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ustwo Auto
Igniting Digital Transformation in the Automotive landscape
Overview
After recognising the need for digital change within the automotive industry, I spearheaded the establishment of ustwo Auto. My vision was to revolutionise the digital user experience in the automotive world, leveraging ustwo’s unique capabilities.
The Challenge
I faced the formidable task of breaking into a tradition-steeped industry. It was more than introducing new ideas; it required more than an innovative vision; it called for a convincing business narrative, a deep understanding of the industry, and the capability to garner industry support amid scepticism.
Excerpt from a business case deck - forming the basis of many other future ustwo community initiatives
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An early ustwo auto project (design pixellated out)
Overview
I created an internal initiative to create credibility and demonstrate the capability to the automotive industry, building the business case for overall buy-in from the ustwo board and recruiting a small team of like-minded enthusiasts. Following an initial six-week project with an OEM, I came up with the idea of a thought leadership piece to outline our vision. I began with a 150-word blog post. Tim Smith and Harsha Vardhan took this foundation and vastly expanded on it with their respective expertise. Their complementary skills and viewpoints created a compelling and rounded perspective on the state of in-car user experience and set an industry benchmark that had a huge impact.
With Tim and Harsha as co-founders, our small, passionate team created an all-encompassing thought leadership piece on the state of user experience within the digital automotive arena. Despite challenges, we persevered with the initiative, reaching out to potential clients and formulating demos and provocations in the shape of our cluster demo. This, ultimately, paved the way for us to be seen as an authoritative digital user experience presence in the automotive sector.
Excerpts of our first published book, ‘Are We There Yet?’
Leadership and Advocacy:
As a leader and advocate, with my co founders, we propelled our work to significant industry recognition. The resultant five-part blog series and e-book went on to be downloaded over 10,000 times, showcasing our ability to generate impactful content, garnered press attention from many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and Wired. I also had the idea to publish the blog as a beautifully crafted, hand-printed book.
Tim Smith spent his holiday time converting the blog into a stunningly designed book. I titled it “Are We There Yet?”. The work led to significant industry connections and marketing outcomes. This attention underscored our impact and affirmed my belief in the transformative power of digital empathy in design.
“We were impressed by the depth and detail of the auto piece. It is a rare thing to see.”
Outcomes
Under my leadership, ustwo Auto achieved almost £6M in revenue, involving five diverse projects, illustrating our financial success and project versatility. The eBook's 10,000 downloads quantified the initiative's resonance, the auto blog's high readership and subsequent industry engagement. Our strategic efforts led to alliances with companies like Nissan, Google, Toyota, Ford, and Jaguar, significantly impacting the automotive industry.
Apple's Special Projects team also invited us to give a presentation in Cupertino to Jonny Ive and his team. Auto and Mobility projects accounted for over 60% of ustwo's revenue between 2015 and 2019. (generating revenue of £2 million in 2015 and £3.7 million by the end of 2016). After I left ustwo in March 2016, Tim and Harsha took over my role, with an additional Business Development resource being recruited to cover my work. The ustwo Auto team was disbanded in 2019.
The follow up cluster internal project that also garnered a lot of press attention
10k
Downloads for the eBook
(an ustwo record)
£5m
Automotive revenue
between 2015 and 2019
60%
of ustwo’s total revenue
were auto projects (2015-19)
Personal Reflection:
The remarkable success of the ustwo Auto team was a testament to a confluence of factors - a culture of supportive leadership at ustwo, my strategic vision and foresight in recognising and capitalising on a unique opportunity, and the serendipity of engaging in groundbreaking automotive projects. The extraordinary talent and dedication of co-founders Tim Smith and Harsha Vardhan, plus other critical team members, including Adam Taylor, Matthew Edwards, Steve Bittan, Ben Powell, Barnaby Malet, David Fisher and David Lowe, plus many others, were instrumental in this journey. Their unique contributions, combined with my guidance and direction, helped push the boundaries of what was achievable in automotive digital innovation.
The framework and approach we developed in ustwo Auto didn't just achieve success in isolation; it served as a blueprint for other community initiatives within the company. This model facilitated the establishment of various ustwo communities, setting a high standard for innovation and collaboration. While none matched the unparalleled success of ustwo Auto, they all benefited from the groundwork laid by our team.
Many who were part of ustwo Auto still reflect on that period as the pinnacle of their professional experiences. This sentiment resonates with me; those times were professionally fulfilling and personally rewarding. The sense of accomplishment, team spirit, and innovation we fostered is something I am eager to replicate. Looking back, I take pride in having led an initiative that achieved remarkable success and left a lasting impact on everyone involved and the wider industry.
Another mobility project, in collaboration with Ford and IDEO, looking at how to make multi modal travel more human centric.
