Max Tillich

Designing products to learn what we should have tried instead. Driven by craft, curiosity and good teams.

Currently Sr Design Manager at Utopia ↗

Smart Insurance Wallet

Redefined the first mile and core experience of CLARK’s smart insurance wallet. Informed by insights from usage and qualitative data, I designed experiments and vision prototypes in close collaboration with Product and Engineering leads, leading to increased retention and a positive impact on sales

Case study on request

Boosted Savings with DeFi,
without jargon

I lead the pivot of our Bitcoin micro investing app to become an engaging savings product that democratizes access to high interest rates that get a boost when you unlock achievements.

Case study on request

  • Hi

  • 💡🏃🌄

  • dough hydration 65%

  • taming noodles

  • <3

  • implementing continuous discovery

  • Making everyone sketch :)

  • "just 3 more days to fine-tune these"

People, Craft, Curiosity

I’m a product designer and recently manager based in Berlin.

Over the past 10 years, I've had the opportunity to build products with diverse teams across music, crypto, insurance and streaming.

Designing at startups has always been a process of learning what we should have built instead, and then trying that just to uncover more opportunities to go after. It’s a beautiful grind when talking to customers becomes a habit. When teams get excited about working towards a product vision that we’ve co-created. And when goals are tied to metrics that relate to customer satisfaction. In all of these, I find communication to be key.

I communicate by prototyping product ideas that spark conversation. By facilitating workshops to synthesize insights and that help asking the right questions. And by designing for experimentation while pushing constraints. I advocate for designers to co-lead their teams, coaching designers to become strong counterparts in product management activities and foster a community of engineers and designers to play as one. I believe in craft and intentional visual decisions based on principles, with room for intuition. I strive for a shared commitment to quality and growth enabled by an inclusive culture of collaboration and good relationships.

I’m also a proud dad and I bake pizza now and then.

Say hi ☺

mtillich@gmail.com