facilitate the transfer of design concepts and prototypes to finalized, scalable products.

Differentiators:

Believer in the power of teams with background and cultural diversity.

Active listener and authentic leader who coaches teams to be their best and rise to the challenge ahead of them.

Nurturer of fun working environments to help draw out employees’ creativity and innovative ideas.

Notable Clients:

Opal Software, Nike, Adidas, Sephora, MATE:TIME, Dyson

STRATEGY

Strategy is how you want to achieve your purpose.
When you decided to climb a mountain, you look at the map and plan your journey.
You decide what you need to prepare for, the supplies you’ll need, and embrace the uncomfortable ambiguity.
Nature as well as business cannot be perfectly predictable. With the right strategy, you should be able to navigate and reach your summit.

Customer Experience Team Strategy | Opal

OBJECTIVE

Create vision and strategy for CX Team

PROCESS

After defining the objective and desired outcome with the stakeholder, I started researching the CX team’s processes. I collected data about their product, services, and customer feedback to map the platform value proposition.
After the research, I proposed a design journey with 6 steps. Each step was a 3 hour online session with each exercise feeding information to another and continuously building a stronger knowledge base about their customer. Then we mapped the customer journey, going well beyond their team and product. They had a chance to walk in their customers’ shoes—they experienced the product as their customers with the same desires and motivations.

OUTCOME

The CX team defined their vision with essential themes, obstacles, supports, and 5 strategic steps needed to achieve it.
During the understanding phase of the design journey, the team got a much deeper understanding of their customer and especially their motivations and needs. They also mapped their position within the organization and created a strategy on how to be a significant driver of the company’s success.
While at the ideation phase, the team designed program criteria reflecting their vision. They also left the design journey with a list of actionable ideas prioritized based on impact and difficulty.

print-screen of a virtual white board with CX team

I had heard about Design Thinking prior to working with R2 and Pavel, but I didn’t quite grasp the impact it would have. I learned so much from that workshop about not just our business, but also about the importance of the design thinking process. Pavel took us through a design journey that started with us asking the question ‘what do our customer’s need to be successful?’ and ended with us really grasping not just what our customers need, but who they are, what they care about, what delights them and so much more. With Pavel’s help, we really dug in and not just pulled insight from the team internally, but from our customers as well. All of this insight led to a new vision statement, a roadmap of projects and most importantly, some much needed focus for our team. 

Erynn Baird | Customer Experience Director @ Opal

two designers in front of white board covered by postits

Retail Software Suite | EYELEVEL

OBJECTIVE

Create a digital product strategy supporting company vision and steps on how to achieve it.

PROCESS

It started with internal and customer research looking at existing digital solutions and capabilities, conducting interviews, and facilitating workshops.
There were 200+ stakeholders attending 30+ workshops across 10 global locations. We collected a wide variety of customer interaction data, mapped internal processes, and documented customer experience across the departments.

OUTCOME

I analyzed the insights and created a high level Software Suite Strategy and framework including teams, partners, project objectives, product design strategy, initial project plan, technical solution blueprint, and financials.
We then designed and developed multiple digital products that helped overcome customer communication challenges.

Business Strategy | Lumitrix USA

OBJECTIVE

Create customer-centric sales and product marketing strategy.

PROCESS

I collected business data and analyzed the environment and resources available for the strategic initiatives. After extensive market research and understanding of the business, I had multiple ideation sessions which generated a blueprint for prototypes to be tested in the field.

OUTCOME

I created strategy outlining the approach to the business infrastructure and the new way to promote existing products. Two new offerings were designed to better explain and demonstrate the possibilities of outdoor projectors. Part of the new product marketing strategy was a new brand site, solution specific content, and communication strategy.

INNOVATION

Innovation and strategy should be one of the foundational stones of every organization. It’s proven that organizations who innovate have happier and more productive employees and higher resiliency in times of economic turbulence.
I design individual workshops and design journeys to identify potential areas of innovation. I then help facilitate the innovation process from individual products to entire enterprise transformations. 

Innovative organizations experience 22% increase in EBITDA

84% of executives agrees that innovation is important to growth strategy

11% of revenue growth in favor of more innovative organizations

adidas Store Profiler | Innerworkings

OBJECTIVE

Analyze the adidas retail marketing process and provide solution optimizing the creation of campaign briefings based on store-related data.

PROCESS

I analyzed customer data and researched their process. The discovery workshops with the customer provided necessary insight into their process for me to provide a high level solution. After going deeper into the data and creating internal wireframes with the data structure, I hand-drew the UX prototype with all data fields to share and facilitate direct feedback during customer meeting.

OUTCOME

When the research, ideation, prototyping, and validation phase was done, I created the solution design for organizing the store data and briefing creation. I then designed the UX prototype and created the product requirements documentation for developers.
The proposed solution was then developed and implemented. Intentional solution design allowed the tool to be reused for similar use cases, delivering a customer-specific experience with limited customization effort.

Product Empathy Workshop | Opal

OBJECTIVE

To improve their platform, the product team at Opal wanted to understand their users in-depth.

PROCESS

After agreeing on the objective and the outcome with stakeholders, I researched the team and their product. I proposed a design journey focused on building empathy through storytelling and personal experience.
During the online sessions the product team was able to observe—through their own experience—their users’ job-to-be done and what they need for success.
The team compared their platform feedback with that of their users’ and this shared experience helped Opal relate to them on a deeper level.

OUTCOME

Overall improvement in understanding the customers’ needs and motivations from the product team. The amount of valuable insights and ideas sparked a development sprint dedicated to improving the customer experience and the tools created during the workshop allowed them to keep customer empathy front and center.
“Finding a method to better empathize with our users was key to unlocking the team’s creativity and motivation.”

