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Tim Reerink · Head of Product Design & Research · Amsterdam

Design
orgs that
actually ship.

  • ing
  • jet
  • wallapop
  • iceo
  • randstad
  • scisports
  • xebia
  • adp

Hands on the wheel. Hands on the org. The craft is rarely the blocker. The way decisions get made is.

Every team I join looks fine on the surface. Underneath it's usually the same picture: work stuck in execution, decisions made in silos, and a process nobody actually follows. So that's where I look first.

Then I adjust: strategy, rituals and cross-functional trust, and a structure the team keeps growing on after I'm gone. I still design and prototype in code myself. Pragmatic over precious.

// 01 · beliefs

What I stand by.

Teams aren't machines, and no framework survives contact with a real one. Four things I hold on to while everything else adjusts.

  1. 01 / 04Process is a toolbox, not a staircase.

    At Wallapop, ICEO and Randstad, design teams said they ran double diamond. In reality: endless discovery in Figma, no crits, no QA, nothing ever ready for dev. JET was the exception, which is how I know the difference. I build the minimum structure with the people who have to live with it. At ICEO: epic delivery −30%, team satisfaction 4 → 6, room to grow from 3 to 9.

  2. 02 / 04Nothing is linear.

    Scan, learn, apply, iterate. Scaling a team, a product or a career never runs in a straight line, so I don't plan it like one. Small bets, fast loops, and the honesty to change course when the evidence says so.

  3. 03 / 04Know the system. Then break it.

    A design system is a floor, not a ceiling. Too many designers hide behind process and components to avoid being creative, and everything turns beige. I hire people who start at the north star, push it, then cut back to the smallest thing that ships.

  4. 04 / 04Don't judge the book by its cover.

    Heavily inked and loud at first glance, but an introverted extrovert at heart. Rock 'n' roll in my headphones, neurology and psychology on my nightstand. Most people are more than their first chapter. So are most teams.

// 02 · work

Three orgs. What I saw, what I adjusted.

01 / 03 · in progressrandstad

Department agentified

Randstad Global · 2026

The bottleneck wasn't speed. It was decisions. I put our standards into the tools, so designs stopped looping and started shipping.

6 wk → 1 dayOnboarding to dev-ready
1 → 4Directions per problem
WeeklyAI review, every designer
→ Open case
02 / 03iceo

Department built

ICEO · 2024

Saw three designers in silos while the company grew 38 → 180. Put structure in before headcount, then tripled the team.

3 → 9Designers
−30%Epic delivery time
4 → 6Team satisfaction
→ Open case
03 / 03jet

Merger managed

Just Eat Takeaway · 2022

Saw two design orgs and two product cultures after the merger. Aligned 22 markets on one product thesis that outlasted me.

22Markets aligned
TBDDesign systems → 1
TBDDesign staff retained
→ Open case

Earlier work · where the instinct was built

jetBet provenA fake door that green-lit a grocery vertical.2021 jetTrust designedFewer tickets, and two designers promoted.2020

// 03 · experiments

I test every adjustment on myself first.

// 04 · about

Set the system, build the trust, then get out of the way.

Energetic, ad rem, pragmatic, assertive. Before Randstad I led design for a fintech venture builder, shaped consumer experience at Just Eat Takeaway across 22 markets, and worked across Wallapop, ING, Xebia and ADP.

Worked in Oslo · Berlin · Barcelona · Amsterdam, now

On rotation · my Deezer

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Let's merge
your silos.

timreerink@proton.meLinkedIn / Resume ↗