This is the personal corner on the internet of Christian Schuhmann–a digital product engineer, designer, and entrepreneur.

Biography

I have devoted most of my life to thinking about and building internet businesses and their underlying functions. At an early age, I found my passion for web design and technology and quickly became enamored with this medium. Despite facing numerous challenges and obstacles in countless projects in nearly two decades, my fascination with this medium has only deepened, and I remain as passionate as ever about it.

  1. The beginnings
  2. First Job
  3. Starting ventures
  4. Now
  1. First Computer.txt
  2. Christian (2003).jpg
  3. First Website (2003).png
  4. First Website Redesigned (2003).png
  1. Hobby To Job.txt
  2. Improved Design (2006).png
  3. Personal Newspaper Concept (2010).png
  1. From Code to Design.txt
  2. Startups.txt
  3. tift (2017).png
  4. smartvokat Workflows (2019).png
  1. Looking for the next thing.txt
Notepad

First Computers

I started to fiddle with computers when I was about 12 years old. My family had a Commodore 64, a popular home computer at the time. I remember pretending to be a train dispatcher by writing imaginary train schedules in a text editor. This simple game sparked my curiosity about computers.

When I turned 13, my parents bought me my first PC, and I immediately started exploring the world of programming. I started learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript and could soon create basic web pages. The more I learned about programming, the more I wanted to know and experiment. My projects grew from websites to content-management systems to games.

Today, as an adult, I still have a passion for computers and programming. I continue to learn the intricacies of this ever-changing medium. Looking back on my journey, I’m grateful for the opportunities I had to learn and explore the world of computing. Without the Commodore 64, I may never have discovered my love for programming and all the incredible things computers can do.

Notepad

From Hobby To Job

Like many others, I enjoyed video games and combined with my love for tinkering, a new frontier opened up. I started to modify configuration files and write buy scripts for Counter-Strike 1.6. From there, I became fascinated with tinkering with games and exploring the limits of what was possible. This led me to dive deeper into game modding, and I soon found myself working on a team that was trying to turn FarCry, a first-person shooter game, into a racing game. That was my first time working in a distributed team.

From that experience, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in software development. However, I initially struggled to find a job, primarily because of bad grades in math, which I had always found challenging. But I was determined to overcome these obstacles and show my hands-on knowledge.

Eventually, I started my professional training as a software engineer at 16, working at bauer & bauer, a well-respected agency that has been creating digital projects for over 30 years. In a small team, I honed my skills and explored all facets of web development. I worked on a range of projects, from bringing the work of Albrecht Dürer to life in an interactive digital installation to building intranets for large insurance companies. I fondly remember the revolutionary FireBug, fighting Internet Explorer 6 bugs with position: relative, and the joy of using Prototype.

I am very happy that I could turn a hobby into a profession.

Notepad

Code To Design

My first job as a software engineer allowed me to work alongside some incredibly talented interface designers. Collaborating with them taught me the fundamentals of typography, color theory, information architecture, and accessibility. I was fascinated by how the visual elements of a design could help shape its overall structure and impact, and it inspired me to pursue further education in communication design.

I was ultimately accepted at FH Aachen, where I enrolled in the “Communication and Multimedia Design” program. This program offered the perfect blend of courses on visual design, marketing, user experience design, and more; all focused on internet businesses. During my time at the university, mobile apps and responsive web design were rapidly gaining popularity, and I was able to explore these emerging technologies in-depth. After three years, I graduated with distinction and completed my final bachelor project, a visual and interactive study on the perception of time.

Since then, I’ve continued to build on my design skills and expand my toolkit, always seeking new ways to approach problems and create compelling, user-centered designs. I’m passionate about the role that design plays in shaping our interactions with technology.

Notepad

Startups

Armed with both development and design expertise, I was eager to launch my own business. Fortunately, I found like-minded friends who shared my passion, and together we set to work on our first startup idea: tift. Our goal was to simplify and improve employee scheduling by building a constraint resolver that could take business requirements, employee preferences, and legal prerequisites into account and generate schedules automatically in seconds. We applied our knowledge of lean startup principles, saw promising initial traction, and acquired funding. Still, unfortunately, we weren’t able to achieve product-market fit quickly enough and had to abandon the project after two years.

While working on tift, we became involved with many other startups and realized that our skills and experience in designing and developing digital products were highly in demand. After the end of tift, we continued working together and founded the digital product studio “spacepilots.” At spacepilots, we helped other startups and SMEs research, design, develop, and validate their digital business models.

After a few years, we met lawyers with innovative ideas for transforming legal and compliance processes into efficient and effective workflows, which led to the creation of the third startup, “smartvokat.” Initially, we worked as a legal tech innovation lab, providing simple and user-centric digital solutions to complex legal problems. Over time, we synthesized the challenges we faced into several products, two of which continue to thrive today. As a typical startup, I wore many hats and had a range of responsibilities, but my role as Chief Product Officer was particularly formative for my personal and professional growth. I developed my skills in product management and leadership and played a significant role in growing the company from zero to multi-million euros in revenue.