Working with Pavel was a huge boost for our team’s focus in 2021. Finding a method to better empathize with our users was key to unlocking the team’s creativity and motivation. He was able to break down a complex multi-day session into something digestible and fun, and it gave us some tools to keep this empathy front and center as we moved forward on improving our customer’s onboarding experience.

Andy Hugelier | Senior Director of Design @ Opal

Business Intelligence | EYELEVEL

OBJECTIVE

In regards of the organization wide digital transformation strategy research and identify opportunities for innovation.

PROCESS

I had interviews and ran workshops with organization stakeholders around the globe along with researching the nature and complexity of the organizational data. I identified areas where we would gain the most value then tested the insights using quick prototypes and validation sessions. I had to understand the technical details of a data analytics stack.

OUTCOME

I created a proposal for a Business Intelligence team responsible for delivering data reporting and insights. I then wrote business requirements that lead us to selecting the right technology and implementation partner.
The technology was successfully implemented and keeps delivering essential data reports and key insights to the business. It was an essential part to move the company closer to fulfilling the vision of being the first choice partner in innovation.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Everything man-made is designed. However, not everything is designed intentionally.
Good design is not just about products being usable, but also about the aesthetics, pleasure, and delight the products should provide.
There are different stages of the interaction when the product needs to appeal to customers. They’ll use different criteria when they’re deciding on purchase and when they’re using the product.
I practice the human-centered design approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behaviors first—then designing to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving. It relies on observations and discovering the right customer insights while also being aware how our personal sense making can color those insights.

Distribution Tool | Sephora

OBJECTIVE

Identify opportunities to optimize marketing distribution list creation.

PROCESS

I analyzed data provided by the client along with interview notes from business development meetings. I then found similar projects within the organization and conducted additional rounds of interviews. I designed discovery and ideation sessions with the customer and was also able to confirm and specify the key insights uncovered during the research.
Based on the data collected during the research and the customer sessions, I created wireframes outlining a new approach to the marketing distribution list creation. This idea was shaped together with the customer to create the final product which was developed and successfully adopted by the marketing team.

OUTCOME

This new process, together with the technological solution, significantly shortened the time needed for distribution list creation, lowered the error rate, and created additional value by utilizing the data in interactive reports and dashboards. It played a significant role in the entire customer experience.

Working with Pavel was a real treat! Every day, he brought both his excellent business savvy and also kind, human self to every challenge we threw his way - all throughout development of the tools and systems he supported our team in creating, maintaining, and constantly improving upon. Pavel has an impeccable way of absorbing pie-in-the-sky ideas from multiple inputs, and magically distilling it down to a simple and intuitive user experience. He also excels at quickly setting reasonable expectations and delivering on-time results. I truly hope this project was the first of many that we'll get to collaborate on.

Shannen Menzer | Production Operations Manager @ Sephora

Merchant Brand Site | MATE:TIME

OBJECTIVE

Redesign the online experience to magnify the brand value proposition and create online sales along with marketing infrastructure.

PROCESS

I researched the business environment and defined key areas for improvement. I quickly created a plan for how to approach the redesign. I covered dozens of technical solutions and platforms during my research to match the solution to the business needs.

OUTCOME

I set up the online business infrastructure and marketing channels. I also designed a new website look with a focus on explaining the value of the product first along with a strategy for online marketing. This included the development of marketing assets and campaign management.

Dyson Retail Audits Solution | EYELEVEL

OBJECTIVE

Design solution for managing Dyson retail auditing.

PROCESS

I collected initial data from account teams and then came with additional requests and questions regarding the auditing process.
I selected the most impactful areas of improvement and planned information structure supporting the auditing process. The research and interviews helped me understand the Dyson retail audit process and identify the added value for the team.

OUTCOME

I designed a solution that captured, stored, and visualized audit data and the progress of audits in selected verticals. This solution also automated the auditing plan and inspection schedules based on customer-defined parameters.

References

I had heard about Design Thinking prior to working with R2 and Pavel, but I didn’t quite grasp the impact it would have. I learned so much from that workshop about not just our business, but also about the importance of the design thinking process. Pavel took us through a design journey that started with us asking the question ‘what do our customer’s need to be successful?’ and ended with us really grasping not just what our customers need, but who they are, what they care about, what delights them and so much more. With Pavel’s help, we really dug in and not just pulled insight from the team internally, but from our customers as well. All of this insight led to a new vision statement, a roadmap of projects and most importantly, some much needed focus for our team. 

Erynn Baird | Customer Experience Director @ Opal

Working with Pavel was a real treat! Every day, he brought both his excellent business savvy and also kind, human self to every challenge we threw his way - all throughout development of the tools and systems he supported our team in creating, maintaining, and constantly improving upon. Pavel has an impeccable way of absorbing pie-in-the-sky ideas from multiple inputs, and magically distilling it down to a simple and intuitive user experience. He also excels at quickly setting reasonable expectations and delivering on-time results. I truly hope this project was the first of many that we'll get to collaborate on.

Shannen Menzer | Production Operations Manager @ Sephora

Working with Pavel was a huge boost for our team’s focus in 2021. Finding a method to better empathize with our users was key to unlocking the team’s creativity and motivation. He was able to break down a complex multi-day session into something digestible and fun, and it gave us some tools to keep this empathy front and center as we moved forward on improving our customer’s onboarding experience.

Andy Hugelier | Senior Director of Design @ Opal

Pavel is a generous and creative workshop facilitator who made sure to craft specific processes to meet our organization's needs. His work has been instrumental in focusing our direction and priorities. Very grateful for his time and insights. Thanks again!

Joel R. Putman | Co-Founder Prosocial Design Network