Jelle Stienstra

Resume

Eindhoven, Netherlands – Madrid, SpainLinkedIn

Jelle Stienstra, PhD

Turning emerging technology into digital products, AI ventures and measurable business value.

AI · Digital strategy & transformation · Proposition & service design

Profile

Technology and innovation leader with 15+ years of experience turning emerging technologies, customer insight and market shifts into new products, experiences and business models.

Founder of style + code and previously Digital Strategy Director and Commercial Director at PTTRNS.ai. Combines strategic thinking, human-centred design, product development and business understanding to move from opportunity and concept to implementation, adoption and measurable impact.

Experience spans AI, personalisation, retail, fashion, automotive and consumer businesses, with a consistent focus on translating complex technology into propositions that customers understand, organisations can execute and businesses can value.

PhD in Human-Centric Data-Driven Design.

Selected impact

  • AI that sells in live retail

    Engineered an AI personalisation product for live retail. In eyewear, conversion rose three to eight times, and returns fell by about 20%.

  • From project work to FashionTech SaaS

    Architected the shift of PTTRNS.ai from project work to a FashionTech SaaS. Closed more than €500k ARR.

  • IKEA Concept Kitchen 2025

    Directed the product vision for IKEA Concept Kitchen 2025 with IDEO. Digital and interactive products were taken onto IKEA’s roadmap.

  • Built a new AI proposition around style intelligence

    Founded style + code to connect product understanding, consumer style and context across search, guided discovery, conversational advice and emerging agentic-commerce interfaces.

  • Cross-industry innovation track record

    Led or shaped work for organisations including adidas, H&M, PVH, BESTSELLER, Kering, IKEA, Nike, Audi, Porsche, Ahold, Philips and Microsoft Research.

Experience

  1. 2024 – PresentDecember 2024 – Present

    Managing directorstyle + code

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Turned style intelligence into deployable AI for retail

    • Co-founded style + code to build AI agents that help fashion, footwear, fragrance, and eyewear shoppers find products that fit their style.
    • Directed guided selling and contextual search, so discovery follows the language customers use rather than keyword filters alone.
    • Style intelligence for retailers: a clearer picture of customer taste, higher conversion, and fewer returns.

  2. 2019 – 2024August 2019 – December 2024

    Strategy directorPTTRNS.ai

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Turned digital innovation into a scalable product business

    • Management team responsibility for the value proposition, long-term vision, and go-to-market strategy.
    • Turned a work-for-hire organisation into a fashion-tech SaaS operating model.
    • Defined and ran positioning, branding, marketing, content, automation, PR, partnerships, and events for an AI digital stylist, a 3D fashion rendering platform, and digital fashion consultancy.
    • Set up SaaS sales and customer success, and built the international sales organisation, with seven direct reports.
    • Closed and onboarded H&M, A’2154, Victoria’s Secret & Co, adidas, BESTSELLER, Intersport, PVH, and Stichd in fashion, and KRYS Group, Fielmann, Kering Eyewear, and Nexeye in eyewear. More than €500k ARR.
    • Engineered an AI hyper-personalisation platform. Eyewear clients saw conversion rise by three to eight times, and returns fall by 20%.

  3. 2018 – 2019April 2018 – July 2019

    Digital innovation consultantISAAC (now iO)

    The Netherlands

    Built the proposition that became PTTRNS.ai

    • Re-aligned the UX and innovation departments, including AI and VR, around design thinking, design sprints, and service design.
    • Prepared the spin-off of PTTRNS.ai: proposition, launch, and roll-out.
    • Project work for HP, DAF, Nespresso, Nike, Parfumado, and Swinkels Family Brewers.

  4. 2016 – 2018May 2016 – April 2018

    Creative leadNEWCRAFT (now VML)

    Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Moved emerging technology from experiment into business

    • Advised brands on digital initiatives through service design and data, in design sprints aimed at innovation and commercial impact.
    • Led e-commerce, customer journey, and hyper-personalisation work for Aegon, KPN (Telfort), Ahold (Albert Heijn, Gall & Gall, Etos), Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Nuon (now Vattenfall), Nike, and Omega Pharma NL.
    • Steered the Pon Digital Innovation Lab, and took AI, blockchain, and 3D business models into core operations for Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen, Gazelle, and Pon.bike.

    • 2016 – 2017

      Disruptive SOHO for Jacobs Douwe Egberts Professional

      A connected coffee machine and service for the small-office market. The machine is the marketing, upsell, and service channel: never without coffee, with a subscription that grows with the company.

    • 2016

      Audi Q2 experience for Pon Automotive

      For Audi and Pon Automotive, NEWCRAFT and ISAAC VR developed a virtual reality experience around the introduction of the Audi Q2, to test virtual reality in the sales funnel of automotive dealerships. High impact on brand and product awareness through interactive experience design.

    • 2016

      Mobility as a service for Pon

      With Achtung!, Diffmt Media, and Q42, a mobility-as-a-service proposition and a showroom of the future for Pon Digital Innovation Lab’s vision on mobility 2030. The results were adopted onto the strategic roadmap, and Pon’s new headquarters in Amsterdam was to house a lab to continue the work.

