Martin Heßmann
Digital Product Manager & Design Generalist
Digital product leader across UX, design systems, and headless engineering. Scales design ops and dev teams to ship headless marketing/product sites with AI-assisted workflows and tight discovery-to-delivery cycles.
Work Experience
Lead cross-functional squads delivering headless marketing sites and digital products, aligning research, design, and engineering for measurable growth.
- •Directed an 8-person product trio (design, frontend, platform) shipping 15+ headless marketing sites and internal tools
- •Established a tokenized design system and coded component library; cut design-to-dev handoff time 30% and reduced UI regressions
- •Standardized platform stack with Vercel/Hetzner + Cloudflare CDN/WAF; codified GitLab CI/CD and release pipelines
- •Instrumented Sentry automations, uptime monitors, and Playwright smoke tests; reduced mean time to resolution below two hours
Digital Art Director
Directed UX and visual systems for a multi-brand portfolio, bridging strategy, research, and implementation across digital touchpoints.
- •Rolled out a multi-brand design system in Figma and Storybook reused across 20+ launches, accelerating delivery by 25%
- •Led discovery, customer interviews, and rapid prototyping to inform product roadmaps and prioritize releases
- •Partnered with engineering to deliver componentized frontends while maintaining WordPress/TYPO3/Prismic stacks
- •Introduced GitLab CI/CD, Storybook templates, and handoff rituals to streamline launches
UX/UI Designer
Designed and shipped responsive web apps and campaign sites end-to-end for fintech, civic tech, and cultural clients.
- •Produced IA, wireframes, visual design, and interactive prototypes for complex responsive products
- •Delivered first full Digital Brand Execution, establishing component-based UI workflows
- •Ran moderated usability tests and analytics reviews to refine flows; improved task success by 20% on average
- •Maintained brand and accessibility standards across multi-device launches
Design Internship
Supported product teams on web campaigns while learning collaborative design and development workflows.
- •Built web and app UI designs in Photoshop and created icons in Illustrator for responsive campaigns
- •Worked on a Natural User Interface study that accompanied bachelor's thesis research
- •Built interactive prototypes in HTML/CSS, assisted QA, and documented feedback for senior designers
Freelance Brand & Graphic Designer
Brand and Graphic Designer working with local small businesses in Berlin, focusing on logo design, brand identity, and print production.
- •Designed logos and brand identities for local small businesses across Berlin
- •Produced print collateral including business cards, flyers, and marketing materials
- •Scoped, budgeted, and managed client relationships from concept through production
Projects
Brasserie Colette
since 2021Directed the end-to-end redesign and headless rebuild for Tim Raue's Brasserie Colette, shaping UX and Nuxt/Prismic architecture to support multi-city menus and reservations.
Dein WoMo
since 2022Managed the rollout of EVG's Dein WoMo information hub, coordinating TYPO3 and Eleventy workflows with union stakeholders and accessibility requirements.
DPF Group
since 2019Led the DPF Group brand refresh and Nuxt-based platform, aligning investor storytelling, senior-living services, and marketing automation in one experience.
easyCredit Partner
since 2020Co-owned product, design, and development for easyCredit's partner portal, delivering a compliance-ready WordPress build with Algolia search and automated updates.
Electronica Group
since 2020Guided the Electronica Group corporate site migration to a headless Next.js front end on WordPress, showcasing reference projects and capturing B2B leads.
Elodie Carstensen
since 2024Designed and built an immersive React portfolio for Elodie Carstensen, blending modular storytelling, rapid content updates, and performant 3D-inspired interactions.
Fairworks
since 2023Delivered Fairworks' launch stack by pairing Next.js with WordPress content ops, marketing automations, and analytics for the flexible workspace brand.
Fonds für Wohnen und Mobilität
since 2021Built EVG's Wohnen & Mobilität hub with Eleventy and TYPO3, delivering multilingual content journeys, accessibility, and streamlined stakeholder approvals.
Grün Berlin
since 2020Oversaw the Grün Berlin digital platform, introducing a reusable component library, TYPO3 enhancements, and live service updates across city projects.
infraSignal
since 2022Extended the Grün Berlin engagement with the infraSignal site, streamlining service communication, maintenance updates, and map integrations for traffic infrastructure teams.
Porsche Lifestyle Group Pressroom
since 2019Managed the Porsche Lifestyle pressroom relaunch on Next.js and WordPress, enabling editors to schedule global releases and automate embargo workflows.
RAS Services
since 2021Designed and developed the RAS Services concierge platform, integrating WordPress automations, CRM touchpoints, and monitoring for nationwide roll-out.
SPOTS UP
since 2019Delivered the SPOTS UP hybrid marketing site, merging Next.js and Nuxt product catalogues with automation-ready lead capture and content workflows.
Stadt Weide Land
since 2023Crafted the Stadt Weide Land storytelling site, prototyping brand visuals and TYPO3 experience pages to support conservation partnerships with Berlin boroughs.
Studio KLV
since 2017Maintained the Studio KLV digital presence, shipping a WordPress theme refresh, CRM-ready forms, and multilingual workflows for ongoing campaigns.
TeamBank
since 2021Led the cross-functional squad behind teambank.de, implementing Algolia search, SEO guardrails, and content analytics for the easyCredit brand.
Tertianum Premium Group
since 2019Evolved Tertianum's premium brand presence with a WordPress design system, marketing automation, and observability to support nationwide residences.
Tertianum Premium Residences
since 2019Scaled Tertianum Premium Residences microsites with a multilingual WordPress Multisite setup, consent management, and operations dashboards for local teams.
The African Forum for Utility Regulators
since 2022Launched AFURN's knowledge portal on WordPress, implementing secure communications, CRM integrations, and low-connectivity optimisations for regulators across Africa.
Viniculture
since 2021Partnered with Viniculture on a premium wine e-commerce refresh, defining brand tone and guiding Shopware UX improvements to drive higher order values.
Key Achievements
Design Systems & Ops
Tokenized design system; cut design→dev handoff 30% and reduced UI regressions
Headless Delivery
Shipped 15+ headless marketing/product sites on standardized stacks
Team Leadership
Led an 8-person triad across design, frontend, and platform
AI & Automation
Built AI-assisted design/content pipelines; accelerated prototyping and QA
GitOps & CI/CD
Standardized GitLab flows, environments, and pipelines with Sentry automations
Quality Engineering
Codified Playwright smoke/regression tests and monitoring to keep releases stable
Skills
UI/UX, Design Management, Frontend & Content
Dev Management & AI
Education
Bachelor in Digital Media / Communication Design
University of Applied Sciences
Languages
Awards
Top 20 Cursor Users – Berlin
Cursor
Recognized among the top Cursor power users in Berlin for 2025 based on automation templates, workshop support, and community mentorship.
Cursor Hackathon Berlin
Cursor
Co-built an AI-assisted design ops toolkit during the Berlin hackathon, delivering a live demo and product pitch to 200+ attendees.
GitLab Open Source Community Program Member
GitLab
Accepted into GitLab's Community Program for open source contributions and knowledge sharing around developer tooling and workflows.