5 thoughts on design
If you fill in what the customer wants without actually checking, you are not doing innovation. You are doing opinion.
If you fill in what the customer wants without actually checking, you are not doing innovation. You are doing opinion.
As a designer, you know how to make something small and testable before anyone has to commit to anything. That is the skill. Thinking in what is possible.
As a designer, you know how to make something small and testable before anyone has to commit to anything. That is the skill. Thinking in what is possible.
I pay attention to what someone needs and I adjust how I show up. I have always done that. It is how I make people feel at ease.
I pay attention to what someone needs and I adjust how I show up. I have always done that. It is how I make people feel at ease.
My closest friends at work are people I do not even work with directly. We met in the prayer room.
My closest friends at work are people I do not even work with directly. We met in the prayer room.
You cannot blame someone for not knowing what they have never had to think about. But you can say something.
You cannot blame someone for not knowing what they have never had to think about. But you can say something.
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A cute frog
A black cat with several goldfishes
A cute frog
A black cat with several goldfishes
A cute frog
A black cat with several goldfishes
Becoming a designer
Starting off with Industrial Design in Eindhoven, music producing alongside the whole time, and now being an experiment designer at energy supplier Essent. The title is not one many companies have yet. Eneco is in the middle of a real shift: solar panels, home batteries, electric cars, a grid that needs to become smarter. Selim's job is to find out what customers actually want before anyone commits serious money to building it.
Starting off with Industrial Design in Eindhoven, music producing alongside the whole time, and now being an experiment designer at energy supplier Essent. The title is not one many companies have yet. Eneco is in the middle of a real shift: solar panels, home batteries, electric cars, a grid that needs to become smarter. Selim's job is to find out what customers actually want before anyone commits serious money to building it.
Validate you assumptions
The phrase he comes back to is simple: "Nothing is stronger than evidence". When a solar energy subsidy in the Netherlands was being phased out, customers were unsettled. It was Selims initiative to run a session on using emotion cards along side interviews to surface what people were actually feeling. Because it seemed that his team thought they'd already know that, but what came back actually surprised his them. The customers were much emotional while his colleagues had been thinking in numbers. That gap, made visible, is exactly what Selim looks for. "You say you are doing innovation but if everything is opinion-based, it is not really is."
The phrase he comes back to is simple: "Nothing is stronger than evidence". When a solar energy subsidy in the Netherlands was being phased out, customers were unsettled. It was Selims initiative to run a session on using emotion cards along side interviews to surface what people were actually feeling. Because it seemed that his team thought they'd already know that, but what came back actually surprised his them. The customers were much emotional while his colleagues had been thinking in numbers. That gap, made visible, is exactly what Selim looks for. "You say you are doing innovation but if everything is opinion-based, it is not really is."
One of the phone mock-ups made for an international client during DDW 2025
Co-created billboard in Hilversum
One of the phone mock-ups made for an international client during DDW 2025
Co-created billboard in Hilversum
One of the phone mock-ups made for an international client during DDW 2025
Co-created billboard in Hilversum
What a designer actually brings
The MediaMarkt collaboration makes this clear and concrete. Essent had a small store inside several MediaMarkt locations and something in the customer journey was not working. Selim helped design a quick test: one control group, three variants, and a short survey at the end. Nothing needed to be built from scratch, no need to invest months of preparation or research companies to set anything up. What he brought was the ability to think in possibilities, to see what could be tested small and fast before anything became expensive. That thinking is not obvious to people without a design background. Making it visible is part of what he does.
The MediaMarkt collaboration makes this clear and concrete. Essent had a small store inside several MediaMarkt locations and something in the customer journey was not working. Selim helped design a quick test: one control group, three variants, and a short survey at the end. Nothing needed to be built from scratch, no need to invest months of preparation or research companies to set anything up. What he brought was the ability to think in possibilities, to see what could be tested small and fast before anything became expensive. That thinking is not obvious to people without a design background. Making it visible is part of what he does.
Speaking from inside
When a session on energy poverty came up within his department, Selim felt the need to speak up. He had lived part of his life in that situation and noticed how his colleagues had a different perspective showing a lack of truly understanding. The facilitator of this session noticed this, asked him to explain. Selim is fine with doing that and had a positive experience where his was taken seriously and listened to.
While his team is not particularly diverse in terms of cultural background, his designer colleagues come from all different kinds of design schools. And his closest friends at work are actually people he does not work with directly. They met in the prayer room and continue to meet each other there till this day.
When a session on energy poverty came up within his department, Selim felt the need to speak up. He had lived part of his life in that situation and noticed how his colleagues had a different perspective showing a lack of truly understanding. The facilitator of this session noticed this, asked him to explain. Selim is fine with doing that and had a positive experience where his was taken seriously and listened to.
While his team is not particularly diverse in terms of cultural background, his designer colleagues come from all different kinds of design schools. And his closest friends at work are actually people he does not work with directly. They met in the prayer room and continue to meet each other there till this day.
Making people feel comfortable
Selim grew up moving between French, Moroccan and Dutch worlds, always reading what the person in front of him needed and adjusting how he showed up. He does not experience it as effort. It is how he has always moved through the world and takes this to his advantage at work and outside. He has come to see it as something real, something worth using and bringing him further along the way. A very positive, caring and unstoppable energy.
Selim grew up moving between French, Moroccan and Dutch worlds, always reading what the person in front of him needed and adjusting how he showed up. He does not experience it as effort. It is how he has always moved through the world and takes this to his advantage at work and outside. He has come to see it as something real, something worth using and bringing him further along the way. A very positive, caring and unstoppable energy.
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DESIGNERS IN FULL COLOR all rights reserved 2026
DESIGNERS IN FULL COLOR all rights reserved 2026
DESIGNERS IN FULL COLOR all rights reserved 2026