Say hello to… Marie Lambertsson!

Johan Berndtsson May 11, 2026

Few people walk into Ambition with a trajectory quite like Marie’s. A technical physicist by training, a therapist by practice, and a senior Service- and UX designer by profession. Marie has spent her career asking the same underlying question from very different angles… “What do people and companies actually need?” and “What is the purpose?”

I first got to work with Marie at inUse, and I’m genuinely happy that our paths have crossed again. She joined us a couple of weeks ago.

Welcome, Marie! Your path to design is anything but straight. How did it all start?

– It started in engineering. I spent about ten years as a technical system designer in the 90s, working closely with Tom Gilb, a real pioneer in requirements engineering and value-driven development. One of his methods was software inspection, and I actually ended up as an example in one of his presentations. Evidence, he argued, that you could improve quality dramatically by getting requirements as right as possible from the start. We were out in the field with people operating base stations, incredibly complex interfaces that the developers and a few “superusers” were proud of, precisely because they were so advanced. That experience made it obvious to me… the work has to start with the user.

Then you left tech entirely for a while. That’s not something you hear often?

– I did. Around 2003, the company I worked at went through a reorganization and took the opportunity to leave. I spent five years working with people in a very different way, within rehabilitation and open housing, with two therapy training programmes alongside. It was a time of real personal insight. But eventually I missed the industry. A friend pointed out that what I was actually looking for was interaction design, to combine my knowledge about people and technology. That changed everything. I studied for two years at Nackademien. That’s where I first encountered inUse, who taught there. I fell in love with impact-driven design, impact management, and impact mapping. All the things that inUse pioneered and companies really needed to understand.

You’ve worked across some varied contexts since then; home appliances, hospitals, real estate companies. Any that stand out?

– Several. I designed interfaces for washing machines and coffee makers at Electrolux for a while. That was an interesting challenge to design usable interfaces for hardware. Later I had an assignment at Södersjukhuset, working with doctors and nurses to streamline their workflows. That’s actually where I reconnected with inUse again, and ended up joining the team.

What drew you to Ambition specifically?

– There’s a pattern, I think. I didn’t stumble into inUse, I sought it out, because the culture and the approach felt right. Same with Ambition. This was the only job I applied for. I use my intuition a lot, and when I looked at what the team had built here, I recognized something familiar… People who genuinely want good things for each other, far from territorial thinking. Being able to show up as a full human being, not just a professional, matters to me. Community matters to me.

You have a strong interest in personal development alongside your work. How does that connect to what you do professionally?

– I think they’re inseparable. If we only act from what we’ve already experienced, we just repeat the same patterns over and over. That applies to people, to organizations, and honestly to the field of design too. Growth, real growth, requires doing genuinely new things, not just optimizing old ones. That’s what I try to bring into my work. Helping people, products and organisations to move somewhere they haven’t been before.

Last one – what’s your take on AI and where we fit in?

– What interests me is the wisdom around it, how we use it. AI is a lot more efficient in sorting out tasks, but maybe not as effective as we are. It cannot (yet?) be innovative. I believe that there will always be things that humans are better at. Our brains and bodies are a fantastic “technology”. AI should be a helper, not a brain. And that’s exactly why I think people who understand both technology, human behavior and value driven development are so badly needed right now.

Thanks Marie, it’s great to have you back! 🙌

Say hello to… Maximilian Relam Wide!

Johan Berndtsson April 15, 2026

We’re delighted to welcome Maximilian Relam Wide to Ambition in Gothenburg. Maximilian joins us from recent work with Volvo Cars, Telia, and Coop, with a broad background in Product,UX, and UI design. We sat down with him to talk about how he got here, what drives him, and why thoughtful design means so much to him.

Welcome Maximilian! How did you find your way into design?

– When I was in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew about interfaces and GUIs, they were just part of using software. It never crossed my mind that someone actually had to design them, or that UX was even a thing. Then I watched a documentary about a Danish furniture designer. The idea that a piece of furniture should serve a clear purpose, but also be beautiful, just clicked.

– I’d always been drawn to things that solved problems well… clothes, furniture, products that felt like someone had really thought them through, and watching that documentary I knew straight away that I wanted to learn more about this kind of “thoughtful” design.

