Pushing the boundaries of utility in a large utility vehicle program.
For a major upcoming large utility vehicle program at Ford, I was responsible for leading the design and development of an innovative vehicle access solution, as part of the D-Ford human centered design team on the project. This initiative was a crucial part of our strategic research aiming to enhance the usability, functionality, and desirability of the vehicle.
My leadership in this project resulted in a design and clear engineering deliverable that significantly improved the overall user experience of the vehicle, made clear during our team’s and subsequent user research.
I took an initial concept, first conceived in a cross-functional workshop, and designed a simple version of the mechanism to make the idea work in real life. From there, I modeled a full-scale functional prototype of the idea in CAD, and, with a bit of math and a few extra hands, build it out of wood, some custom bracketry, foam board, and a few extra hardware components.
This prototype, along a few others put together by other team members, was shipped to user research, which I then directly supported, and jumped in where necessary to fix issues with the prototypes.
At the research, the experience shown by the prototype was extremely well received, and it was clear that a version of that experience had to be in the vehicle program content.
After the research, the program personnel from engineering had major challenges in balancing innovation with cost and practicality to implement the concept. The D-Ford design team had mostly disbanded to support other projects, and so I led the effort to find viable solutions to deliver this experience to customers.
I pushed the cross-functional team through a process of creative exploration to realize the key elements of the envisioned user experience. This effort required my team to closely collaborate with various departments, including Vehicle Integration, Operations, Planning, and Body Closures, to develop a practical and impactful design.
I employed a hands-on approach to overcome these challenges. I initiated the use of Pugh charts and experiential illustrations for comparison, then guided my team to create physical foam-core models of all the proposed designs.
I then organized a critical event for senior leadership stakeholders to directly engage with each model, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the potential user experiences.
After months of leadership and interdepartmental deadlock, this strategy led to alignment among all parties, culminating in the adoption of an optimal, cost-effective and practical design solution in a week!
As part of these efforts, I personally created and disseminated video content showcasing the prototypes to interdepartmental program personnel. This content was instrumental in addressing concerns, clarifying the aligned vision for the program, and generating excitement for the experience we would unlock for our customers among key stakeholders and decision-makers up to, and including, the Board of Directors.