Ford Motor Co.

Role: Digital Product Intern

Design Tools: Figma

Skills: AI-Infotainment Design, PRD Research, User Research

Timeline: June 2024 - August 2024

Introduction

As a Digital Product Management & Design Intern at Ford Motor Company, I had the opportunity to work on innovative projects in the automotive tech space, focusing on enhancing user experiences and accelerating product timelines. Throughout my internship, I collaborated with cross-functional teams, worked directly with leading companies like Google and Spotify, and gained hands-on experience in AI, UX design, and product development.

PROJECT 1: Infotainment Intelligence Assistant

  • Ford aimed to accelerate the development and deployment of an enhanced in-vehicle voice assistant to improve user interaction and overall satisfaction. The project focused on refining the user experience, setting measurable success metrics, and supporting AI model training to bring a smarter, more responsive assistant to market faster.

    • Defined and implemented KPIs to track voice assistant performance

    • Established UAT (User Acceptance Testing) standards to ensure quality and reliability

    • Collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, designers, third-parties to set experience goals

    • Supported AI training efforts to optimize natural language understanding

    • Led UX improvements for more intuitive and natural user interactions

    • KPI framework and reporting structure for voice assistant performance

    • UAT guidelines and evaluation criteria

    • Enhanced voice assistant UX specifications and interaction flows

    • Contributions to AI model training datasets and feedback loops

    • Accelerated development timeline and improved user satisfaction with in-vehicle assistant

Timeline & Approach

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Timeline & Approach *

4 Key Pillars

  • Data Prep & Modeling

    Implement techniques supplemental to Google’s LLM 

  • UX Design

    Define expected set of most common questions by users and best practices for the responses

  • Performance Measurement

    Identify KPIs and develop UAT methodology

  • Testing & Refinement

    design testing protocols to evaluate accuracy and effectiveness of the models

Final Result: Appendix Structure for Google Assistant VA

While the exact structure and content of the PRD and integration details remain confidential, this overview represents the thought process and phased approach taken to improve how Ford collaborates with partners like Google and Spotify to enhance its infotainment system. The focus was on building a more intuitive, partner-friendly documentation flow that balances user needs with technical implementation.

Applicable Skills Gained

  • Strategic product thinking in a partner-driven ecosystem

  • Writing and structuring high-impact PRDs

  • Cross-functional collaboration with external tech partners

  • UX prioritization in systems with embedded AI services

  • Translating consumer value into technical requirements

  • Agile documentation workflows without relying on foundational user research

PROJECT 2: Panoramic Screens In-Cabin Experience

  • Ford aimed to enhance the usability and functionality of panoramic in-vehicle screens to improve the experience for both drivers and passengers. I was responsible for designing the foundational user experience for these panoramic displays. In addition to developing initial wireframes and conducting user testing, I created an in-cabin sketch app experience that seamlessly integrated the panoramic screens, center stack, and users' personal devices—enabling synchronized, cross-platform creative engagement within the vehicle.

    • UX Wireframing: Created foundational wireframes for multi-screen automotive interfaces

    • User Research: Conducted targeted user testing to validate initial design concepts

    • Cross-Device Experience Design: Developed a sketch app concept integrating panoramic displays, center stack, and personal mobile devices

    • Prototyping & Iteration: Built low-fidelity prototypes and refined them based on user feedback

    • Human-Centered Design: Applied early-stage design thinking to shape the direction of future in-vehicle experiences

    • Foundational wireframes for panoramic screen UI layouts

    • User testing reports capturing key insights and recommendations

    • Conceptual user flow and experience design for an in-cabin sketch app

    • Low-fidelity prototypes demonstrating synchronized use across in-vehicle displays and personal devices

Ford’s In-Cabin Sketch App: A multi screen experience

Approach & Steps for Project

  • Consumer Profiles

    Built detailed consumer profiles through user research and market segmentation to better understand needs, motivations, and behaviors across different in-vehicle use cases. These personas guided design decisions and ensured the experience was tailored to real users.

  • Competitive Advantage

    Conducted a cross-industry competitive audit, comparing features from both automotive and non-automotive spaces (e.g., tablets, sketch apps, and infotainment systems) to identify unmet needs and uncover opportunities for innovation in the in-vehicle creative experience.

