Audi—product discovery in 4WD

Cars, cars, cars.

Since … like ever, I’ve loved cars! I can remember playing with cars from the youngest age. And all sorts of cars: remote control cars, model cars, Matchbox cars, whatever. So I was completely psyched to be invited by Audi to keynote the company’s annual hackathon.

Flying high

Audi is no stranger to innovation. Check out this video I shot of the Audi Autonomous Driving Car during the hackathon. It’s the platform for the Audi Autonomous Driving Cup. It brings together some of the smartest engineers in the world to imagine the future of cars and driving.

Much more to do

But Audi knows better than to put all their eggs in one basket. The car industry is changing, fast, fast, fast. Autonomous driving, augmented in-car experience, AI connected cars, 3D printing, blockchain to securely manage spare parts: everything in the car business is changing.

Mattias Ulbrich, CIO for Audi AG and Gunnar Lange, Director of IT Innovation got 100 of their employees together to explore ways to harness and capitalize on the change.

“We have outstanding talent here at Audi. With the Audi IT Hackathon, we give them the opportunity to develop and implement these ideas in an inspiring atmosphere and in interdisciplinary teams.” — Mattias Ulbrich, CIO, Audi AG

So — what now?

And I spoke just about that to open the hackathon, sharing why user needs and market insights trump ideas, why questions are more important that answers, and how to hardwire innovation into everyone’s everyday work.

Audi has graciously provided a podcast of my keynote with the slides. Enjoy!

And if you just want the slides, here it is.