nilsjeners consulting

You know that moment when everything just clicks? When you realize you're exactly where you're meant to be? That's where I am right now as a self-employed consultant.

It's not about the glamorous "laptop lifestyle" that floods your social media feeds. It's about something far more valuable: alignment.

Here's what that looks like for me:

- Collaborating with clients who inspire me and challenge my thinking
- Experiencing a constant stream of learning through different industries, company cultures, and business challenges
- Building meaningful relationships across various organizations and sectors
- Having the flexibility to be there for my family and kids

Every new project is like opening a different book, each with its own story, characters, and lessons. The beauty? I get to write my own chapter in each one.

The best part? This isn't a destination - it's an evolving journey. Each new company, each new challenge, each new culture adds another layer to my professional DNA.

Innovation Management and Agile Business Design

TH Köln

I teach several courses at the Technical University of Cologne:
- Business Design in the Master's program Media Informatics
- Cooperation Systems in the Master’s program Web Science

Adjunct Professor

Technical University of Munich

A coincidence of my consulting position was teaching in the Executive MBA program at Technical University of Munich (TUM). 

My students? Up to C-level executives and senior managers who challenge every concept, question every assumption. They force me to evolve my teaching with each batch. Their real-world experience adds layers to theoretical frameworks that no textbook could provide.

The best moments? When a student's perspective completely shifts my own understanding of a concept I've taught for years. That's the magic of executive education - everyone in the room is both teacher and student.

It reminds me: True expertise isn't about having all the answers. It's about staying curious enough to recognize that every interaction is a learning opportunity.

Uniper

Ever notice how learning curves flatten over time? That moment when your daily "aha!" moments become monthly, then yearly? That's not stagnation - that's your growth compass pointing to change.

My entrepreneurial heart was beating louder again, but this time, I was determined to make a smarter exit. No dramatic leaps - just strategic steps.

A one-year interim management contract, three days a week. Simple math: that left two days to build my freelance practice. Who said transitions had to be cliff jumps?

But here's the plot twist: Those years in an 11,000-employee corporate giant? Pure gold. They taught me three invaluable lessons:

The View from Inside: Transforming from "outside consultant" to "internal manager" completely rewired my understanding of corporate dynamics. I earned corporate DNA: Understanding how large organizations actually work (not how consultants think they work) became my secret weapon. Network Architecture: Learning to build and leverage vast corporate networks - a skill that pays dividends daily in my freelance life.

Sometimes, the best way to embrace your entrepreneurial spirit is to first master the system you're leaving.

Innovation Consultant (external)

Orange Hills GmbH

When my startup hit a dead end, so did I. Rock bottom makes every path look equally appealing - or terrifying. One wrong turn could have sent me spiraling into a completely different career trajectory.

But here's what made all the difference: I didn't just accept the first lifeline thrown my way. Before joining a boutique consulting firm, I met EVERY. SINGLE. EMPLOYEE. Yes, you read that right. Because when you're rebuilding, the foundation matters more than the facade.

What I discovered was more than a job - it was a masterclass in everything I wish I'd known during my startup days:

- A methodical framework that addressed precisely where my startup had stumbled
- A team where every single person had something unique to teach
- The ability to dive deep into multiple industries, each with its own lessons

The irony? Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to build something stronger. Those startup "failures" became valuable war stories in consulting. That entrepreneurial spirit? It transformed into innovative solutions for clients.

Years later, I realize that not knowing what comes next isn't a weakness - it's an opportunity to adapt and grow. Every industry, every project, every challenge adds another tool to your toolkit.

Senior Innovation Consultant

Qwingo – Sports & Performance Analysis

My $0 MBA: What building (and failing) a startup taught me

I am enthusiastic about creating things and didn't want to make innovation solely. That burning desire led me from the structured halls of academia into the wild west of startup life. Little did I know I was enrolling in what I now call my "Private MBA" - except this one came with real stakes and real consequences.

The highs? Landing that dream client everyone in the industry knows. The lows? Watching my company hit a dead end. But here's the thing about startup life - every moment, even failure, is a masterclass in business.

