Transcript

Colin Uthe:

Welcome to Connected, a podcast about the operations and the people that make up Chamberlain Group. I'm Colin Uthe, and this month we're going to explore the most recent addition to Chamberlain Group's core business, the automotive unit. A relatively small group of engineers, product and program managers, this team plays a crucial role in the development of our business transformation to software and services.

To accomplish this, the Automotive Unit partners with vehicle manufacturers, or OEMs as they're often referred to in this episode, and enhances the technology that allows your car to enter or exit through a myQ-controlled door. This aims to make the experience both personalized and seamless for the driver.

Among other successful product launches, the automotive unit recently debuted their long-awaited integration with Tesla, which brings the convenience of myQ right onto the center console of Tesla vehicles nationwide. To introduce the team, we're going to start with a clip from an interview that I did back in January with the automotive group's general manager, Jim Trainor, and senior product manager, Laura Crawford.

Jim, could you give me a brief history on how the ABU started? Because if I'm not mistaken, it kind of starts with Jim, doesn't it?

Jim Trainor:

Yeah. I spent the bulk of my career in the automotive industry, and I think it was 1997 I had first started working with Chamberlain in the HomeLink product, which is the little three-button transmitter that's in half the cars in production in North America today. That was one of our products. And when the access control industry started encrypting or using rolling codes in all the transmitters and garage door openers, it forced us to have access to those.

I believe it was 1997 when we did our first license agreement with Chamberlain. So for every HomeLink that went out, Chamberlain got a certain amount of money and it ended up being a super successful product. It was a really, really great partnership between Johnson Controls and Chamberlain. And when the Chamberlain leadership Group came into JCI probably around 2010, they said, hey, we're doing this myQ thing and it's going to be cloud-based. And the only use case was, it's for when you drive away from your home and forget if you shut your garage door, you can do it with your phone. And they walked out and we thought what they want to do is really hard. It's really hard and it's really expensive, but if they do it, the need for a Johnson Controls to package a circuit board somewhere in the vehicle to do that won't be necessary anymore and they're really going to own this industry.

Shortly after that, I was speaking with one of the CEOs a few CEOs ago, and I said, "Hey, you guys are going to be an automotive supplier one of these days, and you just can't show up at BMW and say, 'Hey, I'm your new supplier.'" It's a pretty lengthy qualification process and you have to have an appropriate team in place with the right level of experience. And I said, "So I'll come over and start that." So that's when I came over in '15.

Colin Uthe:

So with your knowledge of the auto industry, you came to Chamberlain and said, you guys really got something here and I'm going to help you on how to do it.

Jim Trainor:

You're going to take over this business, whether you know it or not.

Colin Uthe:

That's a really good pivot when a company shows you something that they're rolling out that may very well be the end of another company.

Jim Trainor:

And maybe I can play a role in this.

Colin Uthe:

That's amazing. So how does the ABU operate differently from the rest of the company?

Jim Trainor:

I think one of the primary differences is the level of co-development we have with our customers. But again, we don't build a product and put it on the shelf and somebody picks it. All OEMs have different vehicle architectures, all nameplates have different levels of complexity. And from a feature standpoint, OEMs are very specific of what vehicles they want to have certain features in from evaluation standpoint. So anything that we sell, we probably have 18 to 24 months of really, really heavy technical interaction with our customers. And then once the product's developed, there's extensive testing that goes on. So before this thing's actually sold to a consumer, thousands of hours of co-development and testing have taken place.

Laura Crawford:

So the timing, we don't follow the traditional NPD process. Our myQ products are their software. So there is no manufacturing involved, there's no parts, there's no components. It is a relatively quick timeline. However, what Jim said is there is so much work with our OEM customer and co-developing and then testing, and even pulling together the commercialization on what's going to work and what's going to be the most relevant for the consumer, for that Tesla owner or the OEM, what that customer is going to want and expect in their vehicle. The ability for myQ Connected to Garage to be a quick software deployed product sounds like a really good idea, but it does take a lot of time when it comes to the co-developing and the testing, and the commercialization.

Colin Uthe:

At a high level, how does a product or service in the auto unit go from a concept to a reality?

