About

About

I’m Christoffer Kittel, designer and product professional with a passion for building experiences, shaping teams and coaching individuals - with the end goal to crafting products that have a positive impact.

I’m Christoffer Kittel, designer and product professional with a passion for building experiences, shaping teams and coaching individuals - with the end goal to crafting products that have a positive impact.

Experience

2023-

CK Studios

Freelance Consultant

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Product Design, Product Strategy, Fractional Leadership, Thought Partnership, Speaker. Helping startups, established tech companies, organisations in transformation, schools etc. Clients include Epidemic Sound, Stim, Bergs School of Communication, Northern Standard, Lokaalt.

2021 - 2023

Mentimeter

VP Product Design

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I joined Mentimeter as the first formal leader of the design craft, with the mission to help grow and mature the design team as well as helping Mentimeter scale their Product organisation and ways of working.

I established tools, processes and principles for the Design team, including role descriptions, career frameworks, process toolkits, rituals and cultural norms. I also created and recruited the growing team through organisational design and principles. By 2023 the team was 26 people, including 4 managers overseeing Product Design, User Research, Content Design, Design Operations and a Design Systems Team.

As part of the Product leadership trio (with CPO and VP Engineering) I established and curated concepts like the Trio model, Empowered teams, Outcome based goal setting, Continuous Product Discovery, Prototype driven explorations, cross functional literacy, Strategic frameworks, Proactive alignment, user centricity etc.

I was also part of the bigger leadership forum, helping younger leaders succeed and grow.

Joined as Design Director, was promoted after 11 months to VP Product Design.

2019 - 2021

Kry

Head of Design

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Grew and shaped the Product Design team as the first design leader in a hypergrowth phase, taking the team from 5 designers to 50+ people - introducing roles such as user research, design operations, design directors, across 4 markets and offices.

Led the strategic design efforts and design vision. Helped build and scale the R&D department into multimarket org and 3 product areas. Collaborated with Brand Marketing on defining and launching a major brand identity overhaul. Led exploration of new multimarket features and products. Introduced modern scalable ways of working for design and product dept, including career framework and organisational principles.

Part of R&D Leadership trio with CPO and CTO. Part of extended management team.

2012 - 2018

Viaplay

Head of Design

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Overall responsible for the user experience of the Viaplay product. Introduced processes, tools, roles, and organisational setups to help the Product department and the design team to mature and improve their collaboration, quality and focus.

Oversaw strategic initiatives including innovation efforts, leading to ground breaking products and features such as the linear channel and the Olympics experiences.

Oversaw the Brand identity overhaul profect from a design and product perspective, leading to an updated visual identity, tonality and feature priority.

Grew the team from 3 to around 15. Part of the Product department leadership.

2002 - 2012

Past experience

• Senior Digital Art Director - Ottoboni (2010-2012)

• Creative Director - TV4 (2005-2010)

• Editor/Reporter - Internetworld (2004-2005)

• Editor/Developer - SVT (2002-2003)

Skills

• Product Strategy

• Product Process

• Product Design

• User Research

• Brand Identity

• Organisational Design

• People Management

• Scaling Orgs & Operations

• Leadership

• Empowerement


Speaker engagements

“The new era of Design Leadership”
- Design Talk @ Common Ground Studios, Sthlm (2023)

“Healthy habits of a Design Team”
- Design Talk @ From Business to Buttons design mingle hosted by Mentimeter (2022)

“Being the Product Designer in the internal team”
- Guest lecture @ Berghs SOC UX course (2018)

“Creating Moments that matter”
- Talk @ VUIX conference, London (2018)

“Building the Rio Olympics Product”
- Talk @ VUIX Conference, London (2017)

Beliefs

I have some core principles I try to apply to my professional life, that hopefully tells something about what I value as a person.

Always Learning

The day you stop learning you should probably quit. I try to frame all initiatives as learning opportunities, and I am driven by a joy of trying new things, understanding others more and developing myself.

Balance

I am old enough to understand my strengths and weaknesses, and when it comes to time and efficiency - I believe that balance is the key to get things done while also having energy for a rich social life. But balance needs to be explicit and nurtured.

Empathy

Whether it’s understanding customer needs in a structured way to guide your product or building relationships based on curiosity of others - empathy is a skill I try to apply and refine in my everday life.

People first

My career is primarily about building relationships. Even if I like to perform well and acheive goals, at the end of the day I collect great people rather than companies or roles.

I have some core principles I try to apply to my professional life, that hopefully tells something about what I value as a person.

Always Learning

The day you stop learning you should probably quit. I try to frame all initiatives as learning opportunities, and I am driven by a joy of trying new things, understanding others more and developing myself.

Balance

I am old enough to understand my strengths and weaknesses, and when it comes to time and efficiency - I believe that balance is the key to get things done while also having energy for a rich social life. But balance needs to be explicit and nurtured.

Empathy

Whether it’s understanding customer needs in a structured way to guide your product or building relationships based on curiosity of others - empathy is a skill I try to apply and refine in my everday life.

People first

My career is primarily about building relationships. Even if I like to perform well and acheive goals, at the end of the day I collect great people rather than companies or roles.

I have some core principles I try to apply to my professional life, that hopefully tells something about what I value as a person.

Always Learning

The day you stop learning you should probably quit. I try to frame all initiatives as learning opportunities, and I am driven by a joy of trying new things, understanding others more and developing myself.

Balance

I am old enough to understand my strengths and weaknesses, and when it comes to time and efficiency - I believe that balance is the key to get things done while also having energy for a rich social life. But balance needs to be explicit and nurtured.

Empathy

Whether it’s understanding customer needs in a structured way to guide your product or building relationships based on curiosity of others - empathy is a skill I try to apply and refine in my everday life.

People first

My career is primarily about building relationships. Even if I like to perform well and acheive goals, at the end of the day I collect great people rather than companies or roles.

Personal

Born and raised in Skanör, I have been based in Stockholm since 1999, where I live with my wife Sophie, my two kids Klara and Viktor, and our dog Tyra.

I love to play music, ski, travel, watch great movies, hang out with friends and play video games.