How I work
Every project I've led closes with a number — a conversion uplift, a task success rate, a retention curve — not just a mapped process, wireframe or ticket. The discipline of measuring has become the through-line of how I work: measure, hypothesise, prototype, test, learn, ship.
My approach is structured by data interpreted, roadmaps planned into sprints, and goals that can be achieved. That structure is what lets me hold complex projects together when the inputs are unstructured: regulated banking flows, multi-market e-commerce platforms, design systems shared across six countries. I sit between business and engineering, translate in both directions, and keep the conceptual integrity intact through to release.
In practice this means cross-functional by default — design, engineering, product, business and stakeholders in shared sprint cadence, SAFe® 5 Agilist, comfortable in Scrum and Kanban. Discovery and delivery in parallel: continuous user research, controlled experiments in production traffic, A/B testing as ongoing habit rather than a phase. Roadmap definition, feature prioritization, build-vs-buy and native platform integration (Apple Pay, Google Pay) get scoped and orchestrated through the team — strategy that ships, not strategy that sits in a deck.
What I bring
Range.
End-to-end product experience across consumer marketplaces, fintech and B2B platforms. Recent work spans regulated financial advisory at ZKB, health and performance data at obseed, Swiss SaaS at PEAX, classifieds and marketplace at Scout24 Schweiz, and consumer credit at Finanzcheck.
Conversion.
I treat the metrics as part of the brief, not a postscript. Funnel architecture, A/B testing, and the willingness to learn what didn't move — and why. The work pays back when the numbers do.
Systems.
Design systems are how teams scale across markets. I managed the system across StepStone's six countries — same components behaving identically, accommodating local copy, currency, and legal variation. At IBMiX I owned the design language for Heineken's PAN-EU B2B platform.
Recognition.
The team behind the Heineken PAN-EU B2B commerce platform won the IBM Benelux Excellence Award — the largest Hybris-based shop within IBM iX at the time. Certified SAFe® 5 Agilist.
Worked with
- IBMiX
- StepStone
- Finanzcheck
- Scout24 Schweiz
- PEAX
- obseed
- ZKB
References
"Hichem distinguished himself by consistently submitting exceptionally well-researched and well-thought design. He has a strong iterative mindset: thanks to his performance-driven design mentality, he always aims to understand how his designs perform after release and works hard to optimise them."
— Solon Magoulakis, then Director Product Design & Creative at StepStone (now VP Marketing & Brand Experience, Xing)
"Hichem's attention to detail and innovative approach greatly contributed to the success of any project we were involved in. Hichem excelled in navigating large, international projects with an agile setup and distributed teams."
— Sebastian Groth, IBMiX colleague (now Product Owner, Ergo Group AG)
Reach me
Emails welcome — whether you have a concrete brief or just want to talk shop.