  5. 2015 – 2016June 2015 – May 2016

    Assistant professorUniversity of Twente

    Enschede, The Netherlands

    Connected academic research with real-world innovation

    • Helped shape the DesignLab as a place where researchers, societal organisations, industry, students, and citizens work together.
    • Taught and developed courses, and supervised graduate students, in interaction, contextual design, and service design thinking for Industrial Design and Creative Technology.
    • Research in service design, human-technology interaction, systems thinking, and ubiquitous computing, including prototyping and research through design.

  6. 2010 – 2016March 2010 – April 2016

    Design innovation strategistInteractionists

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Used prototypes to de-risk new products and business models

    • Started the practice to self-fund a PhD. Delivered prototypes of digital products and business models to test market and technical feasibility.
    • Acquired and delivered work with Philips, Heijmans, Rabobank, Microsoft Research, Royal Huisman, frog design, Viking Schaatsfabriek, Schiphol Group, and Eindhoven University of Technology.

    • 2013 – 2015

      Concept Kitchen 2025 for IKEA of Sweden

      More than 100 students from Eindhoven University of Technology, the University of Lund, and Universidade Federal da Bahia, together with design professionals from IDEO, worked on IKEA’s Concept Kitchen 2025. Visibility and adoption at World Expo 2015 placed digital and interactive products on IKEA’s strategic roadmap.

    • 2012 – 2014

      Care-O-Bot for ACCOMPANY

      With Fraunhofer Institute and the University of Siena, a care robot for older people that engages in personal interaction and takes context into account. Red Dot award, best of the best, 2015.

    • 2009 – 2010

      Alternative smartphone OS for DQI

      An alternative operating system for smartphones. Navigation that takes doing and feeling as seriously as thinking was implemented and validated. Traces of this patented experience design are found in smartphones today.

    • 2007 – 2009

      Movement sonification for TVM Schaatsploeg

      A device on the skate translates pressure into a real-time soundscape, so professional speed skaters can improve their technique. Viking Schaatsfabriek used the work to investigate go-to-market strategy.

Education

  1. 2012 – 2016

    PhD, human-centric data-driven designEindhoven University of Technology

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Turned human-centred research into tangible innovation

    • Research through design: designed and developed more than forty prototypes, used by people as material for the thesis and for further development.
    • Dissertation: Respectful Embodied Interactions, a phenomenology-inspired approach to designing for the aesthetics of interactive systems.
    • Showed that starting from a human-centric philosophy leads to products, services, and systems fitted to skill and to context.
    • Self-funded and self-directed. Support from Eindhoven University of Technology, European project FP7-ICT-2011-7 no 287624, and IKEA of Sweden.
    • Guest lecturer in industrial and interaction design at the University of Lund, Sweden, and Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil, and guest researcher at the University of Siena, Italy.
    • Creative director for Eindhoven University of Technology on , commissioned by IKEA of Sweden, with about 100 design students and professionals from IDEO. Shown at World Expo 2015, and taken into IKEA’s strategic roadmap.
    • Published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Presented at World Expo 2015 and Salone del Mobile in Milan, Dutch Design Week 2015, IHAC 2013 in Salvador, and DHub 2012 in Barcelona.

  2. 2007 – 2010

    MSc Industrial Design, cum laudeEindhoven University of Technology

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Designed technology around human skill and context

    • Graduation project: the , an alternative operating system for smartphones.
    • The for TVM Schaatsploeg translated pressure on the skate into sound for professional speed skaters.

  3. 2003 – 2007

    BSc Industrial DesignEindhoven University of Technology

    Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Skills and languages

Design thinking, Vision and strategic planning, Digital transformation and change, Business model innovation, Data-driven decisions, Leadership, Cross-functional collaboration, Market analysis, Customer experience design, Service design, Digital marketing, Stakeholder engagement, Agile and Scrum.

Dutch
Native
English
Professional / C2
Spanish
Basic / A2, actively learning
Portuguese
Basic / A2
German
Basic / A1

