One lesson I’ve learned from sailing is that the greatest skill is your ability to problem solve. Out on the water, you rarely encounter the exact same situation twice, and that lesson also rings true in Research & Innovation. Creating the future requires constantly taking your bearings, adjusting your course, and trimming your sails!As a R&I Manager at Valeo, I lead a multidisciplinary team of engineers, programmers, psychologists, and designers all collaborating to create the future of mobility. Over my career, I’ve been fortunate to work on a wide range of automotive topics from navigation systems to automated vehicles, including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), automotive infotainment systems, and eXtended Reality (XR) applications including Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Realities (AR / VV / MR). I’ve conducted and published user studies. I’ve written system specifications, SAE standards, patent applications, and even contributed to the development of automated vehicle regulations in the state of California. However, throughout my career, User eXperience (UX) has remained the lens through which I see the world. Whether it’s facilitating design thinking brainstorming sessions or managing a project to create a system concepts that will be debuted at CES, UX is key. Just as sailors study the wind and waves, companies need to study their users. User pain points are opportunities for innovation, and even the most advanced technologies stall without a compelling user experience. Every opportunity to test with users, is an opportunity to trim your sails and pick up speed!