Jim Trainor:

I think that product concepts come from multiple sources. I mean, it comes from research, it comes from personal aggravations you have with things around your house or in your car. I think where it really transitions from an idea into a reality is you have to have a team of people who are experienced in the industry and experienced and how to take that idea, transition it into either a software service or a physical product that's appropriate to sell to an automaker. And again, automakers requirements and expectations are dramatically different than an retailer or a local business. They're probably some of the most restrictive in demanding in the world. I mean, I would look at automotive, aerospace, medical. I mean the demands are extraordinary, and you have to have a team that understands that.

Colin Uthe:

Two members of the automotive team responsible for this process are my guests, Adelaide and Wei Lyn.

Adelaide Zhang:

My name is Adelaide Zhang. I am a senior product manager in The Automotive Group.

Wei Lyn Lee:

I'm Wei Lyn Lee, and I'm the director of the customer program manager.

Colin Uthe:

How long have you two been working together for?

Wei Lyn Lee:

Here?

Colin Uthe:

Yeah. Oh, I mean... Well, okay, before then. Yeah. Let's go back to the beginning.

Adelaide Zhang:

That's a really good question.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yeah, that's a loaded question. It's a loaded question, actually.

Adelaide Zhang:

Wei Lyn joined two years ago now, right?

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yeah, two years ago.

Adelaide Zhang:

So we have been working together here for two years, but I have been with the company for four years. Prior to that, we had a long history, I don't want to talk about the number of years. You know our age. But many, many years ago we worked together at Continental, so that's how we know each other.

Colin Uthe:

Oh, perfect.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

Okay. So you guys just kept in touch all that time?

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah, we were in each other's weddings.

Colin Uthe:

Yes.

Adelaide Zhang:

We actually knew each from [inaudible 00:08:10].

Colin Uthe:

Were you, really?

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yes. We were.

Colin Uthe:

That's amazing.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah, we know each other for quite a long time.

Colin Uthe:

Oh, that's wonderful. So how did you end up getting pulled into Chamberlain group then? Because you came first and then you came shortly after.

Adelaide Zhang:

So for me, it has always been, a major part of my career is about innovation, new products. And when Ari reached out to me, say, there is a new opportunity at Chamberlain, we're going to transform a hardware platform to a self-service. That really just caught my attention. It almost feels like it's a once of lifetime experience I get to involve all the way at the beginning...

Colin Uthe:

On the ground floor.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah. ... Of a product or a concept service, and then take it however you want to take it, right, based on your understanding. I thought that was a really great opportunity. I couldn't pass, so I joined.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, that's a really attractive invitation.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

And so how'd this go down? Did you call Wei Lyn shortly after? Did Ari call Wei Lyn?

Adelaide Zhang:

That's right. That's right. We were like, as you can see, as we gain momentum with OEMs, more interest coming along, we really needed that execution team. And I know Wei Lyn, she knows OEM well, has been working with them for many, many years. And I said, "Hey, you want to try?" I said, "This is a leap of faith is nothing-

Wei Lyn Lee:

I trusted my friend.

Colin Uthe:

It's a little beefier than a startup, but it's a brand-new frontier for us.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yes.

Adelaide Zhang:

Exactly.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yes.

Adelaide Zhang:

Exactly.

Colin Uthe:

Okay.

Adelaide Zhang:

And she's like, hey. He's like, "Yeah, I got to try something new." So I'm glad she decided to take the invitation.

Colin Uthe:

I did a little bit of digging and I just noticed that you two both came from Fortune 500 companies, really high visibility companies, really high visibility positions within those companies to come here. And you've already given me a bit of an answer to this, but why did you choose to join Chamberlain Group? And furthermore, what keeps you here?

Adelaide Zhang:

To me, it's the technology, the technology roadmap, and the room for innovate, to bring a brand new product to the consumer, to the end user. That really fulfills my career desire, that makes me wake up in the morning and come to work and say, hey, I got to solve this problem. Oh, I got this new idea. Maybe we can address this issue. We just talked about it yesterday. So yeah, I think that keeps me going.

Colin Uthe:

Okay. I really like what you had to say earlier too, about getting in when this was an up-and-coming type deal.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah.

Adelaide Zhang:

Definitely.

Colin Uthe:

Wei Lyn, what about you?

