Unleash The Power of Networks

Since 1999, Michael has focused on the strategic and operational development of business models and digital products. While first working within an implementation-oriented international consultancy, then within OTTO's Strategic Management, he followed through by initiating , driving and ultimately being responsible for setting up otto.de’s Digital Product Management. His organizational and architectural approaches remain the basis for the OTTO's current digital growth and that of other firms that he has worked with, alongside his growing team of experienced experts, since founding TFN. At TFN, Michael is responsible for the sales and methodological development of the software development approach used in TFN's projects. Michael has been a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) since 2012 and is active as a business angel.

Andreas has been building digital products since 1999, first as a developer, then as a product manager. After his first years in agencies he gained experience as founder and CTO in the development of the social network sixgroups.com, built the GEO travel community platform for Gruner & Jahr and deployed the new editorial system at stern.de. He also supported SinnerSchrader in the development of a multi-client platform for the brands Joop, Strellson and Windsor. At TFN he supervised various platforms as senior product owner. He designed Germany's first large responsive online store (breuninger.com in 2013), and led several teams in the verticalization of Breuninger's multi-channel platform, most recently with the product data team. Currently he is responsible for the further development and operation of the tfn.io platform at TFN. He regularly tweets on tech and e-commerce topics at https://twitter.com/andyman3000.

Christoph took his first steps in the development of web-based software during his school years and switched to freelance software development in 2006 during his studies. His focus was on building a digital platform for clinical research which also spun off into a start-up. In projects at Otto, MOIA and Klingel, Christoph focused on larger data volumes and gained experience with modern software architecture in the cloud. He has discovered he has a soft spot for data-intensive systems and is also interested in the questions of how sustainable macro- and micro-architectures are created and what conditions create long term high-performance teams. Christoph is responsible for software engineering within TFN's product development approach.

Daniel sees product management as the art of problem solving and is motivated by products that have a positive impact on people, companies and society. He learned product management "from the ground up", having had the opportunity to work with an array of outstanding companies such as Scout24 as product manager, working at OTTO as Head of User Experience Design, for Immonet (today Immowelt) as Head Of Product & Design, as Lead Consultant at ThoughtWorks, Product Director at Costa/AIDA Digital Unit, Product & Delivery Lead at Trade Me, Product Principal at Wunder Mobility. Daniel's passion lies in the area of innovation and the potential to solve relevant problems better than before. At TFN, Daniel is responsible for communicating our product development approach and is available to advise and assist TFN members.

After her International Business Management studies Gina gained experience in online marketing and human resource management. She discovered her passion for working with people during her years in the HR department of the Ritz Carlton in Barcelona. Between 2019 and 2021 she was able to further expand her knowledge as a community manager at WeWork in Hamburg. Recognizing and nurturing the talents and strengths in others are her motivations to drive and expand products and services. Gina joined our network in February 2021 as Talent Relationship Manager and is responsible for onboarding and mentoring talent.

Johannes built his first websites for clients during his studies together with Andreas Stephan in 2002. A few years later, he gained experience in a start-up as co-founder of a social network platform and also worked for G&J on the GEO travel community. During this time, several open source projects in the context of semantic technologies were developed. After a stint at StudiVZ, Johannes ended his career in web development in 2009 and moved to product management at Parship. In the past years he gained experience as ext. product owner in large e-commerce projects at OTTO, Galeria Kaufhof and Klingel. In addition to his great passion for questions of structuring and distributing data, his focus is on methodological approaches to product execution & operations in combination with cloud services. At TFN Johannes is responsible for furthering our customer-centric product development approach in high-scale environments.

Martin has been involved in building digital products since 2001. Starting at OTTO with the early digitization of critical processes for disposition and assortment decisions, he then focused on customer-centric assortment expansion at otto.de by opening up to selected external partners - both in strategic preparation and in concrete operational implementation. These models still form the basis of OTTO's successful platform business today. His enthusiasm for developing new online businesses led him to become product manager at the start-up Yalook, known for its innovative spirit, followed by working for an eCommerce service provider, where he was responsible for the initial development and operation of the eCommerce activities of global fashion brands for Europe and China. At TFN, Martin is responsible for the overall management of existing customer and product development projects.

Nils has been running and developing digital products since 2009. After starting in performance marketing at smatch.com he discovered his passion as a product manager at otto.de. He moved to the product search marketing engine moebel.de, where he expanded his expertise in data production & management. With the move to self-employment Nils deepened his expertise around data management in e-commerce. At TFN he is responsible for the identification and evaluation of innovative digital products.

Thomas has been involved in the business management of online platforms since 2003. At OTTO he set up the first WebAnalytics team. As Head of Controlling at otto.de he oversaw the development of Digital Product Management from a commercial perspective. Thomas subsequently brought his experience from large transformation projects and from the management of digital products to other industries. At Europcar he is, among other things, responsible for FP&A and Operations Controlling and thus for managing the station network within Germany. Thomas is also CFO at DVV Media Group. In addition to Controlling / Finance, he manages HR and IT, supports M&A projects in Germany and the UK and contributes to the successful digitalization of the media company. His passion for innovation as well as the management and evaluation of digital business models are what brought him to TFN in 2019. Where he advises on commercial issues and bridges the gap between agile product development and profitability analysis.

Volkmar has been building digital products since 1999. First in an agency, later as Product Manager at OTTO and as Head of Product at kelkoo.de / Yahoo Shopping and billiger.de. Since 2010 Volkmar has been self-employed and has worked as Product Manager in scaling projects for OTTO, Galeria Kaufhof, Manufactum, Breuninger and Klingel. The focus of his work includes the development and optimization of checkout processes, data management and the connection of third-party systems. Through his management tasks the question of how to motivate employees increasingly came into focus for him. As a trained coach he now develops professional and personal development training courses. Volkmar is responsible for Talent Development at TFN.