I was born from Portuguese workers who fled the dictatorship in the 1970's. I was their third and last child, but the first one to be born in France, and also the first one to get a college degree. I graduated in Psychology at the end of the 90's – when the Internet was starting to be a thing. My geeky self took an immediate interest in that new communication means and changed career.
I learned HTML, CSS and PHP, founded and ran a web agency for about ten years in the south of France. I found it particularly rewarding to help clients figure out what they could do with a website, in a way that would facilitate their day-to-day work and help their business. We built e-commerce platforms and tailored web applications with extensive back-ends until the 2012's economic crisis forced me to take the painful decision to close business.
There is something peculiar in France: even with a decade in digital and plenty of successful projects to show for, recruiters can doubt you could be a good fit for a project management role if you don't have the degree that says so. I quickly decided to go get another Master's degree!
I chose to join the renown Gobelins Paris school – ensuring I would not hear I had the degree but not from the right school – and soon discovered I had been doing UX research and UX design for years before even knowing about the term UX. Mobile app stores were growing fast and I focused my career on mobile experience.
At the same time, I naturally felt there was more to good design than usable screens. Experience design is not about screens; it's about individuals interacting with a product, a service or other individuals. Constantly challenging the boundaries of the design work I was assigned, I took more senior roles in UX strategy and in service design.
I moved to Amsterdam for love. There I made a significant step in my career setting up the service design practice and service design team at MOBGEN. Hiring in less than a year a dozen of service designers, mentoring them through each client engagement and supporting their career was one of the best experience I had. And I am grateful for the confidence MOBGEN's CEO and Design Director had in me.
Following MOBGEN's acquisition by Accenture, I join Forrester Research. As Senior Analyst for CX, I had the opportunity to work with some of the smartest people I know. I learned a great deal from them and enjoyed conducting in depth research related to design, customer experience and customer service as a driver for CX quality. Quite quickly I found myself bringing psychology back into my work, as it gave me a unique perspective for research. I authored and co-authored 50+ research reports that leaders in CX, design or Digital from our client base recognised as actionable, and shared my expertise with a wider audience as a keynote speaker at CX and design events.
I am today pursuing research in the space of teams' psychological safety, collaboration and employee experience. I also advise and mentor experience design leaders and their teams as an independent.
On my spare time, I volunteer as mentor for design organisations, helping young design professionals with their resume, portfolio and job search. I love modern dance and black & white photography. I combine the two, volunteering for the dance company Rose des Vents. I capture images from their performances for communication, support fundraising activities and take care of their online communication.
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what others say about me
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I hired Karine at Forrester as a Senior Analyst in 2018. As her Research Director I observed that more than almost anyone else Karine lives and breathes Forrester’s five core values: client, collaboration, courage, integrity, and quality — genuinely and with the hard work they require, not just with flag-waving enthusiasm. She is a real embodiment of Forrester’s mission to challenge thinking and lead change, which makes her an asset to any organization, especially if it is committed to the high standards and continual improvement that Karine brings to everything she does!
David Truog,
VP Research Director at Forrester Research
The challenge of building a team and a discipline from scratch is a tough one, but Karine took up that challenge for MOBGEN. She embraced the role and set about educating colleagues while at the same time delivering quality on projects, increasing the awareness of the design capabilities throughout the organisation. Our amazing service design group owes a great deal to her leadership and her ability to add value to client opportunities, and she leaves us having brought together a talented group of individuals to make a healthy and efficient team. We thank you for your drive, and we know you will prove just as effective in your next role!
Nick Mueller,
Chief Creative Officer at MOBGEN° | Accenture Interactive
I had the pleasure of working with Karine over the past 2 years. She has a combination of strong analytical & communication skills together with a deep understanding of human behaviour. Moverover, Karine has the ability to build multi level relationships and has a strong capability to create and design best human experience(s). She has led a number of successful innovation/service design projects resulting in a high client impact. Besides this Karine is a great colleague to work with and a real teamplayer!
Tobias Jonge Vos,
Senior Manager at Accenture Digital
I had the privilege of having Karine as team lead at MOBGEN and I can’t be more grateful to her. She always supported myself and the team with her extraordinary expertise but also allowing us to take risks, responsibility and ownership of our work in order to help us grow independently while feeling supported if needed. Karine is an inspiring woman and multifaceted professional able to create a team from scratch and support it in a positive, constructive manner all the way through. Thanks Karine, It was a pleasure working with you and I won’t forget your inspiring role model and lessons learned!
Valentina Salvi,
Product & Service Designer at MOBGEN° | Accenture Interactive
Karine completely redefined what User Experience meant at Capptain, not only interface but every interactions, and did it with great success. She has this rare ability to both constantly keep the big picture in mind and then focus on details. I'd be more than happy to work again with Karine in the future.
Karl Piteira,
Microsoft Azure Mobile Engagement Product Owner
I have had the pleasure to work with Karine in Forrester for 3,5 years. We have always had a great collaboration. She was always very helpful to support our business and clients loved working with her. As an analyst for UX and CX Design she is an absolute professional. Her research has character and is super insightful for customers, across industries, banking, insurance, automotive, retail, etc. She is the to go to person for our clients with UX related questions and across the board she has very high ratings, as analyst and speaker at our events or customer events. Next to being an role model professional, she is also a great colleague and a great personality. She speaks her mind, always sees opportunities, is constructively critical and is a sounding board for all of that. Combined with her social skills and sense of humour, she is an asset for every company!
Harry Arends,
Manager Benelux at Forrester Research
Karine did an amazing job in building the Service Design team at MOBGEN I Accenture Interactive. She is a great professional who can lead service design work at C-Level with multinational clients.
Ron Vrijmoet,
Founder of MOBGEN° - Managing Director at MOBGEN° | Accenture Interactive
Karine was a great addition to our team, she has a no nonsense attitude and is determined to get the data to allow for the best decisions. She truly changed our entire company and took us to a new level of evaluating and planning User Experience. An absolute pleasure to work with and a great attitude that would fit into any team.
Rafael Dohms,
Lead developper at Symbid
contact me
I am based in Amsterdam (Netherlands).
I also spend time in Aix-en-Provence (France).
Do you need me for a speech, a training, or a mentoring engagement? Get in touch!