Pascal Heynol
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Berlin, Germany
Toptal member since July 9, 2020
Pascal is a strategic designer with 10+ years of experience grounded in design, computer science, and psychology. As an expert prototyper, he quickly transforms UX goals into top-notch UIs. His solutions have consistently increased both conversion rates and customer retention. Pascal has helped major brands build exceptional products and experiences based on true customer understanding across B2C, B2B, online, hybrid, AI, and crypto. He has a master's degree in human-computer interaction.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Independent Strategic Designer
Freelance
- Designed a crypto-marketplace and course monitor for Ultraviolet (formerly Octi), a top-rated social AR startup.
- Led design thinking workshops, such as design sprints and other formats for organizational change and new product innovation for corporations and startups.
- Taught UX and digital product design courses at Talentgarden UX School, SAE Institute, and other schools.
- Led concept and design for an internal knowledge-sharing platform at MTU Aero Engines.
- Led product design and strategy for startups across industries, including AI and crypto.
- Created winning pitches for angel, seed, and Series A funding rounds for various startups.
UX Designer
Studio
- Analyzed and user-tested existing customization tools for weaknesses and areas of improvement.
- Implemented immediate improvements through development and manually through the company's WordPress for immediate impact. Validation through A/B testing tools.
- Designed and implemented special one-off landing pages to verify new business and marketing approaches.
- Simplified product offering and navigation by defining new product organization and relations.
- Designed all new customization tools and websites through iterative conception, prototyping, and user testing cycles to achieve a greatly simplified and far more enjoyable configuration and checkout experience, according to user feedback.
Product Designer
Perspektiv.ai
- Designed a mobile app for AI-assisted analysis of company profiles to help users understand company finances and investment opportunities.
- Planned mid to long-term development roadmap, MPV features, and rollout strategy.
- Defined concept for freemium features, premium subscriptions, user acquisition, and onboarding to premium.
- Designed minimal but distinct visual language in UI design and animation.
- Provided responsive adaption of the mobile app to web and large-screen devices.
UX Lead (Independent)
Audi
- Restructured company-wide customer, product, and market research initiatives, compiled and integrated insights, and made them useful for all divisions within Audi.
- Designed an internal portal for finding, sharing, and collaborating on research across the company.
- Created an accompanying newsletter, including the design, editorial voice, and release schedule, keeping coworkers informed and engaged.
- Oversaw user testing and subsequent implementation and rollout of the Research Hub.
- Achieved top internal UX metrics, beating other long-running initiatives and securing additional funding for the team.
Product Design Lead (Independent)
SAP Signavio
- Designed a visual data mining tool for novice and pro users to analyze process data.
- Conducted user testing sessions and co-creation workshops to identify customer needs and plan feature development accordingly.
- Ran design for the process mining and business intelligence teams, bringing many features from inception to delivery.
Interim Chief Product Owner
Social Media Startup
- Defined the product strategy, UX, and monetization framework for a new social media platform.
- Produced a product pitch that won a significant angel investment.
- Designed the mobile app, including a design system and interaction framework.
- Oversaw product development of the app's MVP version to demo the user experience and monetization mechanics.
Product Design Lead (Independent)
Consorsbank
- Led visioning, prototyping, and reasoning for a pitch that won a 10-year exclusive agency contract.
- Conducted innovation workshops on product strategy with C-level management.
- Led a distributed team of designers, including agency and in-house staff.
- Planned and supervised ethnographic research and UX testing for fintech products.
- Led strategy and design for redesigning the company's help center and support process, leading to a major reduction in calls, faster issue resolution, and an improved customer happiness index.
Product Designer
Airmeet Inc.
- Researched and defined customer segmentation for a remote events platform based on goals and actual behavior.
- Developed research-backed customer journeys for customer segments to inform design and strategy decisions.
- Co-planned the development roadmap for event attendees focused on improving the user experience and product retention.
- Led the design team in feature development and execution focused on the pre-event experience for event planners.
- Kicked off an extensive experience overhaul by creating a thorough, research-backed interaction concept for the pre-event experience.
- Created and implemented an aligned product strategy and design principles.
Service Design Lead, Car Sharing (Independent)
Mercedes-Benz Smart
- Helped launch a smart living pilot project acting as a blueprint for more communities in the future. The project won the 2021 Vision Award from the German Real Estate Society.
- Designed a customer journey that integrated digital and physical touchpoints, structured the content, and managed the design and production of all assets.
- Developed the pricing system for the Smart Fleetshare offer, which incorporated social mechanics to build a community around the shared infrastructure.
- Took over the planning and delivery for all project partners (including Polarstern, Schindler, and Panasonic) after being engaged by Smart.
Product Design Lead, Design Systems (Independent)
SAP Signavio
- Led a task force of designers and developers in creating a new design system to be rolled out to thousands of business clients.
- Built and branded a complete design system for internal use across all product teams and business areas.
- Set up a team and business processes for the design system to be continually developed, spread, and maintained.
Senior Strategic Designer
BCG Digital Ventures
- Led design teams in the innovation phase of multiple (stealth) ventures.
- Directed team activities and led user research, insight generation, concept definition, and product strategy.
