Nine Exciting Ambition Empower Topics in September

We have an incredibly exciting fall ahead of us at Ambition Empower. Already in September our 500 members will have access to nine incredibly interesting topics:

  • From Data to Product Vision: Ensuring that user needs & behaviors drive design
    Product Management with Kim Goodwin
  • Strategic Customer Experience: Position CX as a driver of business growth
    Business Impact & CX with Pontus Wärnestål
  • Secondary Research: Getting value from what’s already out there
    Research with Steve Portigal
  • Contextual Intelligence: AI that can read the room
    Artificial Intelligence with Pontus Wärnestål
  • Rewards: The science behind rewards and why they do and don’t work
    Behavioral Design with Susan Weinschenk
  • Design Systems and Governance: Building, scaling, and managing design systems
    DesignOps with Georgiy Chernyavsky
  • Designing for Circular Service Systems: Regenerative futures
    UX and Service Design with Pontus Wärnestål
  • UI Kits and Design Systems Designed in Figma
    UI Design with Georgiy Chernyavsky
  • Design Leadership Fundamentals: A mindset and a set of skills
    Leadership with Kim Goodwin

Interested in joining Ambition Empower? Follow the link, or reach out to Nathalie Tindsjö or Jane Murray for more information.

Please Welcome… Sandra Larsson!

She is a true competitor, from assistant coaching the Australian national floorball team to never letting go of the karaoke mic once she has it. And now she is joining us at Ambition. Welcome, Sandra Larsson! 🎉

Sandra, you have been in the industry for years. How did it all start?

“I began in the fintech world, starting on the marketing side before moving into business and digitalization. I spent several years developing services for e-commerce merchants, from optimizing sales with smoother payment flows to digitizing financial services and processes.

Eventually, I moved to the public sector. My focus shifted from boosting sales to increasing satisfaction among citizens and businesses through digital transformation and internal efficiencies. From improving building permit processes to streamlining back-to-school forms for parents. The latter was actually one of my favorite projects, turning seven different letters and forms into one single process. Parents were happier, and things ran more smoothly internally as well.

After that, I returned to the commercial side, this time in the automotive industry as CX Manager at Lynk & Co. I worked on opening new sales channels, handling more car models, and offering more financing solutions, all while improving customer satisfaction and clarity.

The common theme throughout my career has been collaboration and change. It is challenging but also rewarding, especially when you see that lightbulb moment in someone who was initially resistant to change.”

What about life outside of work?

“Sports have always been a big part of my life. I played a lot of floorball and football when I was younger. These days I prefer padel and stand-up paddleboarding. It is calmer, but the competitive spirit is still there. I also enjoy being outdoors and spending time with family and friends.”

And, I heard something about karaoke?

“Oh yes. I love it. I once received a golden microphone as a farewell gift from a job. Once I have the mic, I do not let it go.”

We are thrilled to have you on board, Sandra! Here is to what we will achieve together!

The Ambition Conference 2025

Want to expand your impact as a designer or leader and drive real change in your organization? Don’t miss Ambition Conference 2025 – this year’s most inspiring event for design, design leadership, and product management professionals!

On May 7th in Stockholm and May 13th in Gothenburg, top UX, CX, and product management experts will come together for a day packed with inspiration, actionable insights, and hands-on learning. You’ll get:

  • Practical tools for integrating design into your organization
  • Insights on scaling a customer-centric approach
  • Strategies for leveraging customer journeys in decision-making
  • Best practices for using design systems to improve collaboration
  • Expert perspectives on future-proofing your organization
    and much more…

Speakers

We’ve gathered some of Sweden’s most experienced designers, leaders, and educators, along with internationally recognized experts:

Plus, Kim Goodwin (joining online), one of Empower’s most appreciated educators, will share her insights on creating experiments and MVPs.

Nathalie Tindsjö, Pontus Wärnestål, and Kristina Lj. Christensson will be our hosts and guide us through the day(s).

Program

  • 11:00 – 13:00
    • Registration & Welcome Lunch – Check-in, network, and enjoy a light lunch
  • 13:00 – 17:00
    • Introduction – Kick-off and setting the stage
    • Ignite Talks – Inspiring short talks from industry leaders
    • Community Creation – Let’s split up into groups and explore together
    • Empower Awards – Celebrating outstanding achievements
    • Closing Keynote – A thought-provoking finale
  • 17:00 – 20:00
    • Evening Social – Snacks, drinks, and networking in a relaxed atmosphere

Tickets

If you’re already an Ambition Empower member, you can relax—your ticket is included in your membership. Not a member yet? Now’s the perfect time to join!

🎟️ Join now & secure your spot: https://ambitiongrp.com/empower/

Questions?

Email us at .

