UX Lead – Hendrik Kettelhut

Hendrik Kettelhut. 👨‍💻

Design leader specializing in scaling design systems, building high-performing UX teams, and driving cross-functional collaboration. Known for delivering consistent, human-centered experiences across complex product portfolios. Passionate about mentorship, process optimization, and creating systems that empower designers to thrive.

Experience

Design Lead – Yara International
Aug 2023 – Aug 2025

As a design lead with experience in design systems, I've been responsible for consistency and quality across our European product portfolio. I lead the YaraPlus product suit team, hosting several products and handling roadmap planning, research insights, resource management, and hiring processes within the UX team. I grew the team of one designer into a team of four to five, and together, we delivered consistent and qualitative outcomes based on our roadmap items to be implemented into the live product.
Together with our regional design system experts, I maintained a regional library based on our global design system with local and product-specific components to serve as a library for our Europe department inside of Yara.

Senior Designer (Design System) – Yara International
Oct 2020 – Jul 2023

As the only designer on the first iteration of the Fertilize Design System, I drove adoption into the live product and guided designers on how to use and implement the system in their designs. After a reorganisation into a global team, I joined the Global Design System team, being in charge of the component library, advocating for the design system, and having the opportunity to grow as a people manager by having my direct report and managing their role, workload and growth. As a team, we managed to grow into one Design System from several and migrated into the global portfolio of Yara. I established a workflow with templates for other designers to contribute and helped develop the system into a "System of systems" with regional libraries based on the core design system.

Senior Product Designer – Yara International
Dec 2018 – Sep 2020

Starting as a small design team, I was responsible for various products within Yara's ecosystem, mainly Atfarm, and all its internal iterations. I transitioned the product from a loose style guide to a design system while leading several streams of small teams into a new product generation. My main achievements include building the first mobile app, establishing the first design library for the web and adopting it into the product. By mentoring other designers in design quality and consistency, the team laid the cornerstones to shape the design vision of Atfarm and continuous improvements.

Senior UX/UI Designer – Freelancer
Sep 2013 – Oct 2019

As a freelancer, I provided various companies with my product design and usability expertise. I worked with diverse clients, ranging from startups to corporates to luxury brands, and my projects encompassed website design, app development, and even complete brand experiences. These opportunities helped me to grow further as a designer while keeping business in mind and became a mentor for others while implementing design culture and process.

Screendesigner – Webguidez Entertainment GmbH
Aug 2012 – Sep 2013

Worked as a screen designer to create teaser graphics for articles for one of Germany's most prominent online gaming magazines. I created advertisements for clients to implement on the website and was responsible for the enhancements of free2play.de in cooperation with the tech company CHIP.

Education

Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng. in print and media technology)
University entry degree (German abitur with focus on computer science)

Certifications

NNg UX Management Certification (Ongoing)
- Design Systems and Pattern Libraries
-  Designing Influence 
- New UX Managers
IHK AEVO (Ausbildereignungsprüfung / Trainer license)