Good user experiences not only require well thought-out design, but also effective communication. Deutsche Bahn's UX team shows how complex topics such as accessibility, user-centered development and internal processes can be communicated in such a way that they are understood, appreciated and passed on.
Jennifer Lange and Linda Moehrs from Deutsche Bahn provide insights into their communication strategy - and show how they use Scompler to strategically plan their topics, make them visible across channels and promote internal collaboration at the same time.
Jennifer Lange
German Railways
As lead of the UX community at Deutsche Bahn, Jennifer Lange built up the strategic communication work of the User Experience Council. In order to enable topic-centered communication, she was instrumental in mapping UX communication with all its target groups, strategic goals and tonalities in Scompler . Since July 2025, she has been responsible for topic-centered strategies and operational innovations in IT projects at Deutsche Bahn as Senior IT Project Manager.
Jennifer, what is your mission at Deutsche Bahn UX - and what topics do you talk about?
Jennifer Lange: "DB UX has set itself the goal of breaking down the silos of the various DB business areas - because we are one Deutsche Bahn and want to show it. That's why we want to anchor the visibility and impact of user-centered product development internally within the Group in the long term. The area of responsibility ranges from our product and the expansion of tools to ongoing collaboration with other business areas and even European networking. Our mission: We empower and inspire outstanding digital solutions that get people excited about the sustainable mobility of the future.
Our communications department is responsible for making this important message clear, being transparent and communicating honestly and openly. We want to make topics such as accessibility, user-centricity and tool development visible and effective for internal stakeholders. We are the link between the brand, the projects, the products, the community and the management."
How have you integrated Scompler into your communications work?
Jennifer: "Before we started the communication planning in Scompler , we did a big analysis of our entire strategy, a kind of all-round analysis.
- What are the USPs of DB UX?
- How do these fit into Deutsche Bahn's overall strategy?
- Which personas can we define for ourselves?
- How do they differ - and which channels do we want to use to reach them?
We have defined four personas in our communications work, including users, middle management and senior management. Everything about these personas is stored in Scompler - what they are called, when we address them, how we address them. This knowledge is now no longer just in instructional PDFs that nobody can find, but directly in Scompler.
About Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is one of the largest transportation and logistics companies in Europe and is headquartered in Berlin. It employs around 320,000 people worldwide, 220,000 of whom work in Germany. The company is active in over 130 countries and offers services in passenger and freight transportation as well as rail infrastructure. In Germany, DB operates the long-distance and regional train network, suburban trains in many metropolitan regions and numerous railroad stations and maintenance sites.
When we now plan a topic, we consider which persona this is of interest to, which goals we are pursuing with it and plan the communication more granularly down to the individual content piece. After all, the channels have a different weighting depending on the persona. Middle and senior management need one-pagers, LinkedIn posts or direct mailings. In contrast, we reach our designers and developers with videos and blog articles. With Scompler , we avoid content that is not read or seen and consciously target it where we think it makes the most strategic sense. We don't create an asset without looking at the strategic goals.
It was precisely this benefit that I pitched to a Deutsche Bahn committee to get permission and the budget for Scompler . As part of the process, I was also supported internally by our Content Services team and worked closely with the external agency Crowdmedia on our strategy. Strategic communication is not a luxury, but a necessity. With the right tool and the right attitude, you can create real change even in a company like DB."
Linda Moehrs
German Railways
As Content Lead, Linda Moehrs is responsible for the strategic development of content for the UX community. She anchors the team's strategic goals in Scompler and uses it in her day-to-day communication work. She finds everything she needs for her communication in Scompler .
You had to pitch the benefits of Scompler to the DB panel - what would you say is the biggest added value?
Jennifer: "Moving away from watering can content towards self-determined, strategic work. We are no longer worker bees who are constantly stuck in firefighting mode and have to produce more and more content. Instead, we work with verifiable figures and clear calendars in a single source of truth where everything can be found and organized. My working world has united from various small workplaces into one large workplace and given me autonomy."
Linda, you plan and produce your communication in Scompler every day. What has changed as a result?
Linda Moehrs: "Scompler gives me the feeling of entering a real newsroom every morning: I walk into a room and everything related to my content is stored there. Scompler also gives me security in my content work. Anyone who communicates a lot and creates content knows what it's like to work passionately on something, to want to tell a strong story, and then to digress and ask yourself: is this communication being created in a meaningful way? But because we have stored our strategic and tactical communication goals as well as our target groups in the platform, Scompler takes away this uncertainty."
What did your communication planning look like before Scompler ?
Jennifer: "I actually worked with Excel lists to keep the editorial team running. But our team quickly became too complex for that. After all, DB UX also employs designers, interns, juniors and students, as well as agencies and internal service providers. It's impossible to map all these people, their needs and topics in an Excel spreadsheet. So I had to keep an overview, think bigger and further - but the Excel spreadsheet didn't let me understand at all which topic we could continue to use and how, in which formats and on which channels."
Linda: "Before Scompler , there was a PDF with a strategy somewhere, there were folders with images, folders with text documents. So everything you need to implement communication was scattered somewhere. You had to open lots of folders, presentations and boards to know who we were talking to and what tone we wanted to use to address the target group. I had to find everything about the channels, formats and analytics anew every time."
And what is your content production like now?
Linda: "When I work on texts in Scompler , the text check reminds me of the tone of voice I should use to address this target group. This includes not only the tonality of the language, but also certain rules that are central to our communication: Neologisms, capitalization when addressing them and so on. This is a huge help in content production, especially for new employees who have not yet fully internalized the personas and our tone of voice.
The Scompler at DB UX
- Strategic and tactical communication goals as the foundation for all content pieces
- Target group-specific content planning with personas
- Transparent overview thanks to individual calendar and project views
- Editorial efficiency & teamwork through transparent access to content, image material and tonalities
- Text work with strategic security thanks to integrated text checks
- More efficient process and approval management thanks to traceable workflows and approvals directly on the contribution
- Single source of truth instead of fragmented tools: Scompler is the digital place where everything comes together.
In Scompler , we not only have our personas, but also image material and all the assets we need for content planning and production. I can ask for feedback directly in the article, which makes the approval process much more efficient. In addition, the numerous views and the calendar give me an exact overview of when which content is planned on which channel, or whether I need to make adjustments."
You have changed a lot in your strategy development, but also in operationalization, since you started using Scompler . What were your biggest challenges?
Jennifer: "Scompler has been used as a content platform within Deutsche Bahn for years - but DB is huge, so I had to gather a lot of information and experience reports within the Group myself. I'm sure many communicators feel the same way and know exactly how much time and effort it can take to find a suitable planning platform. Many don't block out the necessary resources for this, even if they have exactly the same pain points as me in their communications work and want to counter them with suitable technology.
I still see the necessary resources and appreciation for our work as a major problem. Job descriptions of marketing managers or communicators usually include ten different specializations at the same time. Resources and budgets for our disciplines usually come from a pot that is discussed by people who usually have little contact with marketing and communication teams.
We do things differently in our DB UX team. What communication has achieved and will achieve is valued and recognized. This constant discussion about resources is an internal struggle that many newsrooms face - but if the newsrooms have a clear strategy and operationalize it, they are best able to withstand this pressure."