And that led you to Hyper Island?

– My closest friend had started there a year or two before me and told me about the program. He was studying app development. “You’ll work out what you want to do once you’re there.”, he said, so I applied. I got into the Digital Media Creative track, and he was right.

– There was a lot of learning by doing, with a real emphasis on soft skills and building genuine connections with the people around you. Teams came together quickly because of that. And the projects were real. Actual clients, actual briefs, not work that disappeared into a folder somewhere. Near the end of the program I bought a Sketch license and remember thinking, THIS is what I want to do.

But you went on to study again after that?

– I didn’t quite feel ready to start working, so I did the Digital Designer program at Yrgo here in Gothenburg. Motion, frontend, design. I like having a broad skill set and understanding many different sides of design work. It’s served me well.

What happened when you finished?

– I did an internship in Stockholm. My sister was living there at the time. Then covid hit, and finding work was genuinely hard. I ended up helping the agency Fab in Gothenburg with UX and UI projects for clients. Through them I came across Koalitionen, mentioned I was looking for something permanent, and got taken on.

– My first client there was Coop. They had an admin portal used by suppliers to manage orders and campaigns. The job was to improve the UX and UI across the board and explore how AI could surface useful insights for suppliers based on trends. I worked closely with a designer who had built much of Coop’s design language, and really learned to think in terms of components and design systems. It was intense, but I took a lot from it.

Which other projects have stayed with you?

– Telia was significant. I worked on their logged-in experience… the area where customers manage invoices and account settings. A colleague in Gothenburg handled the app while I focused on the web, but the development team was based in Lithuania. We also built out “Telia Familj”, a set of services for people sharing a household. I spent a lot of time interviewing users to understand what they actually needed, with a strong commercial focus throughout.

– Then Volvo Cars. I worked on an internal system for production planning across their factories. The challenge wasn’t making something that looked good. It was understanding how the business actually worked. When I interviewed users, I learned that they regularly used only a small part of the system. Some features were utilized maybe twice a year, others barely at all. The real insight was that people need help getting quickly to what matters. Being an old system with tons of technical debt we couldn’t decommission anything, so building clear shortcuts to the most-used functions ended up being the most important thing we did.

What are you working on right now?

– I’ve just started with our client Timewave. More on that to come!

What are you most looking forward to here at Ambition?

– Having so many design colleagues around me. That means a lot. I really want to learn from everyone here, and I’m looking forward to digging into Ambition Empower. I know I’ll grow a lot. The goal is to become the kind of designer that everybody genuinely wants to work with.

Thanks Maximilian, and welcome to Ambition!

Say hello to… Jonatan Persson!

Johan Berndtsson March 26, 2026

We’re happy to welcome Jonatan Persson, who recently joined us at Ambition. Jonatan has a broad background in digital services and products, UX and product design, with experience ranging from physics-simulating startups to global product organizations like Cochlear.

I sat down with Jonatan to talk about how he got into design, what drives him, and how he thinks about leadership and the future.

Welcome, Jonatan! How did you end up in design?

– It happened gradually. It wasn’t a super conscious choice from the start. I’ve always liked being creative and had an easy time with technical subjects, but what really drew me in was the creative side. Music, photography, visual art. I started out studying mechanical engineering, but it wasn’t cut out for me. I switched tracks and studied film studies and media and communication instead for a couple of years. I wanted to understand how people communicate and make sense of the world. It still is a good foundation for me as a designer to build on.

– Then I found design and product development at Chalmers, and it felt like the perfect combination. Both the engineering perspective and the human one. How do you build products that actually create value, for people and for the business?

What did the first years after graduation look like?

– My first job was at a small startup called Algoryx. They built a digital tool where you could simulate physics. You created a model of a physical scene or world by drawing it, and then pressed a button and the laws of physics kicked in. It had started as a thesis project and got enormous attention, millions of views on YouTube, reaching Ny Tekniks 33-list. I was the first designer in a team of ten and got to do a little of everything. Business cards, rollups, designing the product and testing it out with students in classrooms.

– We were probably ten years too early. But it was an incredible challenge and a fantastic first hands-on opportunity to learn the craft. The tool named Algodoo, still amazes me!

