I needed to envision a new application or digital feature for Volkswagen semi-autonomous self-driving car.

Develop an elevator pitch for the idea explaining the benefits for Volkswagen and to customers (Business model). Which are the competitive advantages vs. solutions in the market? Which are the advantages and areas to take into account while implementing digital features for a connected car vs. self-driving cars (pros and cons).

I had 7 days to deliver a presentation with a prototype.

I first I needed to know what topic or problem to solve, and I thought real users would have the answer so I compiled a variety of issues regarding to connectivity in a car such as Stop the car, Traffic jam, Music connection, Answer messages, Petrol Stations, Call a contact, Car maintenance, Reconfigure Seats and I launched a 24h survey.

The key findings were that the main age range was from 25 to 34 years old. The impact of the problem on their life was rated 7-8 aout of 10 and a broad majority voted for this as it was a 60%. The frequency on how often they have this issue is 1 a week. Over 50% of the users were willing to pay from 15 to 30k on a brand new car. So this sets us a possible type of target. At last, the pain problems most picked were:

42% prefers arriving on time and not to get stuck into a traffic jam. And it totally make sense because getting to your destination is the main purpose of a car.

This lead me to do some competitive analysis, you most certainly know about Google Maps is a very useful tool for getting to your destination as quickly as possible. One way it accomplishes this is by predicting traffic and calculating the fastest route. This can be done by all the data collected from our phones activating the ‘location’ services and sending them to Google headquarters to process.

Waze is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app. You can Join other drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and road info, saving everyone’s time on their daily commute. This 2 apps are used by so many users, knowing that only google maps has 1000 millions of users connected per month I explored then the second issue most voted.

Which is Music connection. 33% of users prefers to save time trying to connect their favourite music. And furthermore I asked Qualitative Questions like As a copilot or a passenger have you ever had an specific need? Did you ever thought ‘I would definitely improve this…’ in a car? And a lot of people that didn’t even select the music connection as a pain point responded that they would make easier the phone connectivity with the car screen. That they would like to control the music in the back seats and as a copilot. To synchronise Spotify in the car and also that they would like to see the list directly on the car screen.

Now, taking this notes into account, I present you our User Persona, Nuria Domínguez, she is 32 years old, separated from Madrid. She works as a blood analyst in a hospital.

Music is essential to Nuria’s life. She listens to tunes almost all the time. Likes to go to concerts very often. Her main motivation is to go on a ski trip with her friends twice a month. She needs to find a solution to rely the music on her friends so she can concentrate on the road. “I want to switch the music from my headphones to my car on my way to work”