Photo of Martin

Testimonials

I have worked with Martin in different settings – he has been working in the same team with me as a Product Discovery coach as well as a Personal coach for anyone in the Product or UX roles, including coaching me. Martin has a positive attitude towards helping others grow and he makes sure that people have understood the concepts before continuing. He is very easy to talk to and every single interaction with him has helped me in either getting different perspectives, excelling in the product craft or growing my personal skills. I hope to get a chance to work with him again!

I worked with Martin during his time at King and cannot express how effective his coaching sessions were for personal and team development. Martin met with myself and other King colleagues weekly to allow each team member to grow within their scope as individuals who collaborate in an intertwining organization. Any company or team that is looking for an Agile & Product Discovery coach can find no better candidate.

Martin has been so important for the product transformation we want to achieve (still in progress) in our organisation (Game infrastructure at King). He joined us at the beginning of this journey (approx 2-2.5 years). We’ve been educated and coached, from product discovery tools to integral theory, from leaders to teams to individuals. Personally, he has been one of the main pillars to help me grow as a Product Manager, I’ve learnt so much about Product Discovery and Development, and it’s invaluable the trust and encouragement I got from him. He hosted a Deliberate Developing Cohort, as a participant I treasure the tools I got to handle complex situations and take deliberate and thoughtful actions. His contribution and perspective have been game changing for our organisation.

I very much appreciate Martin for his knowing and honest wisdom. He’s been able to bring structure to my team without ending up in the one trick pony situation as most of us easily would do. All the sessions he arranged felt very productive without being stressful or animated

I worked with Martin and hired him as expert consultant in agile, UX, Product Discovery. He has the excellent skill to combine training and exercises with coaching and mentoring. He trained our RnD department in basic Product Discovery and User Research techniques and combined that with expert coaching of our UX team. I would love to work with him again and strongly recommend his expertise, you won’t get disappointed.

Martin has a brilliant ability to develop the people around him and create good conditions for team collaboration, both as agile coach and UX designer. He is sincere and constructive in his way of questioning and giving feedback, skilled at facilitating retrospectives and workshops as well as good at prioritizing and focusing on the right thing at the right time. Martin has helped me tremendously in my development as both UX designer and team member. It is a luxury to work close to a coach who gladly and constructively shares his knowledge and experience.

No single person has ever helped me develop so fast, in so little time. From being a person with really low self-esteem, and no sense of being an initiator at all, Martin and his words transformed me into a better, more confident human being. I highly recommend Martin for his ability to encourage and aid people when they need it.

Always there to give great and helpful advice when we’re in need of it! I really appreciate that you are a part of our team!

I was a part of hiring Martin at Cint and also been his direct manager. Martin has been a part of bringing our product suite interfaces from an average level and below to top notch in the industry. This is crucial for a SaaS company to make interfaces that our clients understand and find enjoying to work with. I have personally learned a lot from Martin, both when it comes to UX and user research, but also regarding agile methodologies. Martin always work for continuous improvement and to release the product clients and users really wants and that solves their problem.

Education

  • Coaching the Coaches (in Product Discovery, Leadership, Transformation), Marty Cagan, SVPG, London [2022]
  • Enterprise Coach Mastercamp (ICP-ENT, ICP-CAT), Michael Hammon & Michael Spayd, Collective Edge, Online [2022]
  • Immunity to Change, Bob Kegan, Minds at Work, Online [2022]
  • Wardley mapping, Ben Mosior, Online [2021]
  • Integral Coaching Fundamentals, Chris Alder, Integral Coaching Canada, Online [2021]
  • Agility in the Enterprise (ICP-ENT), Michele Madore, Trans4mation, Stockholm [2020]
    Enterprise transformational coaching mindset and methods, Agile Integral.
  • Certified SAFe 5 Agilist, Stockholm [2019]
    SAFe foundation course
  • Leadership Agility from the inside out, Michael Hamman, Stockholm [2019]
    Transformational leadership through sense-and-respond methods
  • Coaching Agile Teams 2.0 (ICP-ACC), Agile Coaching Institute, Stockholm [2017]
    Agile coaching certification course
  • Bikablo Basic Visual Facilitation, Bikablo Akademie, Stockholm [2017]
    Facilitation course in visual thinking, learning, and collaboration
  • Training from the back of the room, Crisp, Stockholm [2014]
    Facilitation course in participant driven and experience based learning
  • Customer-centred Service Design, Transformator Design, Stockholm [2014]
    Service elicitation and customer insight gathering using Service Design methodology
  • Certified Product Owner, Scrum Alliance, Stockholm [2013]
    Scrum terminology, practices, and principles to be enabled to fulfill the role of Product Owner on a Scrum team.
  • UX Week, Adaptive Path, Amsterdam [2011]
    Focus on user experience strategy and design.
  • Courses at the educational programme for Cognitive Sciences, Linköping University [2000]
    Profile courses towards Extreme Programming, cognitive psychology and usability
  • Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Linköping University [1997-2000]
    Major in software engineering and project management
  • Courses at the educational programme for Computer Science, Linköping University [1996]
    Fundamental programming courses and cognitive psychology