And after that?

– I moved on to a scale up in Gothenburg, working with a technically complex SaaS tool for process automation to help businesses be more effective and consistent. After that I got the chance to join Opera, the web browser. A global product company with up to thirty million daily users. I learned an enormous amount about how to build commercial products at scale, and how to take care of existing users while creating something new at the same time. At this point I started to build up all the seniority I needed as a designer.

– After that came Stendahls, where I worked as UX Director for many years. A lot of work with Volvo CE, Husqvarna, and other digital services for a mix of clients. Towards the end I became a competence lead for UX, working on questions like which skills we needed, mapping resources to projects, how to develop people and the overall Stendahls UX offering of course.

Your more recent roles have had a clear focus on leadership and business. How did that happen?

– For a long time I worked inside the design bubble, thinking a lot about why design never got a seat at the table. At my last two jobs, MATCHi and Cochlear, I finally got that seat as a design leader and manager. Reporting directly to the CPO. Working closely with product directors. Talking about business value and strategy. And also helping organisations grow their design maturity and ways of working.

– A lot of it was about building leadership and mentorship. Helping a team grow, not just deliver. Giving a mandate to designers to really do the work and help organisations with their business growth as well as improving experiences for their customers.

What drew you to Ambition?

– The combination of actually delivering and learning at the same time as well as continuing work with design leadership. I enjoy stepping into different industries, quickly getting on top of new opportunities, problems and context, and then contributing. The fact that Ambition puts such a strong focus on professional development and empowering organisations felt right. This is an industry that changes fast, and it’s fun to navigate that together with others on this level.

What are you working on right now?

– I’m helping with the preparations for the Ambition Conference in May. And soon there’s a new client assignment on the way, more on that later.

Thanks Jonatan, and welcome to Ambition!

Säg hej till… Ola Thörn!

Johan Berndtsson March 11, 2026

Vi är väldigt glada att välkomna Ola Thörn som nyligen har börjat hos oss på Ambition. Ola har bland annat drivit en innovativ tjänst till marknaden på Sony och frilansat inom UX.

Vi tog en pratstund med Ola om vägen in i design, vad som driver honom, och hur han ser på AI och framtiden.

Välkommen Ola! Hur hamnade du inom design?

– Jag gillade att rita och pixlade på en Amiga 500 som jag delade med brorsan. Ville man göra något kreativt fick man “förtur”. Ville man bara spela fick man lämna över.

– På studenten fick jag en bok om industridesign som satte igång något. Jag började på universitetet och läste humaniora och sen vidare till New Media Design på Hyper Island. Efter ett tag tröttnade jag på att mycket inom webb på den tiden handlade om yta och trender. Jag ville jobba med sånt som går att göra objektivt bättre. Det ledde mig till en magisterkurs i kognitionsvetenskap, och sen vidare till olika roller som inom UX.

Vad tog du med dig från åren som designer – och från Sony?

– Efter ett vikariat på BTJ (Bibliotekstjänst) gick jag vidare till Sony och arbetade på designavdelningen, och senare på en framtidsinriktad teknikavdelning. Tillsammans med ämnesexperter inom olika teknologier, var vårt uppdrag att utforska nya möjligheter och testa nya gränser.

– Det var en väldigt kreativ period. Jag tror att min lite “naiva” teknikförståelse ibland hjälpte. När man inte är helt låst i hur något fungerar rent tekniskt kan man ställa andra frågor. Jag utvecklade olika workshopformat för att få fram nya idéer tillsammans med ingenjörerna och fick igenom flera patent kring innovativa gränssnitt.

Finns det något särskilt projekt du är extra stolt över?

– I slutet av min Sony tid fokuserade vi på inkubation av nya framtida tjänster och jag tog chansen och pitchade en ny SaaS, som vi sen tog till marknaden. Traditionellt klipper man inspelat tal t ex en intervju som en vågform, men problemet är att då ser man ju inte vad någon säger. När transkriptioner blev bättre tänkte vi: varför inte klippa med hjälp av text? Markera en mening i utskriften och så försvinner motsvarande del av ljudet.

