ART COLOGNE:
Building a long lasting business partnership

Overview

ART COLOGNE, the world’s oldest art fair for contemporary art, has successfully hosted an annual event for decades. However, its digital presence and services were lacking, highlighting the need for major improvements.

As the newly hired UX Designer at rising systems, good design and communication skills were necessary to win the client back.

Eventually, I stepped into the role of Proxy Product Owner and Team Lead, guiding a small, cross-functional team to successfully develop and manage five digital products and services for ART COLOGNE.

Key Outcomes

End of 2023


• Identified key issues in the initial MVP and presented actionable solutions to stakeholders.
• Redesigned the platform completely, resulting in a 237% increase in uploaded artworks.
• Restored client trust in our company and their vision.


2024:


• Promoted to Proxy Product Owner and Team Lead.
• Revamped the gallery application process, reducing application time by 13% and support requests by 32%.
• Overhauled the VIP experience for both VIPs and system users.

2025:


• 12-16% more completed story points each sprint
• Prepared and optimized all systems for a trade fair in Palma de Mallorca.
• Elevated our company from being just a service provider into a trusted, long-term partner.

Key Challenges

• There was no shared vision
• Missing project structure
• Prioritizing feature requests
• Gaining back trust

Approach

1. Implementing "sprint 0"

Challenge: Get everyone on the same page.

‍Solution: I advocated for starting every new project or milestone with a "sprint 0". Its purpose is to turn abstract problems and early ideas into tangible artifacts the whole team can discuss. After the initial briefing, I sketched out the challenges and potential solutions as high-level user flows and wireframes. This crucial step helped both the client and the team clarify open questions and, most importantly, form a shared mental model of how everything fits together. This collaborative approach enabled more informed decision-making and more accurate budget planning.

After implementing a design system, I could rapidly produce wireframes—and later near-final designs—during "sprint 0", giving the client confidence that their challenges were clearly understood and being addressed from the start.

2. Improving Internal Processes

Challenge: Chaos during development and to many bugs.
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Solution: To improve our internal processes at "rising systems", I arranged a Figma integration with our ERP system, reducing misalignment across development teams. When I stepped into the role of Proxy Product Owner, I also reintroduced in-depth project reviews, giving every team member a chance to contribute ideas for workflow improvements. This not only increased engagement and strengthened ownership of the product, but also resulted in fewer bugs and a 16% increase in completed story points.
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Example: During our planning session, I encouraged developers to restate parts of the acceptance criteria in their own personal words. This resulted in the most interactive and productive sprint planning sessions we’d ever had—and it’s a format we’ve continued using ever since.

3. Impact driven development

Challenge: Excessive feedback and a high volume of adjustments let the development slow down.
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Solution: To avoid blindly acting on client feedback, we evaluated all change requests during development using an impact-effort matrix and compared them against the critical tasks defined in "sprint 0". This helped the client understand how their decisions would affect timelines and budget.

4. Iterate together


Challenge: Change the clients perception of "rising systems".

‍Solution: Inspired by our internal review sessions, I invited the client to a feedback session after every milestone. This approach transformed frustration into actionable insights on both sides.

The result was increased development efficiency, fewer feedback cycles, 94% positive support ticket reviews, and a shift from being seen as a service provider to becoming a trusted business partner.

Design Highlights

Results and Impacted

ART COLOGNE

Over 2.5 years, we supported ART COLOGNE in delivering three updated and two new services to their users, including the Online Catalogue, Trade Fair Application, VIP Management, Trade Fair Application Palma, and VIP Management Palma.

• No negative press regarding digital services in 2024 and 2025
• Increased engagement from galleries
• Higher number of applications submitted after 2024 (NDA)
• Growth in platform sales (NDA)
• All-time low in VIP complaints (NDA)

rising systems

The processes and learnings developed by our teams were adopted by other teams, producing similar positive results.

• Successfully acquired 6 follow-up projects
• Achieved the highest internal client satisfaction score for two consecutive years
• Maintained a 94% five-star rating on support tickets