Debbie Blume —
Product Manager
Hey, I’m Debbie, a product manager and advisor at the IT and Digitalization Office of the City of Hamburg.
I’m into good methods, tools, and data, but I’m not a fan of dogmatism. Instead, I’m all about pragmatic solutions, bold ideas, and a healthy dose of common sense.
I’m a product manager, UX designer, sociologist – and since 2024, an advisor at Hamburg’s central digitalization office. While these roles might seem quite different at first, they all have one thing in common: at the core, it’s always about understanding people and finding the right path with structure, strategy, a bit of humor, and a good gut feeling.
I studied sociology in Hamburg until 2011, with minors in media and communication, sports science, and law. During that time, I also started working as a UX designer. Some of the steps in my journey include:
City of Hamburg, Department of IT and Digitalization
After two exciting years at DigitalService, I returned to my hometown. Since the beginning of 2024, I’ve been working at the central IT and Digitalization Office of the City of Hamburg – including on principles and standards for the diverse software used in public administration.
digital.hamburg.de
DigitalService
2021 - 2023
At DigitalService GmbH, the German federal digital service, I worked as a Senior Product Manager, Project Lead and People Lead on digital products for the German public administration. This included collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Justice on an online civil court procedure.
digitalservice.bund.de
Parental leave
2020 - 2021
Full-time mom, household manager & early bird
Aperto / IBM iX
2016 - 2020
Depending on the project, I worked as either UX Lead or Product Owner at Aperto (which has since been acquired by IBM and is now IBM iX.).
The tasks in both roles were often quite similar: identifying requirements, developing a product vision, visualizing innovative yet realistic solutions, planning the project and roadmap, supporting technical implementation, and perhaps most importantly—communicating with the team and stakeholders.
Together with my team, I worked on a variety of digital products, including websites, apps, services, digital surveys, customer portals, networking platforms, and more. We also developed new workshop formats and provided digitalization training for public sector employees.
On the side, I ran a little project of my own: an internal podcast, which I produced, hosted, and prepared.
ibmix.com
antoni
2015 - 2016
Building services and web applications for Mercedes Benz
antoni.de
UX Camp Europe
2015 - 2017
Co-organising one of the biggest barcamps for UX professionals
uxcampeurope.org
Pixelpark
2014 - 2015
Renewal of the digital landscape of B. Braun
digitaspixelpark.com
Interone
2012 - 2014
Working on various digital products for BMW
interone.de
rio nord
2011
Text & concept e.g. for Lilly Pharma und Nordea
rionord.de
Medienanstalt Hamburg/
Schleswig-Holstein
2010
Working in the field of program supervision and media competence
ma-hsh.de
Some clients I've been working with in these last couple of years include:
