Work

Currently

• These days I spend most of my time working as System Change Lead at Dark Matter Labs where I (mostly) support the EU Commissions NetZeroCities Mission, an ambitious program to help 112 Mission Cities transition to net zero emissions by 2030.
• In addition I am stewarding protocol, a space for learning and exploring public innovation in the German landscape. If you're interested in learning more about thinking systemically about transforming our institutions, go take a look.
• I also have limited capacity for independent consultancy and strategy work. In this capacity I have most recently been working with
  • Mercator Stiftung on a study about digital civil society in Germany,
  • with GovMind as interim PM, building a GovTech tool to boost transparency in public procurement, and
  • with the RISE Cities Fellowship Program of BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, as expert on Systems Thinking & Designing public and urban innovation.

Selected Projects

What Got Us Here Won't Get Us Out Of Here

A research field book to create better public systems

From Existential Care to Universal Basic Planetary Services.

As part of the CO:DINA research line on sustainable public services funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, we conducted a short study on "Principles and Guardrails for future-proof Universal Basic Services". In our work, we explored perspectives from the fields of futurology, public design, political science, philosophy and sustainability research.

The study comprises three central chapters: After an introduction of the central concepts of Universal Basic Services in light of current global transitions - from new perspectives on sovereignty and ecological responsibility to data governance and collective self-organization. Subsequently, six principles for a sustainable provision of public services are developed, which are rooted in current approaches of systemic design. The here lies on decentralization, reflexivity and flexibility. Finally, five concrete measures are proposed, including as research programs, living labs, and new funding infrastructures, tailored for implementation by political and civil society actors.

Based on this short study, we compiled a field book that summarizes and compactly presents the key findings. It was published online and integrates learnings from workshops and conferences, among others the World Urban Forum 2022 in Katowice, and the 2022 summer school of the Faculty for Social Design of the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.

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A Blueprint for Urban Data Governance

How can cities use data to become more democratic and sustainable?

The New Hanse for Urban Mobility and Sustainable Innovation

Initiated by the Hamburg-based think tank The New Institute, The New Hanse program wokred with the city of Hamburg to explore the relationship between urban digital infrastructures, data use for the common good, and sustainability concepts in concrete data-driven pilot projects. The New Hanse aims to demonstrate the potential of a citizen-centric digital green city in close cooperation between administration, science, business and civil society.

We supported the project team around Francesca Bria through methodological conception, project planning and stakeholder management. Besides systemic design approaches and agile project planning, we focused on the identification of a data challenge. Through qualitative interviews with experts and users we investigated mobility needs, technical and regulatory frameworks and new transparent business models together with an international team.

Next, innovative solutions for the urban use of mobility data will be found in the urban space of Hamburg. The resulting learning experiences will be documented as a blueprint and thus provide the basis for future scaling in similar urban contexts. Thus, starting with Hamburg, a network of advanced digital cities is created that approaches an old tradition of urban cooperation with new means: A starting point of a joint European initiative to promote a sustainable democracy that shapes and preserves its liberal anchoring in the digital and data age.

→ Learn more.

Unlocking the Future of Free Knowledge

What comes after Wikipedia?

Strategic research in vast complexity.

In its search for a future of free knowledge, Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. is asking itself which future fields of action will unlock innovation potential. We supported the core team with a research and foresight project to identify strategic framework conditions, fields of action and questions.

In a hypothesis-driven "Future-Insight Research" process we identified explicit and implicit future hypotheses within the organization in workshops. These were expanded by external views of selected opinion leaders. Emerging patterns were evaluated in internal workshops along the lines of existing visions of the future and the expected impact and eventually translated into design briefs for the launch of the Accelerator UNLOCK.

After our exploratory research phase, we identified five key issues and challenges in the Free Knowledge system: 1. Knowledge Networks: How could we better connect existing knowledge islands? 2. Knowledge Competencies: How could we better learn knowledge and how to use it? 3. Knowledge Horizons: how could we burst filter bubbles? 4. Knowledge Production: how could we promote fair conditions for free knowledge production? 5. Knowledge Society: How could we generate a large movement for Free Knowledge?

After four round the UNLOCK Accelerator was discontinued in 2023.
More about the research process can be found on the UNLOCK blog the full report is also freely available.

Past Clients & Partners