Dr. Talke Hoppmann-Walton
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Since June 2025 I’m leading the interdisciplinary Experience Design Team at EPI - building Wero and changing the way Europe pays.
I’m currently scaling the 15+ people team across DesignOps, Product Design & Strategy, Content, Research and Localisation.
11+ years in various Product Design roles in PayPal EMEA and Global, as both IC and Manager, in my last role as Global Lead Design Operations.
3 years leading UX & Research teams in Digital agencies in London.
PhD in Communication Science.
Hyper Island “AI for Business” graduate.
Accredited Lego©️ Serious Play©️ facilitator.
I live in Hamburg, with my British husband and three kids and usually work in English - but since German is my native language that still works too.
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At my core I’m a systems thinker with a love for both data & creative problem solving. I believe in strong cross-org collaboration and joint sense making through well facilitated deep dives. Helping teams see structure and clarity by mapping complex problems out together is where I thrive.
Connecting Sales & Product-led growth while never loosing sight of customer centricity is what I focus on.
According to Myers-Briggs I’m an ENTJ profile, which might explain why I’m pragmatic and goal-oriented. As a mum of three, holiday home host, and through my solopreneur experience - I’m always multitasking and never without a project.
Oh, and I love coffee, unagi & pistachio ice cream (but who doesn’t?).
Enabling Customer-centricity –
people first by design
Key interests |
Human digital transformation, Product Design, Design thinking, Co-creation
Superpowers |
Pattern Mapping & Systems Thinking
Working in |
English & German
LATEST PUBLICATION
Building a user-segmentation matrix to foster cross-org alignment
Many organizations prioritize internal structures and services over customer-centricity, hindering effective decision-making. Through a case study, Talke Hoppmann-Walton advocates for a shift towards an outside-in perspective and proposes the use of a user segmentation matrix to foster alignment across departments and …
PODCAST
Talking to leadher.
Speaking to Merlene Vrielmann about #womenintech and lessons learned throughout my career and work life to date, in the first episode of the leadher podcast.
Note: This podcast is in German.
Core beliefs
Understanding your business, your products and services outside-in, requires a wide angle lens.
I help you start looking at your business, your customers, your competitors and the market perspective to drive long lasting business value.
Through design thinking and cross-team collaboration you can focus on the whole end-to-end experience, and go beyond just delivering features.
Customer-centricity is what drives innovation
Interdisciplinary teams can solve the hard problems
With AI part of everyday work and product development, reducing bias and solving the right problems becomes ever more important. Interdisciplinary and diverse teams are best placed to solve these complex problems. One key way is to build strong N-in-a-box connections and team agreements that enable Product-led growth, and get the whole Product team working together as ONE.
Design as the facilitator of co-creation
Design work enables creative problem solving and is most effective when done across departments and disciplines, helping to visualize complexity and understand challenges as a team.
Once you’re focused and aligned as a team, you can solve any challenge with clarity. This helps teams get into action mode, test early to reduce risk and costs and build products that are best-in-class. All while focusing on what has real impact and value for your customers.
Product thinking starts with curiosity
Curiosity for your users and customers, for other ways of looking at problems and for the different ways of communicating in a company. Getting to a shared understanding is key to moving work forward and that includes questioning your own assumptions, beliefs and terminology.
To get to that ability to question and get away from saying the most expensive eight words for a company “but we’ve always done it that way” - you need to foster a culture of trust and curiosity.