3,200 Miles Behind the Wheel: How Customer Experience Shapes Better Vehicle Design
For an automotive designer, understanding customers cannot stop at surveys, meetings and product reviews. The most meaningful insights can come from experiencing a vehicle exactly as customers do: from behind the wheel, on real roads, in changing conditions and alongside other drivers.
As Head of Design at Ford Motor Company, Todd Willing spends much of his time working with design teams, engineers, customers and business partners to develop vehicles and experiences that people will appreciate. But there is a fundamental difference between listening to someone describe a customer journey and experiencing that journey personally.
That difference inspired Willing to take a very practical approach to customer research.
Drawing inspiration from Ford CEO Jim Farley’s interest in the Japanese concept of “Gemba,” or “go and see,” Willing took the opportunity to leave the design studio behind and experience a performance vehicle across thousands of miles of American roads.
The result was a 3,200-mile road trip from Michigan to California in a Dark Horse SC prototype, ending at Laguna Seca during Monterey Car Week.
The journey was more than a drive across the country. It became an extended real-world design exercise, providing firsthand insight into how customers interact with, experience and respond to a performance vehicle.
Taking the Design Process Beyond the Studio
Vehicle design involves countless hours of sketches, digital models, clay models, engineering reviews and customer research. Designers evaluate everything from exterior proportions and materials to ergonomics, controls and the emotional character of a vehicle.
However, there are things that cannot always be understood inside a studio.
Road surfaces change. Weather changes. Traffic changes. Drivers behave differently. A vehicle that feels perfect during a short evaluation can reveal completely different characteristics after several hours behind the wheel.
That is why physically experiencing the product is so important.
For Willing, the cross-country journey offered an opportunity to put the Dark Horse SC prototype through a customer-style experience rather than simply evaluating it as a designer.
The trip began in Michigan and continued west through a wide range of American landscapes and driving environments.
Instead of taking the most direct route to California, the journey became an exploration of the roads themselves.
Mountain passes, desert highways, small towns and scenic routes became part of the experience.
The destination was important, but the journey was the real research project.
A Cross-Country Customer Perspective
Willing’s first cross-country American road trip provided a new perspective on the relationship between a driver and a vehicle.
The first part of the journey across the Midwest offered long stretches of open road, farmland and expansive skies. As the route continued west, the scenery and driving conditions changed dramatically.
One of the highlights was Independence Pass in Colorado, followed by roads through Moab, Death Valley and Yosemite.
At several points, the route was dictated less by a fixed itinerary and more by curiosity.
A particularly enjoyable road might appear in the distance, and the decision was simple: follow it.
That spontaneity is an important part of the performance-car experience.
For an enthusiast, driving is not always about getting from one location to another as efficiently as possible. The road itself can be part of the reason for owning the vehicle.
The trip allowed Willing to experience that emotional connection firsthand.
Small Details Become Bigger Over 3,200 Miles
One of the most important lessons from the journey was how much everyday details matter when a driver spends extended time inside a vehicle.
A designer may interact with a particular surface, switch, seat material or trim component dozens of times during the development process. But those interactions are usually brief and deliberate.
A customer may experience the same component for hours every week.
Over 3,200 miles, those details become much more noticeable.
Willing found himself paying closer attention to the fit and finish of the vehicle, the feel of interior materials, sounds inside the cabin and the overall relationship between the driver and the vehicle.
Even things that might seem insignificant during a traditional design review became meaningful after thousands of miles.
The fabric covering a seat, for example, was no longer simply a material selected during the development process. It had become a constant companion during a long road trip.
That change in perspective can provide designers with valuable information about what customers actually experience.
Traffic Creates Its Own Design Lessons
The road trip also revealed something that can be difficult to recreate in a controlled testing environment: the frustrations of everyday driving.
Even while driving a high-performance vehicle through some of America’s most spectacular scenery, Willing found himself becoming annoyed when large vehicles blocked his view.
That simple experience highlighted how much the surrounding traffic environment influences the driving experience.
Customers do not experience vehicles in isolation.
They share roads with trucks, SUVs, sedans, motorcycles and other performance vehicles. They encounter traffic jams, slow-moving vehicles, aggressive drivers and unexpected road conditions.
Understanding those moments helps designers think beyond the vehicle itself and consider the complete experience from the driver’s perspective.
The Dealership Becomes Part of the Research
Some of the most valuable moments of the trip happened after Willing left the highway.
He visited Ford dealerships, including two Phil Long Ford locations in Colorado and Team Ford in Las Vegas.
These stops provided an opportunity to speak directly with people who interact with customers every day.
Dealership employees occupy a unique position in the automotive industry. They see customers at the point where interest becomes a purchase decision. They hear questions, concerns, preferences and aspirations firsthand.
During one unexpected dealership visit, Willing walked in, introduced himself and mentioned that a Dark Horse SC prototype was parked outside.
The reaction was immediate.
Employees from sales, service and other areas of the dealership gathered around the vehicle to inspect it and discuss it.
The conversation soon moved beyond technical specifications.
That interaction reinforced an important lesson: performance-car customers are not necessarily purchasing horsepower, acceleration figures or equipment packages alone.
They are also buying an identity.
They are buying into an attitude, a community and an emotional connection to performance and motorsport.
For Ford enthusiasts, that connection can also extend to Ford Racing and the company’s broader performance heritage.
Dealers Offer a Direct Connection to Customers
The visit to Team Ford in Las Vegas provided another valuable opportunity.
