Silke Dieringer

“I’m not satisfied with half measures,” says Silke Dieringer. But fun is also important to her, Immediately she has a joke at hand: “What is orange and goes over the mountains?” – the solution follows below. She has been managing customer projects at Schober since 2018. In doing so, she works closely with colleagues from sales and analysis to provide customers with optimal support. She manages focused projects for target group analysis with an emphasis on geomarketing/geofencing as well as complex customer projects on the universal data orchestration (udo) platform. Her will to succeed, joy of action and humor are in demand in project management.

Schober comes with Santa Claus

Unforgettable for Silke: the start at Schober, more precisely the job promise. Because that was while Christmas shopping. A bustling atmosphere in the stores on Stuttgart’s Königsstraße, loud Christmas music in the background and Sylvia Türcke on the phone with the job offer. “That was like an early Christmas present for me. Schober was exactly the employer where I wanted to go,” she says in retrospect. She is still happy at Schober today, because “here I got the chance to keep developing.” Originally, she does not come directly from the IT and data environment, but professionally from the creative industry and geographically from Stuttgart-Möhringen. But one after the other.

Product design, media business and learning new things

Silke grew up and went to school in Stuttgart, where she still lives today with her family and friends. Smiling, she refers to herself (without an accent) as “Urschwäbin”. No Swabian attributes follow, because flat clichés or even prejudices do not belong to her. “I am an open, communicative person. I take every person, every colleague, as they are.”

After school, she takes advantage of the opportunities offered by the industrial location and trains in product design. Hands-on work is required: drawing, drilling, milling, gluing – in short, everything you need to know to build prototypes. In addition to craftsmanship, creativity is indispensable. As her final project, she is designing new bus stops for Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz. However, to the regret of many a Stuttgart resident, it remains only a model to this day.

“Always learning new things” is important to her, so she goes on to study applied media management: advertising campaigns, project management and controlling, as well as screenwriting, are all on the curriculum in preparation for joining Schober. Many subjects she meets again later. As a bachelor, she starts her career at an advertising and creative agency, where she gains important practical experience in the management of diverse creative projects. Then Christmas comes and Silke finally starts at Schober.

Wanderlust, an S-NY license plate and the seriousness of life

She now lives in Echterdingen and can walk to work. But despite her attachment to Stuttgart and her family, Silke also has her wanderlust. She regularly goes on city trips, but beach vacations are less her thing. She is particularly fond of New York. Even her car has the license plate S-NY for Stuttgart-New York. She likes the Big Apple’s bustle and liveliness. “There’s a lot going on, there’s a pulse of life.” However, an already planned trip to New York had to be cancelled last year. But that will be made up for when the situation allows it again!

And Silke is also basically not someone who gives up. She knows how to fight for something. “In difficult situations, I learned to appreciate even small things, to be confident and to do the best I can.” Exactly the same applies on the job. Customers can rely on it: They get what they want and what they need for their success.

Live projects in customer consulting

Intensive exchange with customers and the Schober experts is an important success factor for Silke, creativity and solution-oriented thinking are others. “Projects are complex. First you have to understand the customer’s challenges exactly, and only then can you propose a solution. You often achieve even more for the customer if you ask questions, refine the analyses, and include new aspects in the solution. When I tackle a project, I want to live it,” is how Silke describes her work. The approach is very team and consultation oriented.

An example from one of their consulting fields, geofencing: A drugstore chain was looking for ways to strengthen customer loyalty. Together with colleague Sven Waldenmaier, they worked as a team to spatially classify customer flows, refine the questions, and develop seven personas. In the end, you knew: Yoga accessories have a magnetic effect on customer flows. “Results like this are fun. For me and for the customers, who get added value from it.” But other fun is not neglected either, she says and jokes. “What’s orange and goes over the mountains? Well, a Wanderine. What is healthy, strong and plays the offended? That’s right, the poutine bread. And what lives in the water and sees double? A cross-eyed horse.”

Dance with udo instead of pouting bread

Just as close to the customer, but with a different focus, are their projects around the universal data orchestration (udo) platform. This is convincing more and more companies – such as bruno banani, where Silke was also heavily involved. Whereas companies used to store their data in a widely dispersed manner, today it can be consolidated in the blink of an eye with udo and used in real time to analyze the customer journey. And where a lot of technical and statistical expertise was required in the past, users with a primary connection to the business – i.e. CEOs, CMOs and marketing managers – are now perfectly capable of handling the task, she says. Reasons: Top standard functions at the push of a button and user guidance for managing directors. “It’s like dancing. If you are perfectly guided, you also dance full of harmony,” Silke is pleased.

At work, after work: dancing and Do-It-Yourself

Because dancing makes them jump in the air with joy. “I love dancing. I used to dance ballet myself for 13 years.” In the meantime she prefers other dance styles like modern dance, which is currently difficult because of Corona. From her time as a product designer, a need for handcrafted work has remained. Thus, private Do-It-Yourself projects create the necessary balance to work. Otherwise, she enjoys spending her free time with friends and family; but especially with her niece, who always makes her laugh.