Catherine Louis and Stefan Haas met in 2012 at the Stoos Stampede in Amsterdam. Catherine attended as a founding member of the Stoos network, formed by a diverse group of twenty-one people with the intent of finding a better way of leadership in organizations today. During Stefan’s workshop about Culture Hacking, which combined artful interventions, design thinking and change they discovered they also shared a passion for lean agile product thinking.
In November 2012 they launched the first #PoDojo public workshop in Berlin with the goal of providing a safe space for product creators to practice and improve their skills by playing hands-on with digital product innovation tools and processes. Since then the Product Dojo, (named after “Dojo” (道場), the Japanese expression which means a room to practice martial arts) has exemplified a social and experiential learning experience of agile product thinking and practicing with processes to deal with the complex nonlinear challenges of digital business models and product innovation.
We believe that learning complex skill like product is a social task. From the groups of learners who joined the Product Dojo events in Berlin, a trusted partner network of highly experienced coaches sharing the passion for product, design, agile teamwork and innovation has emerged. Our partners bring complementary skills and deep expertise in the fields of Team Psychology, Personal Leadership development, Arts and Design Thinking. While teaching and coaching along with the growing community of hundreds of people who have joined the Product Dojo, we learn and share knowledge discovered on our evolving journey with the goal of improving our ability to create products customer will love.
We believe that creating customer value to support a viable business model isn’t enough in the anthropocene age. Climate change, accelerated species extinction and pollution of the planet are quickly becoming pressing issues. Product development is changing the world but cannot be unchanged. What is needed is a sustainable approach to business model and product innovation. We have included sustainability thinking into our learning journey and and support the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. From the increased awareness of sustainability new opportunity areas are emerging. We are constantly looking for ways to support initiatives that add real value.
Catherine Louis is a Certified Scrum TrainerTM, independent Agile coach, and co-founder of the #PoDojo, who lives in North Carolina. With over 20 years of experience in complex product development in both software & hardware, Catherine has previously led Agile transition efforts in top telecommunications firms and worked with North Carolina State University to conduct research on Agile Test-Driven development. She has conducted years of research and training on “building security” into your product, verifying that security protection mechanisms are in place and working before it’s too late. Catherine regularly speaks at Agile20XX conferences, is a lead for the “Working With Customers” track, and runs the AgileRTP meetup group, one of the largest Agile meetup groups in the US.
Stefan Haas is an independent agile coach and trainer for product development, innovation and change living in Berlin. Stefan utilizes a cultural hacker’s attitude and mindset to break rules to foster creativity and to find new ways to deal with the socio-technical complexity of agile transformation. He works with product teams and startups such as Wooga, Lotto24, brands4friends, MySugr, TUI and Daily Deal (formerly part of the Google family). Stefan is organizer of various Meetups in Berlin including: Agile Game Lab, Product Tank, and Culture Hacking. He is a regular speaker at events such as Global Scrum Gathering, StartupCamp, Scrum Day Berlin, Manage Agile Berlin and the International Conference on Lean Enterprise and Software Systems.
Holly Mae Haddock is a Creative Process Coach based in Portland, Oregon. Holly has a BA in Art from UC Berkeley, and an MA in Counselling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies.
Holly uses her background in the arts, mental health, conflict resolution and organisational psychology to help people play creatively, collectively. In addition to providing therapeutically-informed personal coaching for vocation, leadership skills development and wellbeing, she specialises in team genius, coaching best practices for psychological safety, innovation, conflict, diversity and collaboration.
Since befriending Stefan and the #PoDojo team in 2013, Holly includes agile, lean, and design thinking methodologies in her repertoire of supports, to help creators innovate happily and well.
Doris Mampe works as an artist manager and Design Thinking coach, focusing on connecting creative and innovative processes with business. Doris is based in Berlin and has 15 years of experience in supporting contemporary artists to realize their full potential. Doris also has a proven track record in project management, and was in charge of developing a range of major exhibitions, as well as opera productions. In her function as manager of a renowned german artist she is responsible for his public relations, marketing and sales, as well as all stakeholder management.
Curiosity and enthusiasm for the creative process led her to practice Design Thinking. Since 2018 Doris works as a Design Thinking coach, helping organizations and companies develop user-centric and holistic solutions using Design Thinking and Scrum in the digital and analog fields.
