Volvo Cars
From "car" to "smartphone on wheels"
Volvo Cars AB, Gothenburg, Sweden. 2022-2023
My role: Senior UX Researcher
Volvo Cars is a Swedish corporation that doesn’t need much introduction. For 100 years, they have been on a mission to create safe and robust cars for the people of Scandinavia and the world.
As most other legacy car companies, Volvo is facing the transition from the old internal-combustion engine (ICE) cars, to modern electrical or hybrid cars.
But perhaps more importantly, the role of the car in the 21st century is transitioning into a “smartphone on wheels”, where software and user experience are rising in importance.
What I did there:
Understand user behavior from a complete-vehicle perspective
As a senior UX researcher in a team focused on user insights and analytics, my role at Volvo Cars sits at the intersection of data analytics, user experience research, and market intelligence.
My team works with analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data, from people and vehicles, to understand user behaviors and improve Volvo products over the short and long term, from a complete-vehicle and complete user journey perspective.
My everyday work at Volvo cars is centered around qualitative research including e.g. user interviews, focus groups, and surveys, but also strategy work and collaboration with teams focused on validation, testing and software updates.
I have also had a scrum master role in my team, facilitating the workflow, helping the team improve their processes, and leveraging agile principles to transition into more iterative and nimble ways of operating.
What I achieved there
Method innovation
Created a new study method for validating the user experience from a complete vehicle perspective at 1-year post-purchase follow-up. The method has then been utilized by our team in various subsequent projects and studies.
Interview user studies
Designed, planned and conducted interview studies, including contextual inquiries performed in cars, to understand user needs and behaviors, in close collaboration with stakeholders. Studies have directly and indirectly impacted strategy decisions for future products.
Focus group user studies
Designed, planned and conducted focus groups to understand the complete user experience, pains and delights of newly-released cars and products, in close collaboration with stakeholders.
Scrum master
Contributed highly to the development and improvement of my team’s ways of working, as Scrum master for my team and it’s neighboring team. This work has enabled our teams to allocate more time and resources towards purposeful and valuable operative work, and less towards meetings and ceremonies that didn’t fully bring value to the team and the company.
Survey studies
Conducted over 100 survey studies of various scope to investigate, understand and validate user experience of existing vehicles and mobility solutions, in close collaboration with stakeholders. Studies have directly and indirectly impacted strategy decisions for future products.
Outcomes
The work that I do together with my team contributes directly and indirectly to key strategy decisions regarding future cars and mobility solutions at Volvo Cars.
Methods
User interviews, contextual inquiry, survey studies, user research, user journeys, facilitation, workshops, qualitative and quantitative analysis, data visualization, strategic user insights, agile practices.
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Tools
Figma for wireframing
Power BI for data analysis and visualization
Miro for collaboration
Jira for project management
What I learned there
Working in a large international corporation has challenged me to use a broad range of skills and grow stronger as a person and as a leader in my scrum master role.
Communicating, navigating the decision forums, internal structures, and operational processes is a learning journey in itself. So is the task of getting familiar with the technical and industry-specific terminology and jargon.
Apart from that, I have of course also learned and developed in my UX research methods and increased my skills in cross-team and stakeholder collaboration, user research design, and data analysis.
Power BI was a new tool to me that I have grown to like quite a lot.
How I leveraged my talent stack
