Andreas Willemse
If you’re driven to reduce complex problems to their essence, you’d better be a good listener. Andreas definitely is. He is easy to connect with, and never puts himself or his opinions first, leaving loads of room for others to share their observations, ideas and experiences. If things are hard to talk about, he makes them lightweight. If people are taking themselves too seriously, he kindly defuses them with wit and humor.
Taking as much information in as possible, he rapidly builds a mental model of the problem at hand and starts viewing it from all the angles. Together with his team, Andreas will easily cut through the complexity and shape a viable and desirable product vision. With his amazing talent to connect with almost anyone, Andreas can transmit this vision to his team and all stakeholders involved and make them excited to bring the vision to reality.
There is reason for his magic too, Andreas is steeped in the tools of lean startup, scrum, and agile methodologies and has accumulated several metric tons of expertise in strategy & proposition, product development, business analysis, and go-to-market strategies. But you’d expect that from a digital captain, wouldn’t you?
You shouldn’t ask Andreas if there isn’t a problem to solve. If you’re only looking for someone to keep the bureaucratic wheels greased, the paper flowing and the red tape in place. Also: if you’re planning to harm the world with your business model, Andreas might not want to be on your team. But then again, who does? When he’s not solving your product issues, Andreas reduces other things to their bare essence. Bonsai trees for instance.
Expertise:
Product Ownership, Agile Practice, Evidence-based Management, Multi-team Setups, Stakeholder Management, Content Marketing, Business Development, Go-to-market Strategy
Three things Andreas worked on:
- Mijn Feenstra, a website facilitating interaction between the 800.000 customers and the mechanics of Feenstra. It centralizes access to service products and support resources, aiming to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction. Andreas was PO, setting up the environment from scratch, strongly applying focus on minimizing the product in order to go live with an MVP within 6 sprints and setting the stage for incremental further development.
- Wink, the app used by all employees and managers in 1200+ supermarkets in The Netherlands for stock and price management as well as many other tasks. Client: Albert Heijn. Andreas was PO during a turbulent time of technical migration and challenges with showing correct prices in stores - keeping stakeholders at bay and letting the team focus on their work
- Duxxie, a multi-supplier one-stop-shop for care products and services, simplifying the ordering process so that healthcare professionals and caretakers have more time for what truly matters: Caregiving. Client: Medux. Andreas was responsible for managing and onboarding new care organizations and suppliers and did product management.
When Andreas started as Senior Product Owner, he needed to immediately and fully emerge in a project for Feenstra where a new customer portal needed to be built. With a new team, new software platform, a new way of working, and a tight, strict deadline, the challenge was everything but an easy one. Curious, calm, organized and result-oriented by nature, Andreas managed to quickly create a working environment where each team member felt at ease to open up and speak up. Next, he managed to quickly reassure the customer that a truly valuable solution would be delivered. Ultimately, the implemented solution exceeded expectations and led to a customer highly recommending our company. In all, I have known Andreas as a dedicated and kind professional who is very capable of leading teams and projects. Absolutely recommended.— Ewout Jonker, Head of Product at Product League
Other clients:
Plus Supermarkten, EY, RELX Group, Douwe Egberts, DRG, ThiemeMeulenhoff, Product League, Decos
Side projects:
• Andreas created a digital product strategy and way-of-working for DeGoedeZaak, a Dutch NGO.