Juli Mata

Innovation strategist, product and service design specialist

Design-driven business development via empathy and co-creation

As a value and impact-driven professional with 15 years of international experience, I have worked with clients from the US, Europe, and Asia in a wide variety of industries. My expertise lies in applying design tools to strategy development, helping businesses build, improve, or expand. I bring a holistic approach to your challenges with a wide understanding of design research, business model work, data-driven business development, product development, and UX design.

My work focuses on enabling innovation through co-creation. I believe that lasting change starts with micro-innovation. True change comes from collective adoption, and an organization's long-lasting success depends on its ability to adopt empathy in business. Let me help you create valuable change and make a lasting impact.

Professional Background

Education & Design Path Seeking

My studies includes various design directives and was introduced to both digital technologies, service design, and multidisciplinary teamwork early on.

Sought experiences in a wide variety of national standards, studied in Italy, The Netherlands, and Hungary, and completed internships in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, USA in various design fields guided by and worked in teams with wonderfully talented people.

Product-Service System Design, Msc - Politecnico di Milano, 2008

Industrial Design, Msc Budapest University of Technology, 2009

Industrial Design Technical University of Eindhoven, 2005

I've been running my freelance practice since 2017, working on projects around the world. My main goal is to help clients overcome challenges they may struggle with internally, such as lack of expertise, resources, or time.

My projects typically last between 3-6 months, but I'm always open to longer-term engagements. I take a co-creative approach to my work, meaning that I always integrate my clients' internal stakeholders into the process to ensure that we deliver exactly what they need.

One of the advantages of my work is the diverse range of industries I have experience in. This allows me to act as a change agent across different sectors, bringing best practices and fresh perspectives to each project. Some of the industries I have worked in include healthcare, finance, education, and technology. For a full list of industries, please see below.

Freelance

Employment & Partnership

I spent 6 years as an employee, working in academia, corporate environments, and the startup world, mostly focusing on end-to-end digital solution/experience development. Throughout these experiences, I had the opportunity to build my skillset at various points of the design process.

In my last 2 years of employment, I was part of a collective that co-owned a company focused on building digital products and acting as a venture firm. The company operated under a holacracy management framework, giving me the chance to explore various management roles while balancing both the company's operations and client work.

International Experience

My experience in the professional world has been shaped by working in international environments that have exposed me to a wide range of perspectives and experiences, which I have found most inspiring.

I have worked with clients from various countries, including Norway, USA, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Slovakia, and The Netherlands. This experience has equipped me to adapt to different work cultures and help organizations make the most of their unique setups. For more information on my experience, please visit my Medium blog page.

Remote Work

In 2016, I started exploring remote work setups and experimenting with best practices for staying connected with distributed teams and optimizing performance. With the Covid shutdowns, these experiments became even more relevant and I was able to solidify and enrich my takeaways.

I've been lucky to work internationally and have honed an optimized approach to working in a hybrid setup that combines remote work with on-location visits. This balance provides the best of both worlds, and my services are tailored to help create a framework that maximizes productivity and convenience for everyone involved. So if you're looking to explore this approach, let's work together to find the ideal setup that suits your team's needs.

Mixed + Hybrid Teams

With the rise of Agile and the trailblazing of Ideo, multidisciplinary and cross-functional teamwork has become the norm, then following the pandemic the introduction of hybrid setups has only increased the complexity. Talent is now available worldwide, and companies are seeking to optimize the opportunity of mixed team operations.

As an expert in this area, I can assist you in navigating this new setup and building the necessary team dynamics and processes to ensure smooth collaboration in cross-functional teams in the long run. If you need help building a framework where both people and businesses can thrive, I am happy to assist you.

Icons Used

from the Noun Project

Healthcare Edication - IconMark | Food&Drink - Yoyon Pujiyono | Travel - Millenials | Pharmaceutical Research - Tri H | E-commerce - Papergarden | Green Mobility - Martin Köngismann | Animal Rights - Andy Horvath | Human Rights - Marius Edel | Sustainability - Made by Made | Logistics - Irvan Rhomadhani | Culture & The Arts - Kiran Shastry | Mobility&Sports (bike) - DTD design | Multimedia - Andrejs Kirma | Cloud Technology - Justin Blake | Mobile Technology - Suhatijda

Photos Used

from Unsplash

HOME/Michel Rocha, Dillon Mangum, Leone Venter, Nordwood Themes, Marcella Marcella

ABOUT / Delfi de la Rua, Kuiye Chen, Elodie Oudot, Markus Winkler