Notepad

Next Job

In late 2022, I made the decision to transition from my role as Chief Product Officer at smartvokat to an advisory position to pursue new opportunities. After leading companies for several years, I’m eager to work with a company with an exciting digital product. If you’re seeking someone with comprehensive product-building skills, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Image Viewer

Curriculum Vitae

I have a unique blend of creativity, engineering, and analytical skills, which has allowed me to build thriving businesses and products. You will find an overview of my most notable experiences in this list.

Senior Product Manager
DigitalService

DigitalService develops digital solutions for and with the German Federal administration.

Tenure
July 2023 - now
Responsibilities
Product Management
Location
Berlin, Germany

The DigitalService is the central digitalization unit of the Federal Government of Germany, established in 2020. Our core mission is to develop digital applications prioritizing citizen needs.

After over six years at my startup, smartvokat, I transitioned to the DigitalService in July 2023 as a senior product manager. My current focus is developing the new legal information system ("Rechtsinformationssystem (RIS)") for the Federal Government. This system is a pivotal component of the comprehensive initiative to digitize the creation, dissemination, and storage of laws and related legal information at the federal level. My team and I are dedicated to crafting user-friendly public-facing websites for citizens, with a planned go-live target set for the end of 2024.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Skills
Product Management, Project Management, Agile, Design Thinking, User Experience Research
Tools
Confluence, Figma, GitHub, Jira, Miro, Sentry

Chief Product Officer, Co-Founder
smartvokat

smartvokat empowers customers to create effective and efficient workflows from their legal and compliance processes. I had many roles; however, my key responsibility was to lead product management, design, and engineering for our workflow platform.

Tenure
July 2016 - Nov 2022
Responsibilities
Product Management
Portfolio Management
Engineering (Leadership)
Product Design
Team Leadership
Location
Remote
Düsseldorf, Germany

In today’s world, legal departments face an ever-increasing flow of requirements and regulations. This pressure presents an opportunity for digital transformation in processes and workflows. Although this holds true for many industries, the legal sector’s involved risk and traditional technological resistance make it a unique case. smartvokat is a specialized consulting and product company that provides comprehensive solutions for legal professionals. In essence, smartvokat simplifies this complexity through an easy-to-use user interface, enabling lawyers and non-lawyers alike to work more efficiently.

I co-founded smartvokat with four others in 2016 and contributed to all aspects of the company over the years. My primary focus was on product leadership for our Workflows platform, which played a significant role in the company’s growth trajectory. I designed and developed the initial prototypes, which paved the way for the full-fledged product line, working alongside a talented team of individuals. Today, the platform serves thousands of users, and the company generates multi-million euros in revenue annually.

After more than six years with smartvokat, I decided to transition to an advisory role at the end of 2022 and shift my focus to new endeavors.

Skills
Product Management, Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Project Management, Agile, Design Thinking, User Interface Design, User Experience Design, Team Leadership, Executive Leadership
Tools
Bitbucket, Confluence, Figma, GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Miro, Notion, Sentry, ZenHub
Technologies
Elixir, Erlang, Node.js (TypeScript, JavaScript), PostgreSQL, Docker, Heroku, AWS, React, GraphQL, Rest, Terraform, Kubernetes, Helm

Senior Product Engineer, Co-Founder
spacepilots

At spacepilots, we crafted user-focused digital journeys. We guided SMEs through the discovery, design, development, and deployment of mobile and web-based applications.

Tenure
Feb 2015 - July 2017
Responsibilities
Software Engineering
User Experience Design
Service Design
Design Thinking
Location
Remote
Düsseldorf, Germany

During our work on tift, we discovered a high demand for our skills in designing and developing digital products, leading us to collaborate with several other startups. Following the conclusion of tift, we established the digital product studio “spacepilots,” where we specialized in aiding startups and SMEs with researching, designing, developing, and validating their digital business models.

In my role at spacepilots, I utilized a combination of software engineering, user experience design, and service design. Our focus was primarily on assisting startups with refining their ideas and developing minimum viable prototypes for their specific problem domains. However, we also engaged with larger companies who wished to experiment with new product ideas.

After several years of addressing the issues of various companies, we had the opportunity to meet two lawyers who acquainted us with the legal industry’s challenges in digital transformation. What followed was a throughout research into the market and the founding of smartvokat.

Skills
Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Project Management, Agile, Design Thinking, User Interface Design, User Experience Design, Executive Leadership
Tools
GitHub, GitLab, Monday, Notion, Sketch
Technologies
Node.js (TypeScript, JavaScript), PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Docker, Heroku, AWS, React, React Native, Angular, Swift, WordPress, PHP, GraphQL, Rest

Software Engineer, Co-Founder
tift

Our vision was to transform employee scheduling in the hospitality industry with an AI constraint solver. My primary focus was product design and development.

