Michael Schade UX Research, Service &
Strategic Design
As a full-circle designer, researcher and technologist with extensive experience in the product, agency and consulting space I can help you to:
Unlock
predictable
growth
Flexibly
adapt to
unforeseen events
Minimize
losses by
mitigating risk
Leverage
business impact
through increased
customer value
Leverage
business impact
through increased
customer value
... and lead teams
to build amazing products
people will love.
Voicemod is a generative AI voice and audio platform for 40M MAU.
There I matured and scaled the research discipline, leading to measurable improvements in business strategy and customer value.
+34 %
growth of conversion rate
Native Instruments is a leading company in music technology.
Proudly enhanced Kontakt's usability, business model and developer experience, marking a milestone for future generations.
More than
22%
in revenue growth
The Taycan was Porsche's first ever electric vehicle. Through contextual user research and UX prototyping we build a functional yet luxurious Infotainment System and service ecosystem fitting the class of its exterior.
UX concept
of the 1st
Porsche EV
The Siemens award winning household appliances show the design-technology connection I stand for. I led projects reflecting the whole innovation cycle from research, product, & service prototyping to MVP development.
RED DOT
+ IF
design
award
I'm a researcher and designer with +8 years of experience in strategy, service design, UX research and technology.
Curious
Researcher
Conscious
Leader
Mindful
Innovator
I truly enjoy leading teams through the process of creating meaningful, human-centered products and services.
My journey has taken me across various industries, including deep tech, generative AI, audio, automotive and healthcare.
Today I'm a lead product researcher at Miro, responsible for the Enterprise space: agentic administration, AI security and compliance, and the enterprise buyer experience.
I enjoy simplifying complex challenges and guiding teams in making confident decisions using frameworks from my Design MBA. By setting up test environments for business models, I help teams balance customer value with business impact.
Having served on the management board in a previous role, I bring strong leadership experience to the table. I’m also passionate about mentoring designers and scaling teams, empowering people to make thoughtful, empathetic decisions that lead to products users love.
With a mix of diplomacy and transparency, I prioritize clear communication at every level, offering tools that make strategic decision-making easier and more impactful.
Service and business design are at the heart of my work, allowing me to blend my generalist design skills with a curious mindset. I thrive on facilitating workshops with interdisciplinary teams, tailoring design sprints with custom frameworks for both on-site and remote sessions.
Contributing to building the Service Design discipline for an international organization has been an important part of my journey, as well as leading Enterprise Design Thinking workshops for big institutions.
I focus on aligning user value with business impact, bringing teams together to create solutions that benefit both the user and the business.
My approach focuses on connecting qualitative user insights to strategic business decisions, always asking, "So, having learned this, what do we do next?" With experience in hiring and scaling research teams, I ensure that research practices are effectively integrated into organizations.
Building and nurturing research operations is key to fostering a continuous research practice. I thrive on promoting cross-functional collaboration with marketing, data analytics, and customer experience teams to align user needs with business goals.
Leveraging various qualitative and quantitative UX research methods, I develop custom UX metrics that inform and guide decision-making.
With a background in creative technology, I find that lines of code spark my curiosity rather than intimidate me. While my career has shifted more toward strategic roles, I still thrive on tackling complex technological challenges. My genuine interest in deep tech industries drives me to stay informed about the evolving discussions surrounding artificial intelligence, automation, and privacy.
This technical expertise allows me to build in-house tools for designers and researchers and create hardware and software prototypes as needed for projects.
In summary, while I enjoy leading teams and influencing strategic decisions, I also have a solid understanding of the technological implications on both front and back end. This enables me to communicate transparently with developers as well as to create software and physical prototypes myself that make experiences tangible for users and other stakeholders.
Michael is an inspiring tech innovator and service designer. I’ve gotten to know him as an exceptionally energetic, open-minded and creative person.
The problems we worked on were as wide-ranging as uncovering latent user needs and market opportunities in the US as well as finding new service-driven business opportunities in a highly-iterative sprint approach.
I consider him to be a true team player and have come to greatly value his humorous, pleasant, and supportive influence on his co-workers.
As the Director of UX Research at Voicemod, I have had the privilege of working closely with Michael over the past years, during which time he has consistently demonstrated exceptional skills, leadership, and dedication to user-centered design and research.
He has an innate ability to put user needs first while also considering the broader business context. This balanced approach has resulted in solutions that not only delight our users but also drive key business metrics.
I've had the pleasure of working with Michael in multiple roles and companies over the years. What always stood out was his service-minded approach to design.
He focuses not just on creating pretty artefacts but on deeply understanding the entire user journey. Michael knows how users think, feel, and act, and can translate that into insights that businesses can understand and act upon both operationally and strategically.
Michael is an exceptional professional with excellent specialist knowledge and a remarkable ability to quickly learn and apply new skills.
He consistently delivers high-quality work, even under pressure, and adapts well to new challenges. His structured approach, independence, and strong commitment have earned him recognition from both colleagues and clients.
Michael's resilience, customer-oriented service, and positive attitude make him a valuable team member.
During our time together at Voicemod, Michael has consistently impressed me with his skills as a product / service designer and UX researcher.
His versatility, professionalism, and meticulous attention to detail set him apart. Michael's valuable insights enhance our projects, his documentation is fantastic, and his adept facilitation of workshops, particularly in product strategy, showcase his leadership.
Beyond his professional attributes, Michael's friendly and organized approach make him a pleasure to work with. I wholeheartedly recommend Michael.