Daniel

Pfaltzgraf.

I design experiences
that ignite and inspire people.

👋 Hey you! I’m Daniel, an innovation and experience design leader, business professor, and textbook author. I turn fuzzy ideas into things people can see, test, and rally behind.

Let’s talk now!

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Some of the brands I’ve collaborated with

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Turning visions into reality through design strategy and innovation

Innovation and Strategy

Turning back-of-the-napkin ideas into real-world impacts.

Business strategy

Design thinking

Design strategy

Product development

Experience Design

Creating something better to make things better.

User experience design

Service design

Customer experience

Learning design

Brand storytelling

Facilitation and Transformation

Elevating teams, reimagining futures — through better questions, and better answers.

Organizational change

Culture transformation

Employee experience

Events and conferences

PROJECTS

I bring results.
My clients are proof.

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Customer Experience

Hampton by Hilton Guarantee

Product Development

American Airlines Elevate App

Experience Design

Hilton Ideation Summit

Microlearning

Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Microlearning

Experience Design

Hampton FACT Packs

Experience Design

Hilton Bright and Happy Huddles

Design Thinking

Verizon Design Thinking Workshops

eLearning and Gamification

MedImmune Campus Safety Training

Experience Strategy

Nationwide ThreeSixZero

Experience Strategy

Nationwide GrowForth

Get inspired

Latest thinking

The Holiday we Never Had and Never Needed

Columbus Dispatch

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Believe in a Future for Toledo

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Leading Edge: Rethinking How Toledoans See Toledo

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UToledo Faculty Member Receives ‘20 Under 40’ Recognition

UToledo Press Releas

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Holiday Hypocrisy of Hickory Farms

Toledo Free Press

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Business Faculty Member Serves as Lead Author on Contemporary Textbook

UToledo Press Release

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Your Classroom Has a Brand — What’s Yours?

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How to Utilize Generative AI in the Classroom: When, Where, How, and Why

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Here’s How Higher Ed Educators Can Lean Into Today’s Best Hack: Generative AI

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Technological Illiteracy in an Increasingly Technological World

Development and Learning in Organizations

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New Study Seeks to Transform How Technology is Taught Toledo Blade

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New Study Explores Digitally Native, But Technologically Illiterate Students

UToledo Press Release

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Digitally Native, Yet Technologically Illiterate: Methods to Prepare Business Students to Create Versus Consume

Journal of Applied Business and Economics

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I Just Want to be Engaged

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How to Engage People in Your Company Culture

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Why I Love Being the Early Bird

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An ebullient polymath?

That's me!

I’m a builder, who has created digital, experiential, and change management solutions across swaths of industries and numerous Fortune 500 companies. I play in that fuzzy space between what we know and what we need to know — discovering what people want, but don’t yet have.

📚 Education

University of Toledo

Master of Business Administration

University of Toledo

Bachelor of Business Administration

💼 Work Experience

Nationwide

Innovation and Experience Design Leader

University of Toledo

Professor of Practice,
College of Business & Innovation

Wiley

Author,
Contemporary Business: Canadian Edition

Toledo Mud Hens

Toledo Walleye

Root (a part of Accenture)

Design Consultant

Measurable impact

Big ideas.
Real-world impact.

A few milestones behind the work — measured in recognition, new ideas, and the people they reach.

Recognition

2025

20 Under 40 Winner

Toledo

Invention

2

Patents to my name

Education

~150

Universities use my textbook

Reach

1M+

People impacted by my solutions

WHAT THEY SAY

Word on the street

There are no words to describe Daniel's talent, although "unicorn" is the closest one I've got.

Jess Barnes

Director, Service Design
Truist

Daniel demonstrated best-in-class content writing, journey mapping, experience design, prototyping, filmmaking, even mocked up a clickable prototype. I repeat: unicorn.

His technical role was a strategy consultant, with zero reach into some of the areas I just mentioned he demonstrated mastery over.

Jess Barnes

Director, Service Design
Truist

I don’t know that I can come up with the words that adequately describe the amazing contribution this guy makes to EVERYTHING he touches.

I guess I could say that Daniel is “the most,” everything: the most brilliant, most creative, most engaging, most intellectual…get the picture?

Amy O'Donnell

Distinguished University Lecturer
University of Toledo

Daniel is brilliant, talented, smart, entrepreneurial, inquisitive, empathetic, strategic, and down right impressive. He is kind, compassionate, considerate, and empathetic. He is a thought partner, inventor, and magician.

Jess Barnes

Director, Service Design
Truist

Daniel's capabilities exceed expectations while his flexibility and reliability make him someone to be counted on. His commitment to — along with — passion for lifelong learning are as lasting as they are evident. He has an insatiable intellectual curiosity and a fearless approach to express it with peers, students, clients, friends, leaders, and executives.

Jim Fox

Senior Director, Human Resources
ADP

Daniel has a history of success, recognizing opportunities for continuous improvement, developing strategies around them.

Jim Fox

Senior Director, Human Resources
ADP

Whether as a teacher, student, team member, leader, or creator, you can count on Daniel to make bold commitments and to navigate obstacles in their fulfillment – with an open mind, joyful heart, positive intentions, and smile on his face.

Jim Fox

Senior Director, Human Resources
ADP

Daniel is my instructional design idol. I have never seen someone be able to grasp concepts, translate his voice into “our” voice, and simply create content that shines. I knew if Daniel was on it, that everything would be perfect.

Tom Melanson

Senior Consultant
Gallup

Daniel's work often seems to be a thing of magic, but there's a whole lot of talent, skill and relentless dedication underlying that ease and positivity.

Claire Kenkel

Senior Consultant
Root (a part of Accenture)

Daniel was able to build bridges and wow a number of diverse client stakeholders by integrating their lofty desires with his creative approach, all the while balancing the capabilities and capacity of the team bringing his design to life.

Claire Kenkel

Senior Consultant
Root (a part of Accenture)

Daniel is a strategic thinker at heart, always looking for dots to connect in a way to helps our business scale design success. Rather than focus on myopic features, Daniel will take on meaty program-wide challenges to integrate his thinking and share a POV.

Julia Barham

Director, Product
Nationwide

Daniel's leadership, care, and willingness to deliver proactive questions and concepts helps his peers and leaders navigate uncomfortable conversations that challenge the status quo.

picture of phil

Phil Hamlin

Associate Vice President, Technology and Innovation
Nationwide