James (Jim) Kalbach

Jim Kalbach is an author, speaker, and instructor whose career spans user experience design, information architecture, customer experience, and innovation. He has worked as a design leader with companies such as eBay, Audi, SONY, Elsevier Science, LexisNexis, and Citrix. Before returning to the United States after living for 15 years in Germany, Kalbach co-founded the European Information Architecture conferences and the IA Konferenz series in Germany. His international experience and hands-on work with prominent organizations have positioned him as a prominent voice in experience design and strategy.

Kalbach is the author of several books that have influenced how practitioners and business leaders approach design and customer value. His works include "Designing Web Navigation" and "Mapping Experiences" from O'Reilly, as well as "The Jobs To Be Done Playbook: Align Your Markets, Organization, and Strategy Around Customer Needs" from Rosenfeld Media. "Mapping Experiences" reached the top of the Amazon Business Development section. Kalbach also co-authored "Collaborative Intelligence" with Mariano Battan, published by Wiley. These publications address organizational alignment around customer needs, visualization of complex experiences, and effective collaboration—topics relevant across industries.

Kalbach serves as Chief Evangelist at Mural, a collaborative intelligence company supporting 95 percent of Fortune 100 enterprises. As an early member of the company, he led the Customer Experience team and contributed to the growth of major clients including IBM, SAP, and Intuit. He is recognized for his expertise in experience design, strategy, visual methods, and remote facilitation.

Kalbach is also co-founder and principal at the JTBD Toolkit, an online resource offering learning, training, and content. His "Jobs to Be Done" framework is widely used by product and strategy teams. Kalbach emphasizes "Jobs Thinking" as a mindset that provides a unique perspective on problem-solving, making his approach accessible to product managers, designers, marketers, and executives.

Kalbach holds a degree in library science from Rutgers University and a master's in music theory and composition. He is a regular presence at conferences and in industry media, known for combining academic rigor with practical experience. Kalbach speaks and writes on design, customer experience, collaboration, and strategy, advocating for imagination work, remote collaboration, creative teamwork, and design thinking. His work encourages organizations to center human needs in their strategies and solutions.