Three expensive lessons I'll never forget:

1. Diversity isn't a buzzword - it's survival. We were three IT nerds with similar mindsets. Great for tech talk, terrible for challenging assumptions. Today, I know: diverse perspectives aren't just nice to have - they're essential for innovation.
2. Tight budgets are secret weapons. When resources are scarce, you learn to execute fast, think lean, and never lose sight of your goals. No theoretical framework can teach you what a dwindling bank account can.
3. Product development isn't just about the product. Building from scratch taught me that great products aren't built in isolation - they're born from understanding markets, users, and business models simultaneously.

Years later, these lessons still shape every business decision I make. Sometimes the most valuable education comes without a diploma.

Founder & CEO

RWTH Aachen University

What seemed like a formal transition to RWTH Aachen turned into one of the most transformative chapters of my professional journey.

As a research assistant, I discovered three passions that would shape my career forever:

First, the joy of teaching returned to my life. There's something magical about standing in front of eager minds, sharing knowledge, and watching that 'aha moment' light up in students' eyes.

Then came the challenge of managing complex projects independently. No safety nets, no hand-holding - just pure responsibility and the thrill of steering projects from concept to completion.

But the most unexpected turn? This role planted the seed for my PhD journey. What started as a position soon evolved into a calling.

They say the best career moves often don't feel like massive leaps when you make them. Sometimes, it's those "simple switches" that lead to the most profound transformations.

Research Assistant

Fraunhofer FIT

You know: Choose your boss, not your job!

It couldn't have been more true for my first real job. The opportunity to work with Professor Prinz wasn't just a job offer – it was an invitation to join an inspiring journey to learn and grow.

What made this so special?

First, there was the incredible diversity. Imagine working alongside people with vastly different experiences and backgrounds, each bringing their unique perspective to every challenge. It wasn't just about what we knew but how differently we thought.

Then there was the environment itself. Not just an office but more a creative lab. The open mindset paired with the resources fostered innovation and collaboration.

But what really made the difference? Working on industry projects that went beyond theoretical concepts. Every day, we were creating solutions that made real impact in the real world.

Looking back, my first job already led to my enthusiasm for innovation.

I support corporates in all activities focusing on INNOVATION: 
Creating new ideas and transforming them into businesses, products, or services.

IDEATION
With my help, you and your employees will come up with new ideas to move your business forward.

INNOVATION SPRINTS
I support your team in the concrete implementation of ideas from project planning all the way to the market.

INNOVATION STRATEGY
Together we develop an innovation strategy to lead your company into the future.

INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
I assist in building an innovation culture and an innovation ecosystem, which fosters creative work and implementation of innovation in your company.

INNOVATION TRAINING
I train your employees to enable them to perform better innovation activities.


My background: 

I am a digital native with over ten years of experience in the field of innovation. I support companies in implementing innovation strategies and new business models. I catalyze ideas from corporate leaders in the areas of strategy and innovation and provide advisory from the initial thought to market entry.

I have studied computer science and business administration with a focus on human-computer interaction and management accounting at RWTH Aachen University. I continued as a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT. I hold a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in computer science and founded a start-up for algorithmic sports performance analysis based on big data.

Furthermore, I hold several teaching positions at the TU Munich, TH Cologne, and TU Dortmund. 

Dr. Nils Jeners

Yell

Head of Product for Sales, Fulfilment, Service Tools and Data Operations

Head of Sales, Fulfilment, Service and Digital Marketing Products

Head of Performance Products

EVRYTHNG

The EVRYTHNG Product Cloud™ helps consumer brands run their business differently for a smarter, more sustainable and accountable world. We connect product data at every point in the lifecycle using real-time, trusted information to enable supply chain transparency, brand protection, consumer engagement and circularity.

