Hi, I’m Henning. Product builder, which used to be three jobs.
- Based in
- Berlin
- Languages
- German, English, Eşim Türk. Biraz Türkçe konuşuyorum ama öğreniyorum!
- Building since
- 2006
Then the line between them disappeared.
Engineering and design, now one job.
I have a master’s in computer science and I started out as a full stack developer. In 2011 I founded a studio in Erfurt called Zebresel: fifty odd clients over three years, and two products of our own. One of them, a digital signage system, came straight out of my master’s thesis, the first time I turned my own research into something people paid for.
Since then I have spent twelve years designing products: a point of sale for restaurants at Pepperbill, order management at GoodsCloud in Berlin, and, once NewStore bought GoodsCloud, NewStore, where I lead design today as Director of Design. For a long time I treated those as two careers, and introduced myself with only one of them.
Working with AI, the gap between designing a thing and building it collapsed. I now work across engineering, product and design. Three products went live this year, designed, built and shipped end to end, alongside a full time job. One of them I built in 32 days on parental leave, mostly from my phone, and wrote down how it actually went.
I took over a design function with no designers left in it.
Nine years at NewStore.
- 0
- designers left when I took over
- 4
- disciplines in the design function today
- 9
- years at NewStore
When I became Head of Product Design at NewStore the design function had to be rebuilt. I rebuilt it step by step: product designers first, then research, then I took over the documentation, and later brought in communication design.
What I built was not a team chart. It was a way of working that holds up when I am not in the room: how a problem gets mapped, how research travels, how feedback works, how goals are set, and what the next level asks of a designer. The whole operating system is here.
When retail partners kept hitting rendering problems in the point of sale app, I set up the environment locally and diagnosed them myself. Nobody else had the context, so I went in.
On the core checkout workflows I defined the reliability bar we had to hit and left the route to the team. My job was to be unambiguous about the destination, not to drive.
Arguing for the AI work that got customers reliable answers faster. Not doing it myself, but making sure the people doing it had the room and the resources.
My team can ask for the mode they need.
How I lead.
This is the way I lead my team. Some work needs me hands on, some needs me to set the bar and let them drive, and some needs me to clear the way and step back. Instead of guessing which version of me they will get, my team asks for the one they need, by name.
How I found the three modesMaking people better is not a strategy.
It is the reason.
I want to help people get better at what they do. I believe the right tool can change what a person is capable of: make them faster, braver, free to focus on the work instead of the friction around it. That’s my mission, plainly stated: build things that help people do their best work and feel good doing it. Leading my design team is the same belief, pointed at the people doing the building.
The people you lead get a manager who noticed the pattern, instead of one who kept repeating it.
Dinner stops being a question somebody has to answer at six o’clock, every evening, for the rest of their life.
Everyone on your team opens what you made from one link, and nobody outside the company can.
Someone on a shop floor can answer the question while the customer is still standing there, instead of disappearing to go and check.
What the people around me said.
From below, across and above.
“I learned so much from his empathetic and transparent leadership style. He created a space where feedback and ideas were valued, and that made a big difference for the team’s growth.”
Sarah den BoerProduct Designer, reported to Henning“He has a rare ability to zoom into the smallest design details while simultaneously steering bold, strategic bets. A real superstar player-coach.”
Mitun PandeyDirector of Product Operations“He builds design culture, influences how teams think, and helps shape the way we work. He is a builder, a mentor, and someone who always shows up with a strong sense of purpose.”
Phil GranofChief Marketing OfficerWhat the work was worth.
What it added up to.
Disciplines in the design function I rebuilt, from product design alone to research, content and communication design alongside it.
Increase in store revenue for retailers on NewStore, where I designed the omnichannel features.
Store associates using what the team shipped, at 80+ brands in 40+ countries.
The year we filed for mobile point of sale between two phones, granted as US 11,379,813 B2, four years before Tap to Pay on iPhone.
Products of my own since 2025, designed, built and released end to end, on iOS and the web.
Clients in three years at the studio I founded, before we turned to two products of our own.
Where the time went.
The whole record.
Own products
NewStore
GoodsCloud
Pepperbill
Zebresel
University of Applied Sciences ErfurtOwn products
Since 2025Three products, designed, built and shipped end to end, alongside the day job.
- Independent products, alongside NewStore2025 to present
- Three products, designed, built and shipped end to end: WhatWeCook, meal planning for households on iOS and the web; ShareMyPage, a multi-tenant SaaS live since June 2026, where the isolation model is the architecture rather than a feature; and Intura, a reflection journal for people who lead, with a server that keeps nothing.
- A personal design lab: staying hands on with emerging tools, so the leadership judgement stays attached to how the work is actually made.
NewStore
2017 to nowTook the design function over with no designers left in it and rebuilt it from one discipline into four.
- Director of DesignApr 2024 to present
- Own the design function, its tooling, the platform documentation and newstore.com.
- Made design a strategic partner to product and engineering rather than a service to them.
- Led design across the flagship products: the Associate App, Omnichannel Manager, the platform documentation and newstore.com, together used by 80,000+ people at work every month at brands including Clarks, Fossil, Burton and AllSaints.
- Made handoffs to engineering smoother and raised customer satisfaction through better specs, onboarding and shared systems.
- Built repeatable hiring loops and a design system, and set the documentation strategy the company now writes through.
- Head of Product DesignApr 2018 to Mar 2024
- Took over a design function that had to be rebuilt, and rebuilt it step by step: product designers first, then research, then the documentation, and later communication design.
- Introduced the foundational processes, the design rituals and the first components of the design system.
- Mentored senior individual contributors and introduced levelling, goal setting and performance frameworks.
- Set the standard by building the first one rather than describing it: I designed the first version of the Associate App, then handed each area to a designer on the team.
- Senior Product DesignerApr 2017 to Mar 2018
- Led UX for mobile point of sale in its early growth phase, shipping the workflows now used by top global retailers.
- Introduced usability testing and design validation, moving the team from assumption-driven design to insight-led delivery.
GoodsCloud
2015 to 2017Acquired by NewStore two years after I joined, which is how one job became the next without changing desk.
- Product DesignerApr 2015 to Mar 2017
- Led product design for the back office of an omnichannel order management platform serving European retailers.
- Turned complex inventory, order and fulfilment workflows into interfaces retail operations could actually run, and cut onboarding time for a new retail client by about 40%.
- Played a key part in the UX alignment leading up to the acquisition by NewStore and the move onto one unified retail platform.
Pepperbill
2014 to 2015- Product DesignerApr 2014 to Mar 2015
- Designed the back office for a mobile iOS point of sale running in 500+ restaurants, bars and clubs, and cut the setup time for a new venue by about 30%.
Zebresel
2011 to 2014A studio in Erfurt, and the first time research of mine turned into something people paid for.
- Founder and Design LeadApr 2011 to Mar 2014
- Founded a studio and led its design: 50+ clients across e-commerce and SaaS in three years, then pivoted from client work to products of our own.
- Launched two. Signum+, a digital signage system that came straight out of my master’s thesis, the first time I turned my own research into something people paid for. And Beamerlasershow, an iOS app for the event industry.
University of Applied Sciences Erfurt
2008 to 2014- BSc and MSc Computer Science2008 to 2014
- Six years of computer science, which is the reason design, product and engineering are one conversation rather than three.
