Clemens Lode

HEY THERE!

I'm Clemens Lode

I’m an author of books on philosophy, science, and project management, and agile and publishing coach based in Düsseldorf, Germany. I like visiting the gym, learning to sing, observing animals, and creating videos on science and philosophy. I enjoy learning from nature and love the idea of optimizing systems. In my youth, I was an active chess player reaching the national championship in Germany, and an active pen&paper player leading groups of adventurers onto a mental journey. These activities align with my calm approach to moderating meetings, leading meetups, and focus on details. My personality type in socionics is IEE/ENFp.

If you want to connect, feel free to drop me a line, or join me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Besides an occasional commentary on politics, project management, and updates of my book projects, my feed is usually filled with pictures of animals. To me, they represent innocence, opportunities, a fresh start, a positive attitude about life, and curiosity.

... the author, researcher, and publisher

I have studied computer science with a focus on Operations Research, Organic Computing, and Mathematics. I am driven by curiosity and a desire for direct feedback, which is why I like programming computers and finding out what makes them "smart." During my computer science studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, I began in software architecture then moved to building systems of businesses and research in artificial intelligence. I also published a small number of papers about and nature-inspired optimization. At the same time, I founded a company dedicated to bringing the power of nature to computers. Its most successful product was a program that used evolutionary algorithms to optimize game strategies—a task Google later took up for its development of artificial intelligence. As a professional software developer, I created the VitaDock cloud platform (a large cloud platform to securely store medical data like steps, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and weight from consumer devices). During the past 10 years, I have continued my research, writing books on the philosophical foundation of science, the origin of life, quantum mechanics, neuroscience, and the materialistic nature of consciousness.

Having learned how to publish books on my own, I began to get requests to help others publish their manuscripts. Working with my small team, we set up a number of services to help people no matter the stage of their project—including initial brainstorming, developmental editing, proofreading, and making manuscripts print-ready. Describing our way of working in several books helped us to gain a wider range of clients. Some found their needs met with our book template and a general direction, while others wanted to be accompanied from initial discussions on the goal of the project to having the printed book in their hands.

... the business consultant and coach

I have wide-ranging experience, from creating startups working with freelancers from all over the world, to working in projects with more than 50 people at different locations. I have worked 10+ years in industries dealing with IT, eHealth, medical technology, publishing, insurance, academia, finance, electronic trade, and games. I hold the certificates Agile Leadership, OpenSpace Agility, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner, PMI Project Management Professional, and Certified Scrum Master. I see them only as a way to communicate that I am interested in those topics, though, less so as proof of my abilities.

I provide on-site support and training (Europe) as well as help with management remotely. Usually, only a few interviews will suffice to find the core issue on which we need to focus. This can give you, your team, or your company an initial step in the right direction, preventing you from wasting months of work. For my consultancy method, I mainly draw ideas from lean management, agility, extreme programming, and open space. I am driven by the idea of making companies better places to work for their employees, questioning long-held beliefs of hierarchy, reporting, and responsibilities. Creativity requires supporting motivated and self-driven people who are willing to question the status quo.

Let us first brainstorm everything we know, then clarify the problem, make it transparent, and visualize it. Once we share a common understanding, we can move on to solutions. This idea is reflected in my academic background of organic computing and evolutionary algorithms, my love for definitions and diagrams, my approach to editing, and my daily life. While, from time to time, revolutions create the playing field for real organizational change, I prefer a more patient step-by-step, bottom-up approach or the creation of an experimental bubble outside existing company structures.

Though I have a lot of experience working in larger business environments, I excel at teaching small groups using current challenges within your life, team, or company as discussion starters. I also like to provide my ability to focus to accompany and run larger meetings. Speaking in front of audiences is natural to me.

