Location:
Sunnyvale, CA in Silicon Valley
Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America
- Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America
- Innovation Lead
- Date: Mar 16 to Aug 18
Senior Innovation Lead
Led innovation activities for new digital products & partnerships with startups
- Led innovation funnel for Mercedes me digital ecosystem in the US, responsible for ideation, validation of concepts & executions of pilots, incl. activities such as design thinking and customer-centric workshops.
- Led innovation funnel for Mercedes me digital ecosystem, responsible for ideation, validation & piloting of concepts, both internal ideas & partnerships with startups. Evaluated 100+ concepts & executed 4 pilots, 1 of them leading to a strategic investment by Daimler in a US startup. Product was rolled out as a digital service in Europe.
- The scope of projects ranged from convenience services, mobility, digital health, and more.
- Building & management of relationships with potential partner startups, Venture Capital Funds & startup accelerators in the US.
- Led a team of 5 people and external vendors.
- Organized internal hackathons.
- I also had the chance to speak at multiple internal and external events.
Led a pilot of a smartphone-based crash detection and emergency response service (mobile app).
- Fun fact: we tested this at the crash-testing facilities in Germany. Imagine placing more than 10 smartphones at different places in a vehicle and crashing them against at different speeds to collect data.
- The pilot led to a strategic investment by Mercedes-Benz in a US-based startup. See more here.
- After considerable testing, the service was successfully launched into production.