Dealer Principal Steve Olliges and his team welcomed Willing, spent time discussing the vehicle and shared their perspectives on products and customer feedback.
The relationship continued even after the visit, when Olliges called to thank Willing for stopping by.
For a designer, those interactions can provide insight that is difficult to obtain through traditional corporate meetings.
Dealers have spent years building relationships with customers in their communities. They understand local preferences and frequently hear what buyers want from future vehicles.
They also see how customers respond emotionally to new products.
That makes dealers an important link between the design organization and the people ultimately purchasing and driving the vehicles.
Willing’s road trip reinforced the value of maintaining that connection.
Seeing the Vehicle Through the Public’s Eyes
The Dark Horse SC attracted attention well beyond Ford dealerships.
At gas stations, people approached Willing with questions. On highways, other drivers pulled alongside the vehicle to get a closer look. Some offered waves and thumbs-up gestures.
One memorable interaction involved a Corvette driver giving the vehicle an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
Another occurred in Kansas, where a young woman driving a competing performance vehicle asked Willing to lower the window so she could learn more about the car.
Those interactions demonstrated that enthusiasm for performance vehicles can extend far beyond traditional automotive events.
Some people knew exactly what the Dark Horse SC was.
Others were simply intrigued by its appearance.
Either way, the vehicle created a reason for people to engage.
For a designer, that kind of spontaneous response can be extremely valuable.
Passion Is Visible in the Product
Willing expected people to notice the vehicle, but he was surprised by how broad the interest became.
Almost every stop created an opportunity for another conversation.
Some people focused on performance. Others were interested in styling or simply wanted to know more about the unusual vehicle they had encountered on the road.
Those interactions reinforced the idea that automotive design communicates before anyone reads a specification sheet.
People can respond to a vehicle’s proportions, stance, details and overall character without necessarily knowing anything about its engineering.
A well-designed vehicle can create curiosity before the driver even starts talking about what is underneath the bodywork.
For a design leader, that is an important lesson.
Laguna Seca: The Road Trip Meets the Racetrack
The ultimate destination for Willing’s journey was Laguna Seca, where he planned to race during Monterey Car Week.
That setting provided the perfect conclusion to a trip focused on experiencing the vehicle as a performance customer.
The journey had covered thousands of miles of normal roads before arriving at a location synonymous with motorsport and performance driving.
By that point, Willing had experienced the vehicle in multiple environments.
He had driven through cities and rural areas, mountain passes and deserts, highways and scenic roads. He had dealt with traffic and long stretches of open pavement.
He had also interacted with dealers, enthusiasts and members of the public.
All of those experiences became part of the design research.
Turning Real-World Experiences Into Design Insights
By the time Willing reached Laguna Seca, he had accumulated hundreds of photographs, dashboard time-lapse videos, voice notes and observations.
More importantly, he had accumulated thousands of miles of firsthand experience.
The trip generated questions and ideas that could be taken back to Ford’s design teams.
The value of the journey was not simply identifying things that worked or did not work. It was understanding how a customer might perceive the vehicle over an extended period.
That distinction is important.
Traditional product development can sometimes focus on whether a particular feature meets its intended specification. A real-world customer experience asks a different question: How does the entire product feel when it becomes part of someone’s daily life?
The Broader Meaning of Gemba
The concept of Gemba provides a useful framework for answering that question.
Rather than relying exclusively on reports, meetings or secondhand information, “go and see” encourages people to experience the environment where the work or customer interaction actually happens.
For automotive designers, that could mean driving a vehicle for an extended period.
It could mean visiting a dealership.
It could involve observing customers interacting with a new feature or simply spending time listening to the people who use the product every day.
The objective is not necessarily to confirm what the organization already believes.
It is to discover something unexpected.
That mindset can be particularly valuable in an industry undergoing rapid change. As vehicles become increasingly connected, software-defined and technology-rich, understanding how customers actually use those technologies becomes just as important as developing them.
Designing With the Customer in Mind
Willing’s 3,200-mile journey ultimately provided a reminder that good automotive design begins with empathy.
Designers need to understand not only what customers say they want, but also what they experience when they drive, own and live with a vehicle.
A seat is not simply a component.
A dashboard is not simply an arrangement of controls.
A material is not simply a texture selected during a design review.
Each becomes part of a much larger customer experience.
The same is true of performance.
Customers may appreciate technical specifications, but they also remember the feeling of accelerating onto an open road, seeing a distinctive landscape through the windshield or receiving a thumbs-up from another enthusiast.
Those emotional experiences can be just as important as the numbers.
Taking the Lesson Beyond the Road
Willing’s experience offers a broader lesson for anyone involved in product development.
A Gemba does not have to mean driving 3,200 miles across the United States.
It can be as simple as leaving the office and visiting a dealership, speaking directly with customers, observing how people use a product or experiencing a service from the customer’s perspective.
The essential step is getting close to the real-world experience.
For automotive designers, that means spending time where vehicles actually live: on roads, in garages, at dealerships, on racetracks and in the hands of enthusiasts.
The most useful insights are not always found in a presentation or meeting.
Sometimes they appear on a mountain road, at a fuel stop, inside a dealership or during an unexpected conversation with another driver.
For Willing, 3,200 miles provided thousands of opportunities to see Ford’s product through the eyes of the people who ultimately matter most: the customers.
The journey demonstrated that customer research does not always need to be formal or confined to a conference room.
Sometimes the best way to understand the customer is simply to get behind the wheel and go see for yourself.
Source Link:https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/