Ambition Empower over the years

When we started Ambition Empower, our vision was to create a never-ending feed of carefully curated content that members could read or listen to each week. By spending just one hour per week, our members could grow continuously within the area that was most important to them.

We began with a few exceptional teachers, who were assigned “tracks” to publish their content. They became known as our “Track Leaders.”

The first version of the Ambition Empower app was released in September 2021. It involved manually updating a static WordPress page each week so that our members could access this valuable content. This process also required us to manually scheduling our live meetings for all members and keeping pages up to date every week.

Fortunately, we only had a few tracks and a limited number of members at the time, but it was still a lot of manual work.

The second version was launched on May 16, 2022. With the help of our friends at Matic Tribe in Gothenburg, we developed our first functional web application 🎉

This version introduced dynamic features, such as automated email notifications and content that updated within the app based on the current date. Members could subscribe to tracks and instantly add all relevant meetings to their calendars—and the app looked amazing.

The app was (and still is) built with React, powered by an SQL server on Azure, and supported by a backend written in .NET Core. This transition freed up more time for us to focus on improving and developing the app rather than manually updating content.

From interviews and usability studies, we learned that members appreciated how easy it was to find content. However, they felt there wasn’t a clear sense of accomplishment. To address this, we introduced Topics—essentially breaking down tracks into monthly chunks with a clear beginning and end. This also led our Track Leaders to group related articles into more cohesive packages.

We redesigned both the frontend and parts of the backend to support this change. This third version (3.0) was released in mid-summer 2023. Customers could now complete topics within tracks and receive a diploma upon completion. 🏆

Building on this version, we added automated emails, weekly reminders, and other nudges to help our members stay on track with their professional development. Since building new habits can be challenging, we aim to provide as much support as possible. Some emails were still sent manually due to time constraints, but automation continued to improve.

Since summer 2024, we’ve been working on the redesigned version that launched today: Ambition Empower 4.0.

Empower

This new version moves away from the track-based concept, allowing topics to stand independently. Users no longer need to follow a specific track to access all available topics.

This change required a bigger overhaul of both our backend and frontend. And, as is often the case in software development, we had to “replace the engine while the car was still running.” It was a massive undertaking for our development team, and we’re proud to have completed the transition without any major issues. All track subscriptions were successfully migrated to the new topic-based system.

We have an extensive roadmap ahead, with plans to make Ambition Empower even better for our members. Stay tuned for more. 🚀

“Vi har nu lyckats höja vårt totala upplevelseindex till nästan 5 av 5”

Säg hej till Johannes Söderqvist, Head of Digital Workplace på Volvo Cars!

I höstas höll vi vår årliga AW-turné där vi presenterade aktuella case med fokus på Journey Management. I Malmö pratade min kollega Lotta om Volvo Cars Digital Workplace. Det var ett imponerande arbete, och jag blev nyfiken och kontaktade Johannes för att få veta mer.

Hej Johannes! Kan du berätta lite om din avdelning och vad ni gör?

– Självklart! Jag har arbetat med Volvo Cars nästan hela min karriär, först som konsult och nu anställd sedan 10 år tillbaka. Idag leder jag vår Digital Workplace-organisation, där vårt ansvar är att se till att alla våra medarbetare har de digitala verktyg de behöver för att kunna arbeta effektivt och innovativt. Vi är ett stort team på runt 300 personer som tillsammans hantera datorer och telefoner, utvecklar våra samarbets- och produktivitetsverktyg som Microsoft 365, samt erbjuder support globalt.

Ni verkar ha kommit långt med er strategiska resa! Hur tog allt fart?

– Det började på allvar 2017 när vi formulerade våra första gemensamma vision och strategi för Digital Workplace som i första skedet i mångt och mycket handlade om en teknisk transformation. Parallellt inledde vi också en ny och ganska unik satsning på Change Management i syfte att “paketera” våra nya och förbättrade tekniska lösningar i ett mer användarvändligt format. I Januari 2023 tog vår resa återigen en ny riktning när vi beslutade oss för att ersätta tidigare arbetsätt kring Change Mangement med ett mer UX och design thinking-baserat arbetsätt där vi i ännu större utsträckning försöker sätta användarens upplevelse i centrum och anpassa tekniken efter medarbetarnas behov och inte tvärtom.

Vad innebär det konkret för er idag?

– Idag har vi byggt upp en kultur och ett sätt att arbeta där vi är “user perception driven”. Vi samlar in data om våra medarbetares upplevelser och agerar på feedback. Målet är att göra rätt från början, vilket sparar både tid och resurser. Att ställa om från ett tekniskt fokus till användarbehov har varit utmanande, men vi ser nu resultat i form av en bättre användarupplevelse, och det har varit värt ansträngningen.

