I am an experienced interaction designer & design researcher with a Scandinavian participatory mindset that use a human-centered, data-informed process to solve meaningful design problems at the intersection of people, technology, and business needs.
I have 8 years of experience of researching, designing, launching and growing digital products and services.
I lead the end-to-end design process, from discovery research and problem framing to ideation, co-creation, prototyping, and user testing, culminating in high-fidelity designs that significantly impact business outcomes.
I hold an MSc in IT Product Design with a focus on interaction design, participatory design and innovation, and design research. And prior to that, I successfully finished a Bachelor degree in Applied Informatics with the focus on information systems.
I have gained a multidisciplinary skill set with a various design palette
The design education shaped my approach from rational problem-solving to problem-finding within a situated-constructive view of designing. I am passionate about how the physical and digital worlds might be connected and go beyond screens. I enjoy working in multicultural environments with multidisciplinary teams where innovations emerge. I like to work in the fuzzy front end of the design development process in order to seek for meaning. Based on that I am able to solve challenging design problems driving meaningful impact.
Expertise
Interaction design, rapid prototyping
Product discovery, design thinking
Participatory design, co-design
Design research
Design anthropology
Key influencers
E. Stolterman, J. Redström, N. Cross, D. Schön, J. Dewey, P. Ehn, T. Binder, L. Sanders, P. J. Stappers, K. Dorst, J. Buur, P.Dourish, IDEO, my brother
My design manifesto
Skills
Research & Design methods
Ethnographic fieldwork
Cultural probes, Generative toolkits
Contextual inquiry, Observation
Interviews
Surveys
Card sorting, IA
Co-creation sessions
JTBD, Personas, User Scenarios/Stories/Flows
Storyboarding
Experience/User/Customer journey mapping
Sketching, Wireframing
Low/High-Fidelity Prototyping
Experience Prototyping, Applied Theatre
UX Design, UI Design
User testing, Usability testing
Information visualization
Electronics & Physical Prototyping
Laser cutting, 3D printing
Cardboard modeling, workshop tools
Visual
Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign
Video & 3D
Adobe Premiere/After Effects
Camtasia
3Ds Max, V-Ray, Rhino 3D
Coding & Programming
HTML, CSS
PHP, SQL
Arduino, Particle
Tools
Post-it, paper, pen
Figma, Axure RP, Sketch, InVision, Pixate
Miro, Balsamiq, Webflow, Keynote, Whimsical
Google Analytics, Matomo, SurveyMonkey, Typeform
Tools I plan to experiment with
Processing, Wekinator, Raspberry Pi
Work Experience
Principal Product Designer
Gen Digital / Avast | Prague, Czechia | August 2020 - Present
Empowering IT administrators to easily manage the security of their business, all from one platform. (avast.com/business/business-hub)
I strengthen 2 empowered product teams (design, PM, dev) to identify and solve user pain points as well as uncover new design opportunities. I test assumptions with various stakeholders by design experiments. I perform discovery and craft improvements. I help to grow design team, mentor junior designers, and improve design & research processes.
I have contributed to the design of new security services and features, including patch management, USB protection, network discovery, remote device management, and the platform's alerts and email notifications.
Activities:
• Working closely with users, product managers, designers, user researchers and developers, sales, customer support and marketing
• Drive discovery projects
• Synthesis
• Design workshops with multiple stakeholders
• Sketching, wireframing, low & high-fi prototyping and user testing
• Visual UI Design, Design system
• UX Strategy
Senior UX Designer
Boehringer Ingelheim | Vienna, Austria | July 2019 - July 2020
As a lead product designer and user researcher, I drive continuous discovery and development of the innovative data-rich web application that empowers researchers in a drug development process to select the right patients for clinical trials.
I help to understand and define user needs, goals and frustrations.
I design new valuable features and improve search experience by continuous discovery.
I involve the product development team, users and other stakeholders in the collaborative design process (Lean UX approach).
I contribute to product strategy and roadmap planning.
I share design knowledge with other internal designers to maintain a design-driven organization.
Activities:
• Working closely with users, experts, product owner, scrum master, junior designer, data scientists and developers in 2-week Scrum sprints.
• Leading User research (interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, web analytics, etc.)
• Synthesis (KJ method, personas, user journey mapping, etc.)
• Design workshops with multiple stakeholders
• Sketching, wireframing, low & high-fi prototyping and user testing
• UI Design, Visual Design
• UX Strategy, Product Management
Innovation Designer
Direct People | Prague, Czechia | November 2017 - February 2019
Designing and launching new meaningful products and services for diverse clients from healthcare, finance, gastronomy, mobility, to news media industries.