Senior Product Manager

Cloud.IQ

Head of Product

Reporting directly to the CTO I was brought in to help the organisation develop a self-service variant of the company’s conversion rate optimisation platform, which had been up until this initiative a largely internal tool used by support users on behalf of our customers.  The project was in its infancy when I joined and my initial responsibilities were to help deliver an agreed MVP, strengthen the product team, improve internal processes and work with the engineering department to grow the team. In 2018 I was made a tribe leader of two platform development teams, providing them with clear direction and support. By the end of 2019, we had onboarded close to our target number of merchants with a trial to paid user conversion rate of approximately 50% (peaking at 65%) with a healthy monthly recurring revenue. I am currently leading a collaborative product strategy review and helping to co-steer the direction of the platform with the CEO which has lead to the creation of new company and product objectives.

Blis

Reporting directly to the CEO, I was asked to investigate potential new revenue streams for the business by validating a number of ideas the organisation had.  The main idea and opportunity focussed around a self-service advertising platform which would have made enterprise-level ad-tech available to SMBs in a simple user-friendly platform.  Validation was carried out over four main areas, the problem, the market, the product and a customers willingness to pay which was achieved through the development of an ideal customer profile, potential customer workshops and interviews as well as detailed competitor analysis and meetings with potential go to market partners.  The results of this research resulted in a number of detailed product requirements documents with supporting wireframes and clickable prototypes that I produced and then presented back to the CEO and Engineering teams.  In addition to my validation work, I worked on two other projects, the first saw me partnered with the Head of Product to see an internal sales tool through to production that showcased our geolocation data in an exciting and novel way, the second was more commercially focused and had me interviewing potential suppliers of geolocation data with a view to partnering with them.

SaaS Product Manager (Ad Tech Innovation)

Win Technologies

As the product owner of the acquisition team at Win Technologies, I was responsible for Betway and Spin Casino brands.  This meant working closely with other areas of the business to ensure that our websites and landing pages worked effectively and reached potential customers.  There were five different Betway websites and we supported 14 languages, and when I took over as Product Owner all changes were managed manually.  These manual changes were hugely inefficient and limited what new features we could offer to our customers so a project to move to a CMS was initiated.  An MVP was agreed upon and delivered and the outcome was a content management system that enabled us to make changes once to multiple sites, empowered business users across multiple departments allowing them to ‘own’ their content, reduced manual updates to zero and reduced new feature development costs significantly.

Certified Scrum Product Owner (Betway and Spin Casino brands)

I worked as a frontend developer at Win Technologies working on the acquisition layer of the Betway and Spin Casino brands as part of a scrum team. During my time I helped build both the current and previous iterations of the Betway and Spin Casino websites. Learning from the previous iteration the new sites have been built with scalable, modular HTML and CSS in mind and where appropriate have implemented ARIA accessbility standards and MICROFORMATS which help search engines understand better the content on the websites. I have always looked at improving the products I have worked on or am associated with and as a result of a side project worked on by myself and two others we visualised and produced a prototype of what would become the new HTML5 gaming lobby, which is a significant improvement over its predecessor and better than most competitors. During the first three months I was introduced to AGILE and undertook scrum training and successfully completed the CERTIFIED SCRUMMASTER course.

Frontend Developer (Betway and Spin Casino brands)

Yoyo Design Ltd

As part of a super talented mid-sized agency I spent two years working with designers to build stunning, accessible, SEO friendly responsive websites using HTML5, CSS3 and JQUERY on CMSes including UMBRACO, PERCH and STATAMIC. The work was widely varied from large global medical conglomerates to independant film makers and musicians. I was heavily involved with the company’s blog writing articles on future technology and events.

Frontend Developer and Senior Technical Designer

Frontmedia Studio Limited

As part of this small agency I got to build a large number of websites for local SMEs, I worked closely with clients to understand their requirements before producing wireframes and high fidelity mockups before moving on to build the frontend web components, a team of developers would then take what I had produced and hook it up to either a home-brewed Coldfusion, Umbraco or SITECORE cms. One of the websites I designed and built helped one home builder win “Best Developer Website” at both the UK and International Property Awards.

Senior Web Designer

By helping organisations understand their data, I help to create products which are focused on solving their users’ problems and creating great experiences whilst aligning with organisational initiatives and objectives. 


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Dr. Nils Jeners

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