Tenure
June 2014 - Aug 2016
Responsibilities
Software Engineering
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Location
Remote
Aachen & Düsseldorf, Germany

Our SaaS was an innovative employee rostering platform to improve fairness and compliance. Managers of restaurants or hotels had a single place to manage their employees’ shift plans and availability. Employees could easily add their preferences and manage their shifts. One of the platform’s key features was a sophisticated constraint resolver algorithm that adhered to German Labour Law. The solver could generate compliant schedules with 50+ shifts and employees within a few minutes, allowing managers to react quickly to changes.

I co-founded the company with three other founders right after university, and we secured initial funding and gained recognition for our business model with multiple awards. We also attracted the attention of potential investors, who were impressed with the product’s capabilities and the team’s expertise. Still, unfortunately, we weren’t able to achieve product-market fit quickly enough and had to abandon the project after two years. This learning experience profoundly affected my approach to building digital business in the ventures that followed tift.

In my role, I was responsible for software engineering, user interface design, and user experience design. I was integral in designing and developing the user interface, backend, and constraint resolver.

Skills
Software Engineering, User Interface Design, User Experience Design
Tools
BitBucket, Jira, Confluence, Sketch, Google Sheets, Google Analytics
Technologies
Node.js (TypeScript, JavaScript), Java, PostgreSQL, AWS, React, Rest

Freelance Software Engineer & User Experience Designer
madebyherzblut

As a freelancer, I was fortunate to work with small and large companies on many exciting projects, from interactive brain visualizations to distributed research tools for chemical engineers.

Tenure
Jan 2012 - June 2014
Responsibilities
Software Engineering
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Location
Remote

As a freelancer, I had the opportunity to harness my passion for visual design and user experience. By combining my software engineering and user experience design skills, I delivered high-quality work and cultivated a strong work ethic. As a result, my clients were so satisfied with my work that they became a great source of word-of-mouth advertising, which opened the door to many exciting projects and collaborations.

Throughout my career as a freelancer, I have had the opportunity to work on a diverse range of projects. These included developing prototypes for 3D interactive learning experiences of the human brain, e-commerce projects for leading retailers, building research and data analytics tools for chemical engineering, credit approval workflows for banks, and even designing award-nominated websites. My ability to adapt to different industries and requirements has allowed me to deliver excellent results consistently and laid the foundation for my career.

Skills
Software Engineering, User Interface Design, User Experience Design
Tools
BitBucket, GitHub, Jira, Confluence, Sketch
Technologies
HTML/CSS, PHP, Node.js, PostgreSQL, MySQL, DynamoDB, AWS, React, Angular, Rest, ActionScript, WordPress, Drupal

Bachelor of Science in Communication and Multimedia Design
FH Aachen

The program combined business, technology, and communication. It offered in-depth learning in digital design, user experience research, storytelling, entrepreneurship, and change management.

Timeline
2011 - 2014
Responsibilities
Software Engineering
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Location
Aachen, Germany
Maastricht, Netherlands
Genk, Belgium

Following my time at bauer & bauer, I was eager to expand my skills beyond digital business development and delve into the design and management aspects of the field. With this goal in mind, I applied for the Communication and Multimedia Design bachelor’s program at Aachen University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with KHLim Media Arts & Design Faculty in Genk, Belgium, and Hogeschool Zuyd in Maastricht, Netherlands. This program stood out in the German university landscape due to its unique curriculum, combining digital technology, design, communication, and management content. The overarching goal was to create an integrative approach combining structured technical skills and creative design abilities.

Over the three years that I studied there, I gained expertise in a wide range of subjects, including design thinking, user experience research, visual design, marketing and sales, requirements engineering, service design, prototyping, innovation and change management, entrepreneurship, communication theory, narrative, and storytelling. This diverse curriculum provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the various components involved in developing successful digital businesses.

Today, this program is known as “Media and Communications for Digital Business.”

Software Engineer
bauer & bauer medienbüro

Here I learned the ropes of software engineering from utterly talented people—the work ranged from turning renaissance art into an interactive digital installation to building intranets for insurance companies.

Tenure
Jan 2012 - June 2014
Responsibilities
Software Engineering
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Location
Remote

I began my career at bauer & bauer, where I received professional training as a software engineer for three years. During this time, I primarily worked on web projects for small and medium-sized enterprises. bauer & bauer was renowned for its high-quality work and custom-built content management system, which offered excellent in-page editing capabilities–an innovation in 2006 that still holds up to this day. As the CMS continued to evolve, we expanded its capabilities to include intranet functionality, making it a platform for more ambitious web projects.

As my time at bauer & bauer progressed, the agency began taking on more museum projects, which allowed me to work on interactive installations. One project, in particular, received widespread praise for its display of high-resolution scans of the works of the Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer in his birthplace. This experience opened up new avenues of visual and user experience design, which I would go on to explore further in my career.

I am forever grateful to the team at bauer & bauer for not only teaching me the intricacies of software engineering but also for introducing me to the world of visual and user experience design. Their mentorship and guidance paved the way for my future success in the field.

Skills
Software Engineering
Tools
ActiveCollab, Photoshop, Subversion, CVS, GitHub
Technologies
HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL

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