Combining data-driven business with design thinking
I returned to work for Solita two and a half years ago after exploring the start-up world in Berlin for a couple of years. There are several reasons why I decided to take the opportunity to come back and join the team in Berlin.
I love the Solita community and the flexibility I have in my role. Since I’m one of the 4 designers so far in our Central European operations, I have plenty of autonomy in my work, and I get to rethink my role and develop people around me. I’m a psychologist by education which gives me an excellent skillset to combine data-driven business with human-centric design thinking.
We work with big, global companies and public organisations crucial for society and aim to design solutions to the world’s wicked problems. I feel like I can contribute to making some progress in the world.
I think it’s also exciting to build a business in Germany, in my case, especially around design competence. I’m collaborating closely with people from all our countries, and the international design community supports me in this quest.
I can leverage human insight in data, dev and cloud projects
My job is divided into two main areas; I work with interesting client projects, and I do internal development work. What I bring to the table is humans – customers, employees, and any humans in the complex ecosystems around our clients.
One of my most interesting projects lately was with one of the biggest public services in Finland. They touch the lives of every Finnish citizen. We explored and built insights and understanding about the future of youth’s mental health for their innovation operations. The goal is to design solutions and experiment with ideas that support youth’s mental well-being.
This kind of work involves systematically listening to people in the ecosystem and designing levers and experiments to find ways that will have an impact on the current and future society. With our support, the client can respond to future changes early enough and impact how the organisation and Finnish society will become more resilient.
Another part of my role is related to developing competencies. I’m leading our internal human insight community for this year. Together we develop our skillsets and methods. We also aim to find new ways of bringing human-centric design into data, dev and cloud projects in Solita. I am also one of the persons responsible to develop the Design Academy of Solita to provide skills and knowledge to our ever-growing community of 150 designers.
Our design community is very diverse, and we have people from many different backgrounds: psychologists, industrial designers, statisticians, musicians, sociologists, management consultants, and marketing professionals, just to mention some.
I believe we can do big things by leveraging design methods; tech challenges are always human challenges, and design is human-centric to the bone. Design for me is about understanding the context of the humans involved, creating hypotheses, testing and iterating them, and taking things forward while including people every step of the way.
We leverage prototypes and visualisations and look for evidence to make validated choices. We’ve recently started a Data Mesh project with a giant client company where we can put our multidisciplinary approach into action.
It’s fun to work with Solitans
Since the pandemic has changed the ways of working, my projects are not tight to my location. I have projects in different countries and can work with colleagues from different Solita offices. Collaboration within Solita is smooth, and I think it brings value to our clients to have diversity in the team.
The community at Solita is extremely helpful and supportive. People take the time to help you personally, and everyone is approachable. If you ask something in Slack, you’ll have someone helping you in five minutes. Through Slack, I have access to over 1500 brilliant people’s competence.
Solita is a value-driven company. You can see it in the culture. The atmosphere is easy-going and people’s well-being is central. You can be yourself, and there is no need to show up in suits.
Caring is at the core of our operations; our HR department and people leads are wonderful and dedicated to supporting people. Courage is also visible here; we try new things and tolerate insecurity because you are never alone and we can do big things together.
It’s fun to work with Solitans, and I’m glad I came back! An agile company combined with highly skilled professionals and value-driven culture makes a great recipe for making an impact.
We are constantly looking for new colleagues to join our caring community! Take a look at our open positions!