Working on discovery and delivery projects in multidisciplinary teams with use of Design Thinking methodology.
Activities:
• Plan, lead and synthesize user research (interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, surveys, web analytics, A/B testing, etc.)
• Synthesis (KJ method, customer journey mapping, etc.)
• co-facilitate design thinking workshops with diverse stakeholders
• Concept development (UX/UI Design)
• Prototyping and user testing
• Execution and design strategy
• Project Management, Online Marketing, Copywriting
Clients: Skoda Auto, Linet, Olympus, Economia, etc.
Master Thesis Student
Volvo Cars | Copenhagen, Denmark | January 2017 - June 2017
Design opportunities for passengers of fully autonomous vehicles.
RQ: What kind of opportunities fully AVs might provide for supporting social connectedness among young travelers on road trips?
Activities:
• Exploratory, generative and evaluative research
• Design workshops with internal and external stakeholders
• Concept development
• Prototyping and testing
UX Design Intern
Concur | Prague, Czechia | August 2016 - December 2016 (part-time)
• Collaboration with designers on a mobile expense product
• Design and present an innovative concept related to travel and expense management for business travelers (from user research to prototyping and user testing)
• Research and implement a Desirability Testing method into product development in order to measure intangible aspects of user experience
• Graphic design for the Intern Hackathon (logo, posters, cups, t-shirts, stickers)
Interim UX Designer
Bisnode Czech Republic | Prague, Czechia | September 2015 - June 2016 (part-time)
External cooperation in product development of enterprise web application.
UX Designer
Bisnode Czech Republic | Prague, Czechia | August 2014 - August 2015
I implemented a user-centered design process into a product development of B2B SaaS modular application.
I helped to understand and define target users.
I improved user experience of developed modules of the app (redesign).
I designed a new module for market segmentation.
Activities:
• Participation in the development of enterprise web application
• Conducting user research: in-depth interviews, focus group, surveys, card sorting, user testing
• Creating personas, user requirements, user scenarios, user stories and user flows
• Producing sketches, wireframes and interactive prototypes for testing and evaluating concepts
• Running usability testing of web application
• Working closely with users, product managers, visual designer and developers
• Collaboration on improving Customer Experience
Education
MSc in IT Product Design
University of Southern Denmark | Kolding, Denmark | 2015 - 2017
Interaction Design, Embodied Technology, Participatory Innovation, Design Anthropology, Applied Theatre, Video and design, Service design and Co-Design.
Thesis in collaboration with Volvo Cars.
Bc in Applied Informatics
University of Economics | Prague, Czechia | 2011 - 2015
Information Systems, Software Engineering, Business
Thesis in collaboration with Hotel.cz - "Analysis of GUI Accommodation Booking Portals".
Automation Technology and Computer Applications
Secondary Technical School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering | Usti nad Labem, Czechia | 2007 - 2011
Publications
Jakub Sypniewski, Jakub Rybar, Steven Beck Klingberg, Robb Mitchell. 2018. Towards Dynamic Perspective Exchange in Physical Games. In CHI'18.[PDF]
Jakub Sypniewski, Jakub Rybar, Steven Beck Klingberg. 2017. The Channel Surfers: Dynamic Swapped-perspective Collaborative Game for Dissolving Interpersonal Boundaries. In SIDeR'17. [PDF]
Public speaking
I run a workshop about "Using improvisation in design" at UX Camp 2023.
I presented the research paper at SIDeR 2017 in Delft, Netherlands.
I facilitated the project's playful performance at Playful Arts Festival 2016 in ‘sHertogenbosch, Netherlands, Pixelache Festival 2016 in Helsinki, Finland, and at LiveHerring Festival 2016 in Jyväskylä, Finland.
Courses
Lean UX and Agile
Being UX Leader
Design Thinking
Application Design
Languages
English - C1
Czech - native
German - A1
Slovak - bilingual
Personal projects
IoT projects
2020
Doučoval.cz
2015
Personal tutoring system
N-Gage Club.cz
2004 - 2008
Portal about Nokia Symbian mobile phones (1000 users/day)
Personal interests
Apart from designing, I enjoy traveling around the world, capturing experiences with my digital camera and drone. I like to practice Wing Chun, perform improvisational theatre, ride on my gravel bike, longboard & surf, read books about design theory, meditate, take cold showers and listen to rock music. I am deeply fascinated by both Scandinavian countries and Japan, and I hold a keen interest in architecture, particularly the Japandi interior style.