Wei Lyn Lee:

I would say that, yes, I have worked in a really high visibility company before, but product wise I would say is just really low, and the vehicle, that the visibility of the product that we do, majority of the people do not know that it's happening. But here it is a product that you create and it's visible in front of the customer. It's inside the vehicle, but it's also visible in front of the consumer. And it gives a different type of challenge that it's not just you create your product and you just shove it into the car and you're done. Here is that you put it into the vehicle and you still need to know whether the customer likes it, the customer does not like it, what do you have to do in order to improve it. It's a lot of different mindsets that you have to change in order to create this product.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, I like that. It's a feature in a car that has its own face to it and its own experience.

Wei Lyn Lee:

And it's definitely something new for me to learn as well. I liked the marketing part of it, I liked to be able to... I like to talk to the customer, and I also like to talk to the real customers that are able to know what people really do appreciate.

Colin Uthe:

I feel like a lot of people are familiar with maybe what a project manager does, but not so much what a program manager or a product manager are up to. So first I'd like to ask, what does a product manager do?

Adelaide Zhang:

So for Auto, we are really a small group. Part of our product manager's role is engage with the customers, need to make sure we can explain our features and work with them on the features they're looking for. We have both hardware and software and as you can see, there is a large interest in myQ. So myQ to us is we see the app, open and close doors, but when we come to integrate with OEMs, there are many flavors. So as product managers, we need to work with customers, really understand what's their need, at the same time feature, what is our myQ feature, what can we bring for them. And yet understand, hey, this is what they need to do from their side, or this integration fits their need. And you will very soon find out every OEM in the automotive world wants their own integration, wanted their own feel and look.

Colin Uthe:

Because it helps with their branding, doesn't it?

Adelaide Zhang:

Exactly.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah.

Adelaide Zhang:

So that's really hard when people talking, oh, platforming or when we're selling maybe a clicker, it could look the same that's going to different stores, but for us is very customized. And then from product manager, we do the front end, engaging with the customer, understanding what they want, come up with business models, and then all the way through to the contract period. And with Wei Lyn's customer program group, you will see it's not a really clean line, but there is a handoff once we are getting to the specific program. Once we have defined the feature set, how we're going to do integration, the business model, while the contract is underway, we start getting the program team involved.

Colin Uthe:

So Wei Lyn, why don't you tell me a little bit about where you come in in that process?

Wei Lyn Lee:

Well, just like she said, for my team, it definitely is when a lot of the contract has been negotiated in the sense that it doesn't really have to be fully baked. But as long as we do know that there is a certain product that the product team has developed with the customer, knowing that this is what the customer wants to launch with, that is when our team will come in and we will do what I will call plug and play. So we'll plug in all the execution things or the product of anything. Playing, meaning we'll execute all the stuff that is being requested for.

So I would say that the customer definitely would change some of the things while we are doing it. So whether they're implementing it, developing it, testing it a little bit, and they say, ah, I don't quite like it this way, I want to change it. So customer program managers, I would say that they will still continue to work with the customer to make that changes, but we will definitely involve the product managers and saying that this is all the changes that's going to be happening, how does that affect the business case and all those.

Colin Uthe:

You're right, that is a bit of a blurred line with when that relationship begins and ends.

Adelaide Zhang:

Right.

Colin Uthe:

Okay.

Adelaide Zhang:

And I don't think it ever ends. I think we're the best partners in this whole journey.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Definitely. Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

What sort of ways do you interact or operate with members of different departments?

Wei Lyn Lee:

I think it all depends. When I first joined the company, I had launched the Rivian product, so it's more hardware-based. So I would interact a lot more with supply chain people, manufacturing side of the people, hardware side, firmware guys to make sure that our product will be able to get out the door. But even with that, we still will be doing the marketing, customer support. So we will always have to interact with, internally, marketing, how do we want to market the Rivian product. And then also have to go to the Rivian customer and ask them, would you allow marketing?

Colin Uthe:

Right.

Wei Lyn Lee:

And we have to negotiate to see how much marketing are we allowed to do and all those or no marketing at all. The other part of it is customer support. So customer support is very important in the sense that once your product is launched out the door, and myQ is very well known. Chamberlain product is well known. So anything that does happen, a lot of people will be calling our customer support center. So we will have to also negotiate with the customer to see, do they want to be tier one, to talk to the customer first, or do they want to come to us, the customer to come to us, and how do we handshake to get the issues back and forth.