– Vi jobbade med utveckling, produktifiering, marknadsföring, hela paketet, och använde Sony Mobiles Audio Recording-app med miljontals installationer för att nå ut med tjänsten. Att få följa en idé hela vägen, från “det här borde vara bra” till något människor faktiskt använder, det är otroligt tillfredsställande.

Efter Sony startade du eget, hur var det?

– Jag lämnade Sony och startade eget för att få variation och kunna hjälpa olika typer av kunder. Jag har jobbat både hands-on med UX/UI och mer med service design med kunder i näringslivet och offentlig sektor. Det är kul att kliva in i olika branscher och snabbt försöka förstå problem, sammanhang och behov.

– Under hösten hade jag kontakt med Jakob på Ambition, och när det dök upp en spännande möjlighet så hoppade jag på den.

Vad var det som lockade med Ambition?

– Att ni är fokuserade på UX och tjänstedesign, och har ett så starkt fokus på fortbildning. Det här är en bransch som förändras fortare än någonsin och det är kul att lära sig tillsammans.

Vad är roligast med jobbet som designer?

– Att gå från att upptäcka ett behov, något som ofta är ganska abstrakt, till att göra det konkret. Att skapa en lösning som faktiskt löser ett riktigt problem. Den resan, från dimma till klarhet, är det som gör att jag fortfarande tycker det här är så kul.

Vad jobbar du med just nu?

– Just nu handlar det om att skapa bättre lösningar för invånarkommunikation på Region Skåne, bland annat digitala kallelser. Hur kan vi skapa lösningar som gör så att de som kallas till värden är rätt förberedda och kommer till rätt plats vid rätt tid? Det kostar en massa när besök missas eller när människor inte får rätt information i tid.

Hur tänker du kring AI? Vad kommer att vara sig likt och vad kommer att förändras?

– De tjänster som vi redan nu har tillgång till gör det möjligt att komma framåt snabbt när man skissar idéer och bygger prototyper. Det är ett enormt lyft. Men man behöver ha en egen “point-of-view”. Man måste kunna granska det som kommer ut och bedöma om det faktiskt funkar i verkligheten, och för riktiga användare. Snabba prototyper är jättebra, men ansvaret för kvaliteten försvinner inte.

– Just att det går så snabbt att göra saker gör det enkelt att sätta ihop lite vadsomhelst. Nyligen, när jag ville bli bättre på kortkommandon i Figma, byggde jag till exempel en webapp i Lovable för att kunna träna på dem.

Till sist: Vad ser du mest fram emot nu när du är här?

– Det ska bli inspirerande att arbeta med nya kollegor inom design och innovation. Att få vara i en miljö där vi både levererar och lär oss samtidigt. Vi är i ett spännande teknikskifte där det som känns nytt nu kan se helt självklart ut om ett år. Jag ser fram emot att utforska det tillsammans med er.

Tack Ola, och välkommen till Ambition!

Ambition Conference 2026: All you need to know

Johan Berndtsson February 13, 2026

The Ambition Conference is where product, CX, and design leaders come to sharpen their craft, compare notes with peers, and bring home ideas that actually change both decisions and delivery.

It’s the annual in-person gathering for Ambition Empower, a membership that helps teams and individuals build stronger product, CX, and design capabilities through one hour of curated learning or live workshops per week. Stay aligned, keep improving, and turn insights into better decisions and delivery, without the content overload. Conference access is included in membership.

Dates & venues

Choose the city and date that suits you best:

Gothenburg, 19 May, Surr Arena
Stockholm, 26 May, Södra Teatern

What to expect

Expect insightful talks connecting experience quality to real business outcomes, practical methods you can use with your team, and great conversations with peers across Product, UX, and CX, plus a warm, member-driven atmosphere.

Announced sessions (so far)

The hidden cost of bad CX: Connecting experience failures to the bottom line
Astrid Kowalczyk, Global Head of CX Data & Insights at Volvo Cars
Assert your UX impact: Bring strategy into every UX conversation
Torrey Podmajersky, author of UX Skills for Business Strategy
Discovery habits that improve product, strategy, and business
Fredrik Påhlman, UX & Discovery Lead at Sleep Cycle
Journeys that work: Inclusion, KPI’s, and storytelling
Marie Östlund, Customer Experience Director at Avinode
Engagement by design: Continuous learning at Fortnox
Gabriel Svennerberg, Head of Design at Fortnox
[TBA]
More speakers and topics will be revealed over the coming weeks, and this page will be updated as announcements go live.

