Ludvig Klasman joins Columbia Road

Hi Ludvig, How did you get good at what you do?

I started by studying business and sustainable development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences where I took an exchange semester to broaden my knowledge in international business at the University of Melbourne in Australia. I’ve always had an interest in design and products so during my studies I spent a lot of my free time exploring design tools and methodologies where I designed several apps, websites and products. Once I learned the hard skills I wanted to improve my soft skills. I started studying business development at Hyper Island where I worked with everything from startups to some of the biggest companies in the world.

Where have you earned your spurs?

My journey started when I co-founded an ecommerce company during a school project where we won several prizes for best brand and best product. I was also nominated for Youth Entrepreneur of the year. This experience sparked my interest in digital sales and design.

Later on, I was tired of all the theoretical learning at the university and wanted to put things into practice. I founded two more ecommerce companies to apply all my theoretical learnings. This also allowed me to explore business development and design as I designed the products, webshop and brand. Since UX design has been my primary focus. I started my own consultancy company and got to work with companies that have been announced as some of Sweden’s & Europe’s most promising startups. 

Why Columbia Road?

I found Columbia Road when I was looking to deepen my skills as a business-minded designer. Columbia Road stood out when it comes to the value they’re bringing to their clients. The aim is not only to add a cool new feature or deliver designs to win awards but to actually provide true business value and to work for long-term growth. 

What intrigued me even more was the freedom with responsibility. Since day one, I have been trusted to do what I was hired to do, which derives from the company culture of autonomy. I feel that Columbia Road is in the frontier and a role model when it comes to managing a company that truly cares about their clients and employees.

Lauri, what will make our clients love Ludvig?

"Ludvig has a broad skillset spanning from planning the bigger picture to finalising the last nitty-gritty pixel details. With his great ambition and eager-to-learn mentality, he tackles challenges through design, technology and entrepreneurship. Ludvig is also a real team player who always includes several viewpoints in his ideas and designs. As a designer he is very organised and self-propelled. 

Within the company and the services he works with, Ludvig positions himself as the voice of the customer and brings an outside perspective and new ideas to solve complex problems. He creates solutions that not only fix the problem in the short-term but evolves and can be further developed for long-term growth," says Lauri Eurén, General Manager at Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

I really enjoy experiencing new things and places. I rarely want to visit the same place I’ve been before as there are so many more places to visit and experience. I feel that these different places, people, culture and experiences broadens my perspective and inspires me to explore different ways to create new experiences in my work. What makes my heart beat a little faster is sunsets, music festivals and meeting new people. 

Apart from that, as I spend most of my days at the computer, I enjoy being outdoors, running, cycling, going out with the boat, downhill skiing (during the winter) and anything that keeps me active really. 

How would you fancy working alongside Ludvig at Columbia Road? We're constantly looking for new skilful and nice people to join our crew! Take a peek at our open positions 👇