Other merits

  • Founder and arranger, UX open, Stockholm [2011 – 2018]
    Unconference UX open and its offspring.
    Read more here
  • Dance instructor, [2005 – 2011]
    Freelancing dance instructor in Lindy Hop and other swing dances including arranging dance camps, for Linköping Rhythm & Swing, Ebba Dansklubb, Vasadansarna and Swing på Universitetet.
  • Head of the committee for student reception at Linköping Institute of Technology [2002-2004]
    Working with questions concerning development of the student reception, education collaborations and equal opportunities for new students joining an education programme at Linköping Institute of Technology

Martin Christensen

Resumé

Download as PDF

My story

When I was young, I was certain I wanted to work with computers (although I had only played games on them) so I got myself a computer engineering degree. During my time at the university I found that working for a clear customer was very motivating, so I took a lot of extra courses in user experience and project management. The last course I took at university (in the year 2000) happened to be about Agile user experience processes. My professor helped me get in contact with a company running one of the first Agile projects in Sweden and I did my thesis work there.

This strongly formed my view of both what I wanted to work with, user experience design, and how, collaboratively from start to finish through the whole project and Agile. This viewpoint has always helped me see across silos in my different jobs since then, constantly thinking about ways to help the organisation become more collaborative.

What rang true for me  was the values and principles in both user experience and Agile, so my approach has always been mindset/principles-first both when product developing and organisation/team coaching. Helping individuals, teams and organisations to see the whole view during product development, to able to create something valuable, sustainable and very desirable, in a complex world, is my calling. This I have found that I can most effectively and efficiently do by being a coach, mentor and educator.

Experience

  • Agile and Product Discovery Coach, Agile UX Impacts Sweden  [2013 – Now]
    Running my own company, working as a freelance Transformational coach focusing on Agile and Product Discovery. (From 2013 to 2018 I worked under the Crisp umbrella, see further down.)

    • Product Discovery Coach, King [Jan 2021 – May 2023]
      Guided the transformation of King’s backend organisation Core Platform into a more product-focused one, through teaching and coaching Product Discovery and Agile, supporting Product Managers, and helping teams and individuals to develop both their skills and their mindset.
      Case study
    • Product Discovery and Agile team coach, King [Sep 2020 – Dec 2020]
      Helped Candy Crush Soda organisation with Product Discovery through teaching, coaching and facilitating, as well as being Agile team coach for one of the Soda teams.
    • Lean UX, Agile and Product Discovery coach, SVT [Aug 2018 – Jun 2019]
      Helped SVT Play group transform from individual teams with a strong sense of “I”, to one big “WE” team, as well as structuring their way of working around Product Discovery.
      Case study
  • Coach and Mentor, Zington  [Aug 2019 – Jul 2020]
    Coaching and mentoring UX consultants within Zington Xperience. Part-time external teaching, facilitation and coaching. Larger external clients:

    • Product Discovery & LeanUX Coach, King [feb 2020 – Jun 2020]
      Teaching Product Discovery and LeanUX for the King Shared Tech organisation as well as a few Candy Crush Soda teams.
    • Agile Transformational Coach, Genero Solutions [jan 2020 – Now]
      Helping the whole Genero company to solve their growth problems by transforming into a more agile and collaborative organisation, including coaching the leadership team.
      Case study
  • Agile UX Consultant, Crisp  [2013 – 2018]
    Worked as a consultant in the Crisp network, focusing on Agile and UX coaching, product owner support, UX strategy and design, as well as educating in Lean, Agile, UX, Product Discovery and Product Development.

