Dré Nitze Nelson

In my role as VP of Brand, Design, and UX at AiDEN, I've been instrumental in defining and shaping the company's digital product design, experiences, and brand identity.

Key Responsibilities:

Key Challenges:

Achievements:

I was hired to explore future product opportunities and to create a evaluation matrix. I conceptualized and lead the In-Vehicle UXD, interior design exploration and HMI definition to incorporate a controlled illuminated environment, positional audio, camera and sensor setup to generate A/V stream. As a second task, I lead the design effort of a L5 first class premium and business class exterior concept car. This show car concept included an immersive 3D dome experience and holographic conferencing for automotive applications.

Strategy

Product

Experience

Initially I was hired as the UI Design Manager, joining BYTON at an early stage in late summer 2017. After three months, I became Director of Digital Product Experience and was tasked to restructure the UI/UX design team. I hired over 25 product designers within a year. Besides recruiting and team building, my initial challenge was to shape the digital product strategy for drivers and passengers.

The main task however, was to create a robust and scalable interaction model for BYTON’s very unique HMI, including the BYTON Stage - a 48” non-touch display, five touch displays in various sizes, a driver touch display in the center of the steering wheel and center console, rear seat entertainment as well as Byton air gesture, voice commands and gaze.

Responsibilities:

• Hired and built a design team of 25+ people across Santa Clara, Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and Munich
• Converted a concept show car experience into a fully functional product for production on time
• Implemented design thinking process to ensure premium product quality
• Spearheaded building UX lab including driver seating buck with connected driver simulation in SC, MUC and NJ for user testing and validation
• Developed fully functional unity based design rapid prototype platform to allow design and engineer team to fail fast and to streamline production efforts
• Executed scrum method within cross functional team to streamline production pipeline
• Ensured alignment of product specifications with other domains and function owners to optimize process
• Developed UX architecture as core base of Byton’s unique HMI
• Created scenarios, user flows and use cases to align with product owners and stakeholders
• Developed content and information architecture as the foundation of the in-vehicle experience
• Specified BYTON ID multi user and profile management to ensure scalability
• Designed and developed scalable interaction models to provide safe operation
• Managed UI design exploration which led to Byton’s patent UI design
• Created hands-on UI mental model as part of overall interaction
• Managed UI design system as part of x-functional team exercise and production pipeline
• Created HMI interaction to ensure smooth hand off to tooling
• Managed HMI ergonomics to ensure safe operation
• Created ADAS, Powertrain, HAVC IxD to support unique band promise
• Managed instrument cluster design to ready it for homologation
• Managed and facilitated user validation and testing to ensure user acceptance
• Measured cognitive load A-B scenarios for safe operation and to avoid legal challenges after SoP

Patents:

• SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC OVERRIDE OF AUTOMOTIVE VIDEO
• SHIFTING A ROAD VIEW BASED ON A SPEED FOR A VEHICLE
• GRID FOR TEMPERATURE CONTROL AND FAN SPEED
• DISPLAY SCREEN OR PORTION THEREOF WITH A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
• INTEGRATED FUNCTIONALITY OF CENTER DISPLAY, DRIVER DISPLAY, AND SHARED-EXPERIENCE DISPLAY

Media Interviews:

• MotorTrend, Transport Evolved, find more here...

Reference:

Jeff Chung - [LinkedIn]

As Sr. Product Manager - Future Mobility Vision at BOSCH in Palo Alto, I was hired to identify new product opportunities in the space of Shared Autonomous Vehicle (SAV L5).
My approach was to translate BOSCH’s corporate strategy into realistic product opportunities, including individual roadmaps for each product concept. Our small team of 15 people was efficient, creative and incredibly fast. Within only 3 months I was able to create twelve high-level product opportunities. I boiled them down to three robust mid-level concepts and pitched them.

Responsibilities:

• Created new business models for Bosch CM PJ/MI to ensure a future ready product portfolio for Shared Autonomous Vehicle [SAV-L5]
• Analyzed user needs to define relevant use cases and full user journeys to define future business opportunities
• Synthesized user study data to improve the next loop of the UX process
• Developed business plans for twelve product opportunities for SAV-L5
• Managed user test and prototypes, including physical setup
• Created an In-Vehicle and Passenger Sensing project which went on to win Bosch’s “Top Project” award ensuring it was funded with a hundred million dollar development budget

Clients:

NIO, Car2Go, Ford, Smart Mobility Service

Achievements:

In-Vehicle and Passenger Sensing Bosch Top Project

Reference:

Dr. Dietmar Meister - [LinkedIn]

I started at icon as a freelancer in 2013 and was hired as Design Lead in spring 2014. My first project, a future mobility concept car for GM was complex and creatively challenging.

Responsibilities:

• Led Visual design, hired and grew a cross functional team
• Mentored visual designers enabling them to to generate concepts of interactive product behaviors
• Facilitated client feedback into actionable tasks for team to ensure smooth execution
• Collaborated on user experience planning with stakeholders to optimize design process
• Researched interactive design/technology trends to implement new strategies to improve product development
• Optimized time management and open communication to avoid organizational and team alignment issues

Clients:

GM show car, BOSCH CES show car 2016, 2017, Ford North America, Ford Middle East, Lincoln North America, P&G, and so many more exciting project I can't even recall anymore...

