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. Here’s our GoSustainable Roadmap and please get in touch if you want to contribute.
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 co-founder and CEO of #PoDojo where we help people create sustainable products customers love. Stefan is passionate about teaching and coaching product people in lean and agile methods to solve real problems of customers. As CEO of the growing network of partners his main objective is to transform the company into a sustainable business. As coach he helps his clients to tackle complex product strategy questions, design an agile organisation, nurture an innovation culture, and establish an entrepreneurial leadership style that enables independent autonomous product and innovation teams to strive.
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.
Büşra Coşkuner evolved into a Product Coach and Trainer in Zurich while working within the product-side of large and small companies of various disciplines like Doodle, Home24, siroop, Deutsche Telekom Technischer Service and more. She helps individuals ramp up their product, people and process skills, find their own product management style, and become more confident in their daily product work. Büşra is a sparring partner for product leads who need a different perspective regarding their plans. Believing in evidence based decision making, lean and agile principles and practices, and speed with data, she supports companies by building product organizations and by fostering product thinking… all while standing true to her principles of transparency, collaboration and communication.
Hannah Koch is a researcher, inventor and coach. She has a passion for innovation and problem finding and a solid background in science, design and engineering. She has a MSC in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University and is a graduate from HPI d.school for Design Thinking.
She works as a Design Thinking Coach and as a PhD researcher. Hannah combines knowledge from engineering and science with design methods and vice versa to help startups, companies and institutes to innovate through agile prototyping. With her knowledge she enables innovation along the supply chain, productions line and product development. On the academic side Hannah researches in her PhD at RWTH Aachen University the application of human-centered design for material science and engineering.
Hannah truly practices innovation through thinking with your hands and loves to enable others doing so.
Philipp Scheller has more than 16 years of professional experience in digital product development, innovation management and agile transformation. He supports both DAX30 companies and startups with his many years of experience in the areas of agile leadership, startup scaling and design thinking. He also teaches this knowledge as a lecturer at the School of Management & Innovation. Philipp is also a book author for innovation topics such as gamification and agile project management and keynote speaker at conferences.
