PHILIPPINES

Ewa Sondell helps Scania map out its future

8 MARCH 2022

What will the future of transport look like? How does Scania decide on its products, services and strategies? Ewa Sondell, a Service Designer in Scania’s Research and Innovation Office, helps answer this question.

“My career includes industrial design for the automotive industry, and I’ve always wanted to take a holistic view of things - that’s key to Service Design,” explains Ewa, who joined the Research and Innovation Office in May 2021. “We’re looking at the complete picture - not only products and technology, but the human side, business and trends. We take a strategic overview of the transport system and Scania’s place in it.”

‘Gigamaps’ and ‘Narratives’

The transport business is a series of needs, trends, technologies and challenges, and a key part of Ewa’s work is with ‘Gigamaps’, tools that help researchers and innovators picture these complex systems.

“We gather perspectives from each transportation system and visualise them to make it easier to understand our role and future needs. For instance, as we’re going autonomous, electric and connected, what does that mean to people, our technology and our business?” she explains.

Ewa also uses ‘Narratives’ to visualise targets set out in Scania’s Technology Roadmap.

“The technology roadmap sets out key technologies Scania needs to embrace by 2025, 2030, etcetera. ‘Narratives’ make it easier to see and understand what this actually means. We visualise the collective targets on this roadmap based on different themes, such as extreme energy efficiency, to highlight possible futures,” she says.

“That’s actually a big challenge ahead. How do we make our vehicles and business more energy-efficient as we transition to electrification and a sustainable future?

“Our work is also about sparking more research initiatives and innovation projects. It’s a bit like laying a jigsaw puzzle to understand what the different transportation problems are, and what the needs are for Scania going forward. Our hope is to make it easier to see what those kinds of needs will mean for us in future,” she says.

The benefits of gender diversity

As a woman in a traditionally male-dominated area, Ewa is convinced of the benefits of diversity.

“Diverse teams have always proven to be the most successful, and I’m so happy to part of Scania, where all perspectives matter,” she says.

“I think it’s really important to put diverse perspectives into product development and take a customer-centric approach to solving the real user needs, with less focus on the technology itself and more on what it can actually do for someone.

“It’s such an interesting time we live in, with the shift to Sustainable Transportation and how we can solve challenges smarter when embracing the system perspective.”

What motivates you?

“I have a fantastically interesting and fun job and Scania is amazing in the way that we constantly inspire and educate each other. I’ve never experienced that before. Since I’m curious about almost everything, especially sustainability, disruptive technologies and human behaviours, that really drives me forward.”

What are your interests way from work?

“I like staying active doing different sports. It’s a fantastic way to spend quality time with friends and experience new places, while getting some exercise too! My goal this summer is to take part in my second ‘Ironman’ in Kalmar, Sweden, and complete that.”