Achievements:

Three show car experiences, release DTV OTT, In-Vehicle Ford Pass

Reference:

Chris Colinsky - [LinkedIn]

I founded Alligator Industries as extension of my Germany-based agency, Golden Alligator, to support international clients.

Responsibilities:

• Built company from ground-level, including creating strategy and overall business direction
• Scouted a diverse group of designers, developers and strategists into a robust core team
• Facilitated an open, collaborative company culture, always searching new ways to collaborate
• Allocated capital to the company’s priorities to ensure smooth operation
• Pitched, sold and delivered product strategies successfully to partners and clients
• Developed digital publishing platform ‘PADNITY’

Clients:

RedBull, World Wide, Woodbury University, Audi, Exxon Mobile, Samsung

Achievements:

Digital publishing platform PADNITY sold

Reference:

Shari Bowles Gibbons - [LinkedIn]

When I met Miles Kemp (founder and president of Variate Labs, LLC) the first time, I immediately knew we are going to have a long history.

Responsibilities:

• Led a specialized team to design and develop a Work Order App to enable Helmerich & Payne employees to view, create and complete work orders in an efficient and easy manner
• Worked closely with client throughout the project to design a robust application that can grow with the company and include feature functionality
• Performed on-site field tests to determine features and improve usability in desert, off-shore and permafrost environments

Clients:

Petersen Car Museum, Helmerich & Payne, Inc., QUIXEY, AC/DC [yes, the rock band!], Pacific Western Bank

Achievements:

Released multiple exhibits including at Petersen Car Museum. Shipped fleet, inventory work order app. Website relaunch for PWBank

Reference:

Miles Kemp - [LinkedIn]

I co-founded Funbuilt together with Alan Koch and Miles Kemp in New York City. Our office was in LA and in Berlin. My contribution was limited since I had my own agency Golden Alligator.

Responsibilities:

• Shaped Digital Product Strategy to decide the exact steps to be taken to make YourSay a success
• Created and managed high-level concepts and user experience to support fundraising
• Co-developed business plan and roadmap/product circle as essential first founding step

Achievements:

Seed Funding $1M

Reference:

Alan Koch - [LinkedIn]

I co-founded Golden Alligator together with Bernd Trautwein in Berlin. It was created to digitalize brand experiences. We designed and developed successful multi media landing pages, extended band campaigns into the digital space and produced premium interactive videos. I hired 13 designers, strategists, project managers, 3D artists and developers.

Responsibilities:

• Built company from ground-level, including creating strategy and overall business direction
• Scouted a diverse group of designers, developers and strategists into a robust core team
• Facilitated an open, collaborative company culture, always searching new ways to collaborate
• Allocated capital to the company’s priorities to ensure smooth operation
• Pitched, sold and delivered product strategies successfully to partners and clients
• Oversaw business development of employees in accordance with company culture


Clients:

Audi, Cutwater SF, Dutton Architects, Red Bull, VCCP, GiroPay, Deutsche Sparkasse, DK Bank, Post Bank, Samsung, NerdZone, Misson Finanz Check, MeoClinic, Sky, Feuersozietät, AMD, Styron Automotive, EXXON, iPi

Achievements:

Web award website of the year

Reference:

John Dutton - [LinkedIn]

Working with Dietmar Burmester was inspiring and a positive challenge. To me, Dietmar was ‘The Steve Jobs' of Audiosystems. Every single business decision, engineering, product and sound design was driven by his vision to create sound experience better than live- with success!

Responsibilities:

• Managed and envisioned the Burmester brand digitally
• Reworked the entire product catalog to build and sustain company's reputation for quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction online

PROJECTS:

Porsche Soundsystem, digital communication strategy, design and development

Achievements:

Website relaunch, Alignment product pipeline and communication strategy

Reference:

Ralf Mannhardt - [LinkedIn]

Back in 1996, the web was still very young, experimental and slow - very slow. 56kb AOL modems and Internet Explorer 3.0 was still in war with Netscape. Google wasn’t a thing yet. Instead, everyone used Lycos. DHTML was just born and I was blown away. It was a time when everything seemed to be possible. My desire to develop rich media websites opened a door to found a creative web design agency. My dream was to tailor the perfect experience for my clients and their consumers. This was in the pre-smartphone era in the very early days of mobile and social media. I co-founded New Image in August 1998 together with Frank Holtschke. I met him when I worked as UI designer at a little start-up in my hometown. He was our Sun Solaris Microsystems and network administrator. When Frank saw my work, he convinced me that we can do so much more and better if we would work together in our own agency. Only a few months later, we pitched a re-design to the biggest financial network in the EU - and won a significant budget to build the websites of over 300 banks. As it turned out, we also got the budget to develop a tailored content management system for the organization. “ELEXIR"

Responsibilities:

• Built company from ground-level, including creating strategy and overall business direction
• Scouted a diverse group of designers, developers and strategists into a robust core team
• Facilitated an open, collaborative company culture, always searching new ways to collaborate
• Allocated capital to the company’s priorities to ensure smooth operation
• Pitched, sold and delivered product strategies successfully to partners and clients
• Researched competitors and kept abreast of market trends
• Leadership maximized employee performance to new heights
• Oversaw business development of employees in accordance with company culture


Clients:

Deutsche Sparkasse Finanz Gruppe

Achievements:

Sold Elexir CMS to Sparkassen Finanz IT, Online Style guide 40 million active user world wide

Reference:

Jaro von Flocken - [LinkedIn]