– Vi kan ta ett konkret exempel. Att ge alla nyanställda på Volvo Cars en bra upplevelse på den allra första arbetsdagen är så klart väldigt viktigt och leveranserna från Digital Workplace just den dagen, i form av ny dator, telefon, applikationer och support, har väldigt stor inverkan på den totala upplevelsen av och känslan för Volvo Cars. Genom att göra en user journey map för en nyanställd så fick vi bättre förståelse för och insikt kring var vi både kan och behöver förbättra upplevelsen för vår nya kollega. Genom både process- och teknikrelaterade förändringar har vi nu lyckats höja vårt totala upplevelseindex till nästan 5 av 5 möjliga poäng.

Hur hjälper kundresor er att förbättra användarupplevelsen?

– De är väldigt användbara för att förstå varje steg våra anställda går igenom, t.ex. från kontraktskrivning till att arbetsverktyg är på plats. Det gör att vi snabbt kan identifiera problem och direkt förbättra upplevelsen.

Använder ni KPI:er för att mäta alla steg i kundresorna? Hur följer ni upp?

– Inte än, faktiskt, men vi siktar på att nå dit. Vi följer upp kontinuerligt, men vi är inte så data-drivna som vi skulle vilja vara. Våra experience-leads samlar in och analyserar data från sina områden och ledningen prioriterar baserat på det, men det är ännu inte integrerat i kundresorna.

Vad står på agendan framöver?

– Det är mycket spännande på gång! Vi har just påbörjat ett nytt strategiarbete för att sätta riktningen för de kommande två åren. Vårt fokus kommer fortsatt vara att sätta medarbetarupplevelsen i centrum och använda data för att göra smarta förbättringar. Målet är att skapa en digital arbetsplats som verkligen hjälper våra medarbetare att lyckas.

Tack för att du delade med dig, Johannes! Vi ser fram emot att följa utvecklingen!

Welcome, Malin and Fredrik!

New colleagues! New office! Hard to imagine a better start to 2025!

First, a warm welcome to Malin Bjelle and Fredrik Palmblad, who are joining our team! We’re so happy to have you on board.

Second, we’ve officially moved into our brand-new office at Kungsgatan 57 in Gothenburg!

If you’re in the area, don’t hesitate to drop by and say hello—we’d love to see you!

January Topics at Ambition Empower

Here are the Ambition Empower topics for January (starting January 6th, 2025). If you’re not a member already, we’d love to have you onboard! Sign up here, and reach out to Jane Murray, or Nathalie Tindsjö if you have questions.
 

DesignOps with Georgiy Chernyavsky

Foundations of DesignOps: DesignOps plays a vital role in enabling efficient and effective design practices. This month, we’ll dive into the core principles, frameworks, and strategies that empower design teams to streamline processes and deliver greater value. 
 

Design Research with Steve Portigal

AI and User Research: AI, an umbrella term for many different techonlogies, has captured our attention for its potential to impact many aspects of our lives. For user research, as with many other areas, we might be feeling some mix of caution, curiosity, fatigue, confusion, and excitement (among others, no doubt). This month, we’ll look at a range of perspectives and advice and form our own perspective.
 

Design Leadership with Kim Goodwin

Building a Team – Hiring: Hiring the right people at the right time is a crucial part of building a successful team. Whether you’re a hiring manager or part of the process, this month we’ll focus on evidence-based practices to reduce bias and improve your success in finding the best candidates.
 

UX Writing and Content Strategy with Torrey Podmajersky

Improve Accessibility with UX Content: Accessible and inclusive design is more important than ever in creating digital products. This month, we’ll focus on how UX content can enhance accessibility, helping your products meet and exceed growing standards for inclusivity. 
 

UI Design and Prototyping with Figma with Georgiy Chernyavsky

Great Figma Habits: Designing better experiences starts with great habits. This month, we’ll explore foundational UI design concepts in Figma, dive deeper into advanced techniques, and push Figma’s limits to create more efficient and effective workflows.
 

AI and Design with Pontus Wärnestål

Designing for Imperfection: In AI-powered systems, machine learning models are never perfect – they inevitably produce false positives and false negatives. This month we will explore how designers can understand and address these inaccuracies to create robust and usable experiences.
 

Service Design with Chris Risdon

Ecosystems in Service Design: Ecosystems and systems thinking are essential to designing effective services. This month, we’ll explore what defines an ecosystem, how to communicate its components, and how to apply this understanding to improve service design.
 

Behavioral Design with Susan Weinschenk

Unconscious Decision-Making: Research shows that most decisions are made unconsciously, with the brain working behind the scenes. This month, we’ll delve into the latest findings on decision-making and explore what they mean for design.
 

Product Management with Kim Goodwin

Making Good Decisions: At the heart of product management is the ability to help organizations make, deliver on, and learn from great decisions. This month, we’ll explore what defines a “good” product decision, how individuals and organizations approach decision-making, and the critical role PMs play in guiding the process.
 