Courses

  1. 2022

    Organizational Leadership SpecializationNorthwestern University

  2. 2022

    Introduction to NegotiationYale University

  3. 2018

    Digital TransformationBCG and University of Virginia

  4. 2018

    Management of Fashion and Luxury CompaniesUniversità Bocconi

  5. 2017

    Leadership in 21st Century OrganizationsCopenhagen Business School

  6. 2016

    Business and Marketing Strategies SpecializationUniversity of London

Publications

  1. Amirabdollahian, F., Bedaf, S., Bormann, R., Draper, H., Evers, V., Pérez, J. G., et. al. & Dautenhahn, K. (2013). Assistive Technology Design and Development for Acceptable Robotics Companions for Ageing Years. Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics, 4(2), 94-112.
  2. Bruns Alonso, M., Stienstra, J.T. & Dijkstra, R. (2014). Brush and Learn: Transforming Tooth Brushing Behavior Through Interactive Materiality, a Design Exploration. In Proc. of TEI2014, (pp. 113-120). New York: ACM Press.
  3. Marti, P. & Stienstra, J.T. (2013)a. Exploring Empathy in Interaction: Scenarios of Respectful Robotics. GeroPsych, 26(2), 101-112.
  4. Marti, P. & Stienstra, J.T. (2013)b. Engaging Through Her Eyes: Embodying the Perspective of a Robot Companion. In Proc. of AROB 2013.
  5. Marti, P., Iacono, I., Tittarelli, M. & Stienstra, J.T. (2013). Shaping Empathy through Perspective Taking. In Proc. of RO-MAN 2013, (pp.751-756). IEEE.
  6. Marti, P., Iacono, I., Stienstra, J.T. & Tittarelli, M. (2014). Exploring Movement Qualities in a Reciprocal Engagement. In Proc. of ICDL 2014, IEEE.
  7. Marti, P., Tittarelli, M., Sirizzotti, M. & Stienstra, J.T. (2014). Expression-Rich Communication through a Squeezable Device. In Proc. of BioRob 2014, (pp.536-541). IEEE.
  8. Stienstra, J.T. (2009). Augmented Speed-skate Experience: Applied Movement Sonification. Design Report, Eindhoven University of Technology.
  9. Stienstra, J.T. (2010). The Sensible Alternative: Associate Navigation Interaction. Design Report, Eindhoven University of Technology.
  10. Stienstra, J.T., Overbeeke, C.J. & Wensveen, S.A.G. (2011)a. There is More in a Single Touch: Mapping the Continuous to the Discrete. In Proc. of CHItaly2011, (pp. 27-32). New York: ACM Press.
  11. Stienstra, J.T., Overbeeke, C.J. & Wensveen, S.A.G. (2011)b. Embodying Complexity through Movement Sonification: Case Study on Empowering the Speed-skater. In Proc. of CHItaly2011, (pp. 39-44). New York: ACM Press.
  12. Stienstra, J.T., Bruns Alonso, M., Wensveen, S.A.G. & Kuenen, C.D. (2012). How to Design for Transformation of Behavior through Interactive Materiality. In Proc. of NordiCHI 2012, (pp.21-30). New York: ACM Press.
  13. Stienstra, J.T. & Marti, P. (2012). Squeeze Me: Gently Please. In Proc. of NordiCHI2012, (pp.746-750). New York: ACM Press.
  14. Stienstra, J.T., Overbeeke, C.J., Marti, P., Lévy, P.D. & Hummels, C.C.M. (2012). Mapping the Continuous to the Discrete: Interaction Aesthetics in Complex Products and Systems. Internal report, Eindhoven: Eindhoven University of Technology.
  15. Stienstra, J.T., Marti, P. & Tittarelli, M. (2013). Dreamy Eyes: Exploring Dynamic Expression in Human-System Interaction. In Proc. of CHI 2013 Extended Abstracts, (pp.595-600). New York: ACM Press.
  16. Stienstra, J.T. (2015). Embodying Phenomenology in Interaction Design Research. Interactions, 22(1), 20-21.
  17. Stienstra, J.T., Hengeveld, B.J. & Hummels, C.C.M. (2015). Re-Orientating Time in Product Design: A Phenomenology-inspired Perspective. In Proc. of TEI2015, (pp. 517-522). New York: ACM Press.
  18. Stienstra, J.T., Bogers, S.J.A. & Frens, J.W. (2015). Designerly Handles: Dynamic Tools for Interaction Designers. In Proc. of Desform’15, (pp.86-94).
  19. Stienstra, J.T., Pul, E. & Bruns Alonso, M. (2016). Feedforward Toaster: Design Mapping for Expressive Use. In Proc. of Design & Emotion’16, (pp.718-723).
  20. Stienstra, J.T. (2016). Sensibility in Between: a Phenomenology-inspired Design Proposition. In Proc. of Design & Emotion’16, (pp.618-620).
  21. Stienstra, J.T. (2016). Designing for Respectful Embodied Interactions: Towards a Phenomenology and Ecological Psychology-Inspired Approach to Designing for Interactive Systems. Doctoral dissertation, Eindhoven University of Technology.
  22. Ayoola, I.B.I., Stienstra, J.T. & Feijs, L.M.G. (2018). The Affective Respiration Device: Towards Embodied Bio-feedforward in Healthcare. In Proc. of ICOST 2018, (pp. 277-284).
  23. Marti, P., Iacono, I., Parlangeli, O. & Stienstra, J.T. (2020). Social Coordination in Human–Robot Interaction Through Reciprocal Engagement. In Project and Design Literacy as Cornerstones of Smart Education, (pp. 273-285).
  24. Braat, M. & Stienstra, J.T. (2022). Style-Based Interactive Eyewear Recommendations. In Recommender Systems in Fashion and Retail: Proceedings of the Third Workshop at the Recommender Systems Conference, (pp. 63-70).