In practice
BRANDS & MARKETING
Building a startup's marketing from zero
Marketing Lead at Wayby
2026
Wayby was moving from proof of concept to MVP and had its first customers, but marketing was still occasional posts. I joined as a marketing specialist and was promoted to lead after four months. I created the brand and marketing strategy, with annual plan and content calendar, built out the visual identity, ran the content across channels, and took responsibility for the website's content, structure and SEO. I also built the Wayby Academy: the platform content, the course structure and ten lessons, and took part in product development, contributing design, customer and market insight.
In eight months, Wayby went from occasional posts to consistent brand, website and marketing it could build on, and in the six months of active marketing its LinkedIn followers grew 58%.
"Minka made a real contribution to Wayby. What stood out to me was her ability to take ownership and turn ideas into finished work independently. I would happily recommend Minka to a team looking for a versatile marketing professional with strong design skills." - Dini Mäntylä, Founder & CEO
SERVICES & EXPERIENCES
Improving restaurant service operations
Restaurant Manager at Salt
2024-2025
Salt had gone five years without a restaurant manager: untrained staff, no clear processes, and a customer experience and environment that needed work. I recruited, trained and led a team of 10, developed the standards and guidelines, and ran a 70-140 seat restaurant day to day. Alongside I developed the drink menus, the terrace live music evenings, handled the marketing and the website.
Beverage margin rose by at least 3% and stayed there. Revenue improved clearly in three months, doubling in one compared to the same month the year before, and through the quiet months held steady while industry was struggling. Moving menu printing in-house saved costs from five outsourcing orders a year. After I left, the team kept the standards, and a year later many of them are still there.
"Minka has been motivated and determined. Working with her has been smooth and easy as she knows the restaurant industry inside out. I recommend her for similar roles." - Teemu Lehtonen, Restauranteur
BRANDS & MARKETING
Developing a business from within
Business Designer at Valuemotive
2022-2023
Valuemotive was an established software consulting company which was developing its design consulting offering. My role spun potential customer projects, development of the new offering, and broad internal brand, marketing and business development. I created the brand strategy, rebuilt the website, developed the marketing plan and content, and led employer branding. I also facilitated workshops and ideation, developed internal ways of working, and supported sales and design teams in developing design-related operations.
I brought more structure and consistency to the company's brand, marketing and internal development. Website traffic grew 73% and unique visitors 77% through organic marketing alone, while employer branding began generating open applications from people who had discovered the company's content.
"Minka has a big heart for developing better digital services, brands, working cultures and ways people work together to reach strategic objectives. As a person she is simultaneously self-directed yet team-driven, methodological yet creative, proactive communicator yet efficient listener. I've come to know Minka as someone whose innate positiveness and openness always creates a positive team-atmosphere around her. I've personally seen that positiveness to touch and transform entire company brands." - Pekka Lehti, former CEO
In depth
SERVICES & CONCEPTS
Creating a concept for hotel room of the future
As Project Lead of a team of four, I designed a concept for the hotel room of tomorrow for Hotel Haaga Central Park, whose two suites had become outdated. Built on research, new customer segments and prototypes tested with customers, the concept is designed to create value for the hotel, raise guest satisfaction and well-being, and offer new products, services and experiences. The hotel was very happy with it when we presented it.
EXPERIENCES & CONCEPTS
Creating a gamified experience for an event
As Project Lead of a team of six, I designed a gamified experience for the More Than's Time Well Spent event, whose main speaker was Experience Economy pioneer B. Joseph Pine II. I led the team by building on each member's strengths and making sure everyone was heard, and did the visual execution of the experience.
BRANDS & EXPERIENCES
Improving the brand awareness
for a high-tech manufacturing campus
I created a business solution to stimulate innovation and strengthen brand awareness for Brainport Industries Campus. Through research, observation and context analysis, I interviewed people on the campus to identify problem areas, identified the key stakeholders, benchmarked other cases, and created and tested a prototype.
In brief
Developing a new model for immersive experience design
Commissioned research for an immersive experience concept for Recover Laboratory, exploring how space, sensory elements, emotion and storytelling work together to create immersive experiences. Through nine expert interviews and research across experience design, immersion and storytelling, I brought together previously disconnected perspectives to develop an integrated theoretical model and practical design framework for future experience creators.
Helping a boutique hotel become its area's gathering place
I created recommendations for Stella Suites, a boutique hotel that aims to become the gathering place of Goirle. Based on extensive research, I showed how experiences and events could open a new source of revenue and strengthen the local community, and how Influencer and Instagram marketing could build awareness, with a prototype to bring the advice to life.
Designing a transformative experience for tourism
I designed a transformative experience concept for a Finnish tourism provider: a guided nature experience for travellers seeking personal change, grounded in research on transformational travel. The concept covers the product, storyworld, the full customer journey before, during and after, transformative elements, and marketing with personas, transmedia storytelling, plus an ad poster.
Connecting a zero-waste hotel with its neighbourhood
In a team of four, I created a business concept for 100% Your City Hotel, a zero-waste neighbourhood friendly city hotel, to bring locals, tourists, and the neighbourhood of Culemborg together around its zero-waste promise. Using the service desing process, we built it on the hotel's principle of reciprocity and co-creation with the community, a sustainability survey on travellers, benchmarking, personas, and a prototype.
Creating a children's meta maze for a new experience center
In a team of four, I created an immersive children's meta maze concept for a new experience center in a Finnish city, meant to bring events and culture there. It was designed to work year-round, be inclusive and draw locals and tourists, backed by a business plan with cash flow estimates. I designed one maze room and was responsible for the marketing section.
Enhancing higher education through design and gamification
I designed an educational room escape concept for Haaga-Helia, an immersive way to teach and learn topics it already teaches, meant to be built and used as a teaching method. The concept covers the storyline, puzzles, room design with a prototype, game rules and instructions, and reflective questions that check whether the learning objective is reached.