Favorite quotations

“If you give me the right man in any field I can talk to him. I know what the condition is: That he did whatever he did as far as he can go. That he studied every aspect of it as far as he has stretched himself to the end. He is not a dilettante in any way. […] And, therefore, he is up against mysteries all the way around the end. And awe. Mystery and awe, that’s what we have in common.” —Richard Feynman

“Computers aren’t the thing. They’re the thing that gets us to the thing.” —Halt and Catch Fire

“Two things destroy businesses—mediocrity and making it about yourself.” —Halt and Catch Fire

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Experience, Training, and Education

• 13+ years industry experience (5+ years agile coaching experience)
• Certified Agile Leadership (2018, Scrum Alliance CAL)
• Open Space Agility (2018)
• Agile Certified Practitioner (2018, PMI-ACP)
• Project Management Professional (2016, PMI-PMP)
• Certified ScrumMaster (2015, Scrum Alliance CSM)
• Fluent in German and English
• Industries: IT, Medical Engineering, Publishing, Apparel, Insurance, Scientific Test Equipment
• Computer Science (Diploma, Focus Mathematics, Operations Research, Organic Computing, Algorithms) (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, 2009)

Core Technologies

• JIRA, Asana, Trello, GitLab, Jenkins
• Java (Spring), C, C++ (Boost, STL), LaTeX, Python, LAMP
• Office, Visio, Outlook, GIMP, Premiere Pro
• Teams, WebEx, Slack, Zoom, GoogleMeet
• Confluence, Wiki, Sharepoint, WebFlow, WordPress
• GIMP, Premiere Pro

References

• ‍CLEMENS LODE VERLAG e.K., Düsseldorf since 2013: Founder, Author, Coach, Project Manager‍
• ‍FINANZ INFORMATIK TECHNOLOGIE SERVICE, München 2021: Agile Coach
• VERBAND DER VEREINE CREDITREFORM e.V., Neuss 2020: Agile Coach
• LUQEL GmbH, Pforzheim 2019: Product Owner‍‍
• BRUKER AG, Rheinstetten 2018: Agile Coach, Project Manager, Business Analyst for PMO
• ITERGO Informationstechnologie GmbH, Cologne 2017: Java Architect, Java Coach, Scrum Coach
• ADIDAS AG, Herzogenaurach 2016: Scrum Coach, Business Analyst‍‍
• MEDISANA AG, Neuss, Düsseldorf 2011 - 2016: Agile Coach, Project Manager, Software Architect
• EC4U AG / LEGODO AG, Karlsruhe 2010: Java Developer, Project Manager
• KARLSRUHE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Karlsruhe 2007 - 2009: Research Assistant
• CLAW SOFTWARE, Karlsruhe 2001 - 2006: Software Developer, Founder

Other projects:

• 2018. Speaker, "Agile Transformation" IQPC "Wie man Menschen zusammenbringt – die drei Dimensionen agiler Zusammenarbeit" (source).

• 2017. Guest author frontrowagile (source).
• 2012. VitaDock Online. Cloud solution to securely synchronize and backup data from medical devices and mobile devices for >500.000 users (source).
• 2011. Release of C++ ClawGUI Bibliothek. Graphics library used for Evolution Forge (source).
• 2010. Publication of paper Adaption of XCS to Multi-Learner Predator/Prey Scenarios (Urban Richter, Hartmut Schmeck, Proceedings of the 12th annual conf. on genetic and evolutionary computation).

• 2007. Publication of paper Addressing Sampling Errors and Diversity Loss in UMDA (Jürgen Branke, Jonathan L. Shapiro, Proceedings of the 9th annual conf. on genetic and evolutionary computation).
• 2007 – 2009. Publication of simulation tool for paper Changing the Neighborhood of Cellular Automata (Hidenosuke Nishio, Proceedings of the 5th international conf. on machines, computations, and universality) and paper Automorphism Classification of Cellular Automata (Hidenosuke Nishio, Fundam. Inf. 104, 1-2).

• 2004. Release of simulation tool with evolutionary algorithms Evolution Forge, >10,000 downloads: "A beautiful program that uses math and coding to express just one more facet of our addiction to this game. It is the creation of a brilliant individual." (video, source).
• Mention in Benefits of Genetic Algorithms in Simulations for Game Designers (Jason Jones, 2003).

• 1998. Work on a game prototype "WARS!"