  • Overview of UX

    Outlined end-to-end UX journeys for each consumer profile across three key interaction surfaces:

    1. Center Stack:

    2. Panoramic Screen

    3. Personal Device

    Each experience was designed to be intuitive, adaptive, and personalized to the user's role in the vehicle—whether driver or passenger.

Wireframes

Defining Feature Set
Integrating 3rd Device
Seamless connection of CS and Pano

Project Scope

Developed and presented a low-fidelity overview of the sketch app user experience across the center stack, panoramic screen, and third device. The goal was to map out basic interaction flows—not final UI—highlighting how each surface could support sketching, navigation, and collaboration. The framework also explored how to engage different user types, from drivers to passengers and families.


Skills applied: UX wireframing, user flow design, multi-device interaction mapping, consumer profiling.

Final Result

Delivered a conceptual UX map (wireframes and user flows remain confidential to Ford) that outlined how users could seamlessly move between devices, use the center stack for tools, the panoramic screen for display, and personal devices for co-creation. This foundational work guided future exploration of creative in-vehicle experiences.


Skills gained: cross-surface experience design, collaborative UX strategy, stakeholder communication, design storytelling.

PROJECT 3: PRD Research & Third-Party Integration

  • Ford aimed to enhance its infotainment system by integrating services from leading tech partners like Google and Spotify. The initiative focused on creating a more connected and intuitive in-vehicle experience, driven by a competitive and consumer-focused Product Requirement Document (PRD) framework. My role was to improve this PRD template to ensure a balance between technical feasibility and human-centered design principles. Through close collaboration with external partners, we achieved seamless platform integration that elevated the infotainment experience and reinforced Ford’s position in the connected vehicle market.

    • Product Strategy & Documentation: Refined and enhanced the PRD template to better align with user experience goals and system architecture

    • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked directly with teams at Google and Spotify to support their service integration into Ford’s infotainment system

    • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): Applied HCI principles to prioritize ease of use and personalization in infotainment design

    • Stakeholder Alignment: Ensured consumer needs, technical requirements, and partner expectations were clearly documented and aligned

    • Revised PRD template focused on consumer-first, HCI-driven integration

    • Integration documentation supporting Spotify and Google service onboarding

    • Technical and UX alignment briefs across product, design, and engineering teams

    • Final integration strategy that contributed to an improved and competitive infotainment offering

Project Development Journey

  • Timeline

    Phase 1: Mapped out a multi-phase timeline to improve Ford’s PRD template—from initial gap identification to final implementation. The timeline included benchmarking, stakeholder input, partner collaboration (with Google & Spotify), and usability-focused revisions, ensuring a structured rollout of improved documentation standards.

  • SWOT Analysis

    Phase 2: Developed a SWOT analysis to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the existing PRD structure. This informed the redesign strategy—leveraging Ford’s internal resources and external partnerships to streamline integration, improve clarity, and deliver a more agile, user-aligned development process.

  • Competitive Analysis

    Phase 3: Conducted a detailed competitive analysis of PRD frameworks used across automotive and tech industries. Compared formats from companies like Tesla, Apple, and Android Auto to identify best practices in integration documentation, user-focused feature planning, and partner onboarding.

Due to confidentiality agreements, the new PRD structure and detailed documentation cannot be shared. However, the final result involved a fully revised, partner-friendly PRD framework tailored to support the integration of platforms like Google and Spotify into Ford’s infotainment system. The updated structure balanced technical requirements with user-centered thinking, enabling smoother collaboration across internal and external teams.

Final Result

Delivered an enhanced, human-computer interaction–focused PRD that aligned Ford’s infotainment strategy with third-party service integration goals. This outcome helped streamline onboarding, improve communication, and strengthen the in-vehicle user experience through smarter documentation.

Applicable Skills

  • Product documentation and PRD design

  • Cross-functional collaboration

  • UX-driven product thinking

  • Partner integration strategy

  • Technical writing for non-technical stakeholders

  • Agile development support

Conclusions

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Conclusions 〰️

During my time at Ford, I had the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects that bridged the gap between design and technology. From improving AI-driven user interactions to refining in-vehicle interfaces, my contributions helped enhance the overall user experience while driving product innovation. This internship strengthened my skills in product management, UX design, and cross-functional collaboration, and I am excited to bring these experiences into future roles in the tech and automotive industries.