- Defined a product and feature strategy and formulated a pitch deck that scored six- to seven-figure investments for a social impact initiative.
- Created winning pitch decks for emerging technology ventures in the automotive, electric, and AI sectors, which brought in new business.
Senior Experience Designer
USEEDS° (Now Diffferent)
- Led design teams for digital products and services, consistently beating KPIs by up to 100% compared to peers.
- Conducted design sprints and innovation workshops for startups and corporations.
- Spearheaded initiatives involving emerging technologies (VR, AR, AI, and voice), including design and coding prototypes for Consorsbank's Alexa Skill, user testing, and designing for VR.
- Planned and conducted usability and UX tests for web, mobile, and voice UI applications in consumer and B2B technology.
User Experience Designer
Mister Spex
- Designed an AR application for trying on and comparing eyeglass frames in 3D, raising customer retention and conversion rates by 12%.
- Co-led all UX efforts, planning a feature design roadmap, and setting up an agile design process.
- Designed and maintained a dynamic design system, defining and documenting the UI from basic styles and components to composition rules, design patterns, and reusable page layouts.
- Led the user research and feature discovery in our physical stores.
- Designed a mobile-first responsive checkout experience that raised overall checkout completion rates by around 10%.
User Researcher and Experience Designer
NORTH45 Ethiopia
- Analyzed data on violent conflicts and resolution approaches in East Africa and consulted with conflict research organizations.
- Designed infographics on conflicts and resolution approaches in East Africa.
- Designed and prototyped a mobile app for conflict information and warnings targeted at citizens and travelers.
UX Researcher and Designer
Usability Engineering Center Nuremberg
- Conducted user testing and directed subsequent design iterations for a special Adidas anniversary website.
- Led and conducted projects in ethnographic research and lab user testing, including eye-tracking for commercial and business applications.
- Led user-centered design for web projects, factory machine UIs, and home appliances.
Web Designer and Developer
NecesCity Hong Kong
- Designed the company website that catalogs all articles and serves as a hub for what to do in Hong Kong.
- Created and coded a modular email template for the daily newsletter.
- Designed assets and ads for customers advertising on NecesCity.
Education
PowerMBA in Business Management (MBA alternative)
ThePower Business School - Online
Master of Science Degree in Human-computer Interaction
Julius Maximilians University - Wuerzburg, Germany
Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Media Engineering
Technical University Nuremberg - Nuremberg, Germany
Certifications
Digital Marketing and Leadership
Google Squared Online
Machine Learning
Stanford University | via Coursera
Innovation and Commercialization
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | via edX
Unlocking the Immunity to Change
Harvard University | via edX
Skills
Tools
Figma, Optimizely, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Miro, Git
Platforms
Android, Desktop, Web, iOS, SharePoint
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Human Resources (HR), Logistics
Languages
HTML, CSS
Other
UX Design, UX Testing, Strategic Design, Design Systems, Design Thinking, Product Strategy, Material Design, Strategy, Customer Journeys, Product Design, Service Design, User Flows, B2B, UI Design, Mobile App Design, Mobile Apps, Prototyping, App UI, App UX, Web UI, Web UX, Design Sprints, Design Principles, User Research, Mobile Web, Customer Interviews, Information Architecture (IA), Interaction Design (IxD), Google Material Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Web App Design, Usability Testing, Fintech, Mobile Design, App Design, Mobile UI, Mobile UX, Mobile Banking, B2C, UX Audits, User Journeys, Web App UX, Web App UI, Journey Mapping, Wireframing, IT Projects, Web Design, Project Management, eCommerce UX, Dark UIs, Responsive Design, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), UI Style Guides, UI Components, UX Strategy, Mockups, Design Leadership, UX Wireframes, UX Prototyping, Product Planning, Web Applications, Complex Problem Solving, UX Workshops, Design Workshops, Rapid Prototyping, User Personas, Research, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, Leadership, Interactive Prototypes, Enthnographic Research, Visual Design, Pitch Decks, Finance, Motion Design, SaaS, Connected Cars, Electric Cars, Mobility, Rideshare Services, Co-design, Presentations, Entrepreneurship, Fundraising, Code Editor, Communication, Augmented Reality (AR), Writing & Editing, User Interviews, UX Documentation, eCommerce, Business, AI Design, Community, Workflow, SaaS Design, Trading, Crypto, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Dashboards, Feature Prioritization, Data Architecture, Flutter, Amazon Alexa, UX Process, Token Design, Enterprise SaaS, Design Ops, Focus Groups, Employment, Public Transportation, UX Research, Product Roadmaps, Social Impact, Personal Loans, Data Visualization, Data Mining, Charts, Virtual Reality (VR), Voice User Interfaces (VUI), Branding, Logo Design, Illustration, SEO Marketing, SEO Tools, Analytics, Product Marketing, Digital Marketing, Accounting, Systemic Change, Growth, Machine Learning, Print Design, Production, Software Development Toolkits (SDK), News
Experience
- Prototyping - 14 years
- UI Design - 11 years
- Design Systems - 11 years
- UX Design - 11 years
- Customer Journeys - 11 years
- Mobile App Design - 11 years
- UX Research - 11 years
- Figma - 6 years
Tools
- Figma
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring