Ford’s Sandy Fershee: Driving innovation with human-centered design

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The most innovative electric car announced in 2021 was not a Tesla, but a Ford. The new Ford F-150 Lightning, a fully electric version of the best-selling vehicle in America for the past 30 years, is the culmination of thorough user research and fresh thinking on a familiar product.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We were curious to learn how design and innovation are playing a role in Ford’s transformation, so we’re excited to bring Sandy Fershee, lab director at D-Ford Detroit, on to the show. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sandy talks about her role at D-Ford, and we also discuss the challenges of doing research & development in a large organization, how her team shares their design and innovation tools with the whole company, and how they approach design at the intersection of hardware and software.</span></p> <p><strong>Bio</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sandy Fershee leads a human-centered design team at At D-Ford Detroit, pushing the edge of Ford’s future strategies. They design new products, services, and ventures that customers love and drive business profitability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Prior to this role, Sandy was the global leader of Experience Design at Ford, transforming Ford’s ways of working through human-centered design and creating new possibilities for future customer and business value.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sandy was also Managing Director at the agency Punchcut, and Design Manager at Motorola.</span></p>