Josef Richter



Senior Product Designer

Design lead with 14 years of experience. I helped companies like Vodafone, T-Mobile or Medable to rethink, redesign and rebuild their products from scratch, or take them to the next level. Thanks to my diverse experience, I am especially strong in building alliances across teams and management layers to make change happen.

What people say

  • “One of the most thoughtful product design leaders I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. ”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "It’s rare that you come across exceptional talent like Josef. He showed outstanding product design skills and a deep understanding of product strategy."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • "Josef is a thoughtful, skillful design lead who combines mastery of his craft with perceptive analysis, a focus on users, and excellent communication."

    – Andrew Purcell
    Senior Director, Digital UX & Design
    at Marriott International 

  • "Josef is a bright holistic design thinker. He is able to break down the brief or problem into smaller clear parts, and provides clear paths to take."

    – Sina Mossayeb
    Chief Design Officer
    at Medable

  • "His many years of experience and ability to get deep into the technical aspects of work was an immense asset to our work!"

    – Chris Meierling
    Director of Service Design
    at Medable

  • “Professional, organized, calm, experienced, and creative.”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "I was particularly impressed by Josef’s ability to remove nonessential complexity from the product, which not only made a huge difference in the productivity of our team, but also led to extraordinary results in user testing."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • “One of the most thoughtful product design leaders I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. ”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "It’s rare that you come across exceptional talent like Josef. He showed outstanding product design skills and a deep understanding of product strategy."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • "Josef is a thoughtful, skillful design lead who combines mastery of his craft with perceptive analysis, a focus on users, and excellent communication."

    – Andrew Purcell
    Senior Director, Digital UX & Design
    at Marriott International 

  • "Josef is a bright holistic design thinker. He is able to break down the brief or problem into smaller clear parts, and provides clear paths to take."

    – Sina Mossayeb
    Chief Design Officer
    at Medable

  • "His many years of experience and ability to get deep into the technical aspects of work was an immense asset to our work!"

    – Chris Meierling
    Director of Service Design
    at Medable

  • “Professional, organized, calm, experienced, and creative.”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "I was particularly impressed by Josef’s ability to remove nonessential complexity from the product, which not only made a huge difference in the productivity of our team, but also led to extraordinary results in user testing."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • “One of the most thoughtful product design leaders I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. ”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "It’s rare that you come across exceptional talent like Josef. He showed outstanding product design skills and a deep understanding of product strategy."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • "Josef is a thoughtful, skillful design lead who combines mastery of his craft with perceptive analysis, a focus on users, and excellent communication."

    – Andrew Purcell
    Senior Director, Digital UX & Design
    at Marriott International 

  • "Josef is a bright holistic design thinker. He is able to break down the brief or problem into smaller clear parts, and provides clear paths to take."

    – Sina Mossayeb
    Chief Design Officer
    at Medable

  • "His many years of experience and ability to get deep into the technical aspects of work was an immense asset to our work!"

    – Chris Meierling
    Director of Service Design
    at Medable

  • “Professional, organized, calm, experienced, and creative.”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "I was particularly impressed by Josef’s ability to remove nonessential complexity from the product, which not only made a huge difference in the productivity of our team, but also led to extraordinary results in user testing."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • “One of the most thoughtful product design leaders I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career. ”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "It’s rare that you come across exceptional talent like Josef. He showed outstanding product design skills and a deep understanding of product strategy."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

  • "Josef is a thoughtful, skillful design lead who combines mastery of his craft with perceptive analysis, a focus on users, and excellent communication."

    – Andrew Purcell
    Senior Director, Digital UX & Design
    at Marriott International 

  • "Josef is a bright holistic design thinker. He is able to break down the brief or problem into smaller clear parts, and provides clear paths to take."

    – Sina Mossayeb
    Chief Design Officer
    at Medable

  • "His many years of experience and ability to get deep into the technical aspects of work was an immense asset to our work!"

    – Chris Meierling
    Director of Service Design
    at Medable

  • “Professional, organized, calm, experienced, and creative.”

    – Joshua Bryant
    Director of Product Design
    at Medable

  • "I was particularly impressed by Josef’s ability to remove nonessential complexity from the product, which not only made a huge difference in the productivity of our team, but also led to extraordinary results in user testing."

    – Timon Reinhardt
    Lead PO Smart Home
    at T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

more testimonials…

Some of my recent projects

T-Mobile Smart Home
I was designing a new smart home product for Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile. This was a large, long term project. It started by introducing a design system at first. Based on new design system we ultimately redesigned the whole product from scratch.

The new product revolved around a concept of "stories" – these were everyday situations, like "turn on lights when I come home", that were supposed to work out of the box with almost zero setup. This was quite a radical departure from existing smart home products in the market, that let you configure all kinds of automations, but usually don't come preconfigured with meaningful use cases.

Advanced prototyping for T-Mobile

Prototyping can save you from many dead ends. I've been creating advanced prototypes, that are often simple but functional apps focusing on the core feature in question. It far more reasonable to spend more time in prototyping stage, rather than in actual development.

This prototype uses Dialogflow API for speech recognition and Firebase for communicating between prototypes (one prototype is the mobile app, another prototype is the desktop app that simulates a room in an apartment). This is all built in Framer. It's a bit slower to respond (the speech recording is transmitted to the API), but it works.
This prototype uses Dialogflow API for speech recognition and Firebase for communicating between prototypes (one prototype is the mobile app, another prototype is the desktop app that simulates a room in an apartment). This is all built in Framer. It's a bit slower to respond (the speech recording is transmitted to the API), but it works.
Soul Mate
Soul Mate is a dating app revolving around the Tinder's concept of date ideas. Rather than just choosing a partner based on photos, you first choose an activity you enjoy and then seek someone to enjoy it with you.

Josef Richter 2023