    • Agile & Lean UX coach, Snow Software [Jan 2017 – Jun 2018]
      Helped introduce Product Discovery to key people in the company, such as product managers, sales leads and tech leads, as well as coaching and mentoring a group of UX and research people. Also taught UX methods to cross-functional delivery teams.
      Case study
    • Agile & Lean UX coach, SVT [Aug 2017 – Jun 2018]
      Helped the new SVT Sports app team with becoming highly effective and efficient through creating a strong culture of collaboration and a clear LeanUX process.
      Case study

      Also worked as an agile team and collaboration coach within SVT Children’s department, both with journalists and developers.
      Case study

    • Teacher Agile & Lean UX, Nackademin [Nov 2017 – Dec 2017]
      Taught courses in Agile (including Scrum, XP, Kanban), UX (including Design Thinking) and Lean UX (including Lean Startup) for two classes of UX designer students
    • UX coach, AcademicWork [May 2017]
      UX coach for a development team, teaching and coaching Lean UX.
    • Agile coach, GfK NORM [Apr 2017 – Dec 2017]
      Agile coach for a development team, teaching and coaching Scrum, collaboration methods and culture.
      Case study
    • UX designer, Agile coach, UX strategist, Bonnier News/Expressen [May 2015 – Dec 2015, Sep 2016 – Mar 2017]
      Agile and Product Discovery coach for a large development team, helping build an internal publishing tool both through being a UX strategist and helping the team collaborate.
    • User Researcher & UX designer, Travellink [May 2014 – May 2015]
      User research and redesign of a tool for business travel booking.
      Case study
    • UX Designer & Coach, Magine [Feb 2014 – Apr 2014]
      Coached a team to collaborate with other teams, as well as helping out doing UX design for the purchase flow of the Magine TV app.
    • UX Coach, Qwaya [Aug 2013 – Mar 2014]
      Coached a few individuals in user research / UX interview techniques and how to facilitate different kinds of UX workshops.
      Case study
    • UX Researcher & Designer, Episerver [Aug 2013 – Oct 2013]
      Researched and designed a new search app within the EPiServer CMS system.
      Case study
  • Product Owner and UX Designer, EPiServer [2013]
    Responsible for the user experience in EpiServer CMS (version 7.5). Conducted user research and usage test to validate new functionality. Created interaction design for this new functionality. Acted product owner to give maximum support to the CMS team. Coached that team and other in agile methodologies, mainly continuous improvement.
    Case study
  • Senior Usability Expert, Cint [2010 – 2013]
    Responsible for the UX process, creating and presenting UX deliverables and metrics, acting as product steward together with product manager, working closely with agile teams and doing usage tests with clients. Helped deciding minimum viable products and releases using Lean Startup and Lean UX methods. The role was part product (and UX) design strategist, part user researcher and part interaction designer. Also helped out with agile work processes and general problem solving.

    • Product Design Expert, Reachr [2012]
      Helped with starting up the product design using Lean Startup methods, conducted user research, validated the minimum valuable product with usage tests, created interaction design, and acted as a product discovery guide during the startup phase.
  • User Experience Consultant, Kentor [2010]
    Assigned to Swedish Pensions Agency as an interaction designer and requirements analyst, working in an agile team with a new web service concerning housing supplements for pensioners.
    Case study
  • Interaction Designer Hitta Mäklare [2010]
    Interaction design and information architecture for a new version of hittamaklare.se
    Case study
  • Program Manager & Lecturer, KYH [2009 – 2010]
    Responsible for managing the 2-year study programme of Agile Web Developer in both Stockholm and Gothenburg, as well as teaching agile (Scrum, XP, Lean, Pomodoro) and usability (information architecture and agile user experience design).
  • Usability Engineer, GE HealthCare AB [2009]
    User-centred analysis, design and validation of chromatography systems. Agile planning and coaching (mostly Scrum).
    Case study
  • Agile Project Manager & Interaction Designer Astando [2008]
    Requirements analysis in agile projects and GUI evaluations.
  • Lecturer, Department for Science and Technology, Linköping University [2002-2008]
    Head of a bachelor of science education programme aiming towards mobile services. Teaching user experience design, usability, interaction design, traditional and agile systems development (mainly Extreme Programming), foundation language programming (in Ada), web development (in HTML/PHP) and software quality. Educational design and planning.
  • Teacher’s assistant, Department for Computer and Information Science, Linköping University [2001]
    Assistant in Software Engineering and Ada-programming
  • Thesis Worker, Xpedio Linköping Ubiquitous Research Center [2001]
    Thesis work about measurable usability goals and prototyping for mobile phones