How to attend

Already a member? Log in to the app and select Gothenburg (19 May) or Stockholm (26 May).
Not a member yet? Join Ambition Empower to attend the conference (included) and get year-round access to the program and community.

If you have questions, reach out to Nathalie Tindsjö or Jane Murray.

Afterwork with Ambition Empower at Minc Malmö

Jane Murray February 5, 2026

Join us for a Afterwork with Pontus Wärnestål and Ambition Empower! The topic… What happens to design when interaction is no longer just visual?

For years, UX and product design have been centered around screens. We’ve refined how we design visual interaction. We’ve built design systems for components, patterns, and flows. We know how to think in layouts, states, and interfaces.

But something is changing.

As AI becomes part of real products and complex environments, interaction is no longer only visual. Designers and product teams are now facing a new challenge:

How do we design conversations?
How do we design behaviors?
How do we design personality?

And perhaps most importantly: how do we do this in a systematic, professional, and reusable way?

This shift is already happening in industries where attention, safety, and speed are critical, such as the automotive industry, where AI voice assistants are becoming part of the driver environment. In these contexts, there is no room for vague interaction. Dialogue must be precise, predictable, and well-designed.

This is where the idea of a Conversational Design System (CDS) emerges, applying design system thinking not only to screens, but to dialogue and voice interaction.

On February 26 in Malmö, we invite designers, UXers, product people, and innovators to an afterwork at Minc where we explore what this shift means in practice.

We are very happy to welcome Pontus Wärnestål (PhD), designer, researcher, and author of Designing AI-Powered Services, who will share hands-on insights from his work with AI voice assistants in the automotive industry and explain how conversational design can become more systematic, accurate, and effective.

We will also introduce Ambition Empower and how we create spaces for continuous growth, shared learning, and meaningful conversations for design and product teams who want to stay ahead of where the profession is heading.

This is an evening for anyone working with design, product, UX or innovation who is curious about what’s next and who values learning together with peers facing similar challenges.

Thursday, 26 February
Minc, Anckargripsgatan 3, 211 19 Malmö
Light refreshments and drinks will be served

➡️ Registration is required – Sign up here!

Program
16:30 Welcome & mingle
17:00 Presentations begin

Ambition Empower – Continuous growth for design and product teams
Jane Murray, Co-founder of Ambition
Designing for Conversation
Pontus Wärnestål, Domain Leader at Ambition Empower
Q&A

18:00 More mingling
19:30 Thank you for today

If you have any questions contact Jane Murray on

➡️ Registration is required – Sign up here!

Save the date: 19 May (Gothenburg) or 26 May (Stockholm)!

Johan Berndtsson January 19, 2026

Once a year, all Ambition Empower members meet to share experiences, learn from inspiring speakers, and discuss current topics in product, CX, and design. This year, we’re hosting our annual gatherings at Surr Arena (Gothenburg) and Södra Teatern (Stockholm).

Last year’s event received an average rating of 4.5 out of 5:

“A wonderful afternoon that gave me lots of energy. A good, just-right level of ambitious agenda. You’re awesome!”
“Great job! I’m already looking forward to the next conference!”

Registration opens soon. At the same time, we’ll start revealing this year’s topics and speakers.

If you’re already a member, make sure to block 19 May (Gothenburg) or 26 May (Stockholm) in your calendar. If you’re not a member yet, now is a great time to join!

Learn more about Ambition Empower, membership, and the conference here.

Questions? Feel free to e-mail Jane Murray or Nathalie Tindsjö.

Nine Exciting Ambition Empower Topics in September

Johan Berndtsson August 19, 2025

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!

Johan Berndtsson August 18, 2025

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

Johan Berndtsson March 10, 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:

Pernilla Johansson (Volvo Group, Digital & IT)
Elinor Qvant (Voyado)
Marcus Janzon (STIM)
Björn Lindqvist (ICA)
Georgiy Chernyavsky (Mastercard, and Empower thought leader)

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 .