If you’re not a member already, we’d love to have you onboard! Sign up here, and reach out to Jane Murray, or Nathalie Tindsjö if you have questions.

Brand New DesignOps Track!

We’re excited to announce a new track for Ambition Empower, designed to inspire and support our community. Starting now in January, Georgiy Chernyavsky is launching a track dedicated to DesignOps. This track will focus on essential topics to help you grow and thrive, including, e.g., Collaboration Across Teams, Metrics and Measuring Design Impact, Scaling Design Teams, Design Systems and Governance, Building a Culture of Design, and Process Optimization.

Also, the Design Systems track, previously led by Michelle Chin, will now be integrated into the DesignOps and UI Design and Prototyping tracks. As Michelle embarks on new opportunities, we extend our heartfelt thanks for her two years of invaluable contributions and inspiration. 💜

We look forward to exploring this exciting new content with you!


If you’re not a member already, we’d love to have you onboard! Sign up here, and reach out to Jane Murray, or Nathalie Tindsjö if you have questions.

Ambition Empower – Now with our very own conference!

Alright… This might sound a little crazy. 😱 While events like IXDA, UX Copenhagen, and FBTB are taking breaks or shutting down, we’ve decided to do the opposite. We’re thrilled to announce that the first-ever Ambition Conferences—one in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg—will take place in May 2025!

Ambition Conference 2025 won’t be a large-scale event. Quite the opposite. Imagine an intimate, welcoming atmosphere focused on learning, laughter, and meaningful conversations rather than big stages and rockstar speakers. Stay tuned for more details coming early next year.

If you’re already an Ambition Empower member, you can relax—your conference ticket is included in your membership. If you’re part of our new, entry level, Ambition Ignite concept (which only includes access to the Empower live sessions), you can easily upgrade to Ambition Empower to join the fun—just send us an email or a PM.

Not a member yet? Now’s the perfect time to join! Until December 20th, you can secure a full year of membership, packed with professional development (and a conference ticket included), for just €799—whether you’re an individual or part of a team. (Regular pricing is €1199 for individuals and €999 for teams. For groups of 10 or more, send us a PM for an even better deal.)

This special offer is limited to the first 50 sign-ups via PM, email, or our website.

  • Discount code for individual memberships: AMBITION2025
  • Discount code for teams (2-9 memberships): TEAM2025

This is going to be amazing! Hope we see you in May! 🎉


If you’re not a member already, we’d love to have you onboard! Sign up here, and reach out to Jane Murray, or Nathalie Tindsjö if you have questions.

Say hello to Malin Bjelle!

Say hello to Malin Bjelle, Experience Designer at Ambition! Malin made a stellar impression during the recruitment process. Since I haven’t worked with her personally yet, I asked her project colleague, Johanna Hasslöf, for her thoughts:

“Malin will be an excellent addition to Ambition! She’s calm, results-oriented, efficient, and dedicated. On top of that, she’s both caring and supportive. She’s always eager to share her knowledge while continually striving to grow and learn more.”

Malin’s background is incredibly diverse and exciting, encompassing everything from 3D design to production management and, of course, UX and service design. The common thread throughout her career has been the design of experiences—both physical and digital.


Hi Malin! Welcome to Ambition! What are you most looking forward to?

– Thank you! I’m so excited! There are two things I’m looking forward to the most. First, finding the right environment is essential for personal and professional growth, and Ambition feels like the perfect fit for me. Second, I’m really eager to get to know all my new colleagues. I’ve already worked with several of them on past projects, and I can’t wait to become part of this amazing team. I’m confident I’ll learn a lot and that we’ll inspire one another.


What inspired you to pursue service design and UX?

– It wasn’t by chance that I ended up in this field. After many years in graphic production and operational management, I felt a strong desire to shift toward creating more tangible value for people. It’s incredibly fulfilling to work at the intersection of technology, creativity, and user experience and to make a real difference in people’s lives. For me, the combination of design, problem-solving, and human interaction is what makes every day so exciting and inspiring.


You’ve worked with companies like Skanska, Gekås Ullared, Jula, and Volvo Penta. Is there a project that stands out to you?

– That’s a tough one… Every project has been valuable in its own way. But if I had to choose, I’d say the ongoing assignment with Volvo Penta. It’s been both enjoyable and incredibly educational, providing me with opportunities for personal and professional development.

– One of the most rewarding aspects has been learning to navigate a large, complex organization, balance competing interests, build relationships, and collaborate across organizational boundaries. These skills are crucial for creating successful outcomes, yet they’re often overlooked. The fact that the organization is filled with such talented individuals has made the experience even more enriching.


Thank you, Malin! I can’t wait to work with you!


Malin starts in early January. If you already know you’d like Malin’s help with a project, reach out to Cecilia Brunemark.