Colin Uthe:

Right, because you want the best experience for whoever's driving that car.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Correct.

Colin Uthe:

So let's talk a little bit about Tesla. This is one of the highest visibility projects that's come out of the ABU since its creation.

Adelaide Zhang:

To me, I really felt like Tesla and us, myQ, is the perfect storm in the sense Tesla is known for its technology and we are, myQ, is really forward-looking, is the trend, the new trend on how we want to control garage from the vehicle. What's interesting is, I remember it was maybe a couple years back, there was a lot of social media from Tesla users asking for myQ.

Colin Uthe:

Oh, was there really?

Adelaide Zhang:

Yes.

Colin Uthe:

Okay.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yes. They're like, "Hey, Elon, when is myQ going to come?" Right? And this is where when we first engaged, we had a lot of trouble to really come to an agreement on the business model. They want to do it, but they don't know how we're going to do it. And I think that push, because the fact that Tesla is really trending, the technology trend, a lot of OEMs are watching them and their car owners, drivers are really techy as well. So that really, I think made Tesla and myQ very successful and made a lot of Tesla drivers happy when we brought myQ into the vehicle together with Tesla.

Colin Uthe:

So tell me a little bit about your involvement with the Tesla integration.

Wei Lyn Lee:

So I got this program knowing that I believe we have been engaging with them for many years. And finally, they came in and said, yeah, we're ready to go. And when they finally came and said that they were going to do it within a couple months, so first engagement of course is like, how does your UI work? We reviewed it with them, taking a look at how it flows through and trying to give them feedback to make sure that everything is going as a user experience is better for anybody and for any people that is not used to seeing all this UI in front of them to access the garage door as well as actually we do the payment or subscription from the UI as well.

So for that, we did a lot of reviews with them to make sure that everything works well. And then with that going, we also have to make sure that all the API calls are good. And so a lot of development wise, we do testing with them and we requested, what they call it? The buck. And it's like a-

Colin Uthe:

What do they call it?

Wei Lyn Lee:

A buck.

Colin Uthe:

Okay.

Wei Lyn Lee:

It's like a head unit that we will be able to get from them and then we will be able to test it in.

Colin Uthe:

Oh, like their center console.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

Okay.

Wei Lyn Lee:

So we will be able to test in the lab with them.

Colin Uthe:

So what are some key features of this integration?

Wei Lyn Lee:

I think that the geofencing is definitely the best product for the myQ with the Tesla in the sense that it marries the vehicle and the house together in that sense. So you know that when you're leaving your home, you get your auto close. They're able to sense your location. You can set your location, and then you will know that exactly where you are at when you want to open your garage door. And for the auto-open portion of it, you actually will be able to set it between 10 to a hundred feet.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Wei Lyn Lee:

So it's really a good way of letting the user know that you have a peace of mind that you're leaving your house, everything is secured.

Colin Uthe:

What's next for this project? Where do we go from here?

Adelaide Zhang:

From the product management side, it's really working with Tesla on the next phase, bringing more features to the car. Oh, again, there is a level of negotiation and seeing what they're willing to work with us on. But from their perspective, they believe this is a very successful program as well. And I definitely see the next phase where we want to bring more of innovation, working with them together to bring to the vehicles.

Colin Uthe:

So you're going to keep building out more features.

Adelaide Zhang:

Absolutely.

Colin Uthe:

And then you're going to bring them to Tesla and they're going to say, okay, we like that. Let's work with this or...

Adelaide Zhang:

Yes.

Colin Uthe:

... maybe not that one. Yeah. Okay.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yes.

Colin Uthe:

What sort of takeaways from this particular integration are you looking forward to applying towards projects with other OEMs?

Adelaide Zhang:

A lot of lessons learned from product management side.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah. No, tell me about it.

Adelaide Zhang:

I'm sure Wei Lyn has from program side. From product management, I think this is really a great program. We learned a lot of... We did a survey at the end after we launched and really got-

Colin Uthe:

With customers?

Adelaide Zhang:

With customers, yes, and got a lot of good feedback. We are actually continuing to improve those features. How do we make sure the feature awareness is clear, getting through to the customer? How do we build up the product knowledge where it's lacking? All those. We are learning where we can improve on getting those messages out, where we will be applying with other OEMs. And another big portion, for me it was the inside, the data. The advantage of Tesla is we own both pieces, the subscription, and the usage. We can see data from both sides.

Colin Uthe:

And that's not always the case?

Adelaide Zhang:

No. But now, based on our learning from Tesla, it's like how do we marry those two? How do we work more closely with other OEMs so that we can streamline the insights, the data and et cetera? So a lot of different fronts of learning after the product launch, this is what we need to do.

Colin Uthe:

How does your work within the ABU align with our top company objectives?

Adelaide Zhang:

Our main objective is really how do we get myQ into the vehicle. Not only is it important to us, but I truly believe this is where we innovate, we change how garage control works in the vehicle, and this is super important. We need to continue to get myQ, and this is where we can continue to build more features, solving more of user problems. We're in the business trying to solve people's issues. So to me, this is just our number one focus.

Colin Uthe:

So you're making the product more valuable, like you said, with more features and you're capitalizing on the fact that that hardware is already in, how many vehicles is it nationally? Like a crazy amount, right?

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah. Like 50%, 8 million of the cars every year. New cars. Yes.

Colin Uthe:

That's crazy.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah. Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

You are in one of the best positions in the company to fulfill that objective.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah. We are engaging with OEMs. We do have a good number of OEMs lined up to launch this year. And continuing to work with OEMs that has not taken myQ, but work with them, really understand what their challenge is, what we can do to help solve their problem, and pitching myQ too, so that they understand the value myQ is bringing to the consumer.

Wei Lyn Lee:

And I think that for internally, I do believe that this is a new product for Chamberlain in that sense. And it kind of brings a different point of view to a lot of our employees for different BUs or different departments, it's like bringing a new view for them to see a different way of working. It's challenging them from their day-to-day of creating their own product and doing things that you don't have external people coming in to change what you have been building up. And then they want to make some changes. And you have to face that challenge to be able to create something that the customer wants. That motivates people to do a lot more.

Colin Uthe:

To innovate more.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yeah, to innovate more, and to be able to get something different.

Colin Uthe:

Yeah, I like that.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yeah.

Colin Uthe:

What are some of your favorite parts? Just about working in the auto unit?

Wei Lyn Lee:

We're a small group of people and there's a lot of work that does need to be accomplished to get a program out the door, the collaboration that we would do, and be able to just say, hey, I am not able to pick up this amount of work, and another person would just pick it up. And there's never someone will say, it's not my job. I'm not going to do it. So I think that's a really great sense of belonging.

Adelaide Zhang:

To add on what Wei Lyn says, besides the people, it's really the innovation part. We all get the opportunity to get together to talk about our opinion, and everyone's opinions come. That's the best part, right?

Wei Lyn Lee:

That's true.

Adelaide Zhang:

And we blend everything together and that's how we come up with the best option. So I really appreciate that.

Wei Lyn Lee:

I think that's a really rare opportunity that we get to have that, in the sense that you can innovate and you can execute.

Colin Uthe:

What is something that you would like to see improved about the auto unit?

Adelaide Zhang:

Well, I don't know if it's improved, but it's more, I think has to do with Covid. I didn't get to know everybody through the company or different, not on a personal level. We're always on calls, right? But I definitely start seeing that everybody is seen more in the office. I just like to continue to build that personal relationship, not only just with our group but with people outside of our group as well. And I see Jackie start having social hours, and I really appreciate those, and I'm definitely looking forward to more of those engagements.

Colin Uthe:

More FaceTime, more collaborations. Yeah.

Adelaide Zhang:

Yeah. Get to know people more on a personal level.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yeah. I would say that ABU has always been a little bit further from people's minds that they don't really understand what we do and all those. I would definitely like to be able to be integrated more into all the different BUs and then provide all our value-adds that we can provide for the growth of the company for the connectivity world.

Colin Uthe:

That's what I'm hoping to do with this.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yes.

Colin Uthe:

I want to get the word out about you guys, and I want to let everybody else in the business know in case they hear the name and they don't know where exactly you fit in.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Yep.

Colin Uthe:

Okay. Adelaide, Wei Lyn, thank you so much for sitting down with me and answering some questions.

Adelaide Zhang:

Thank you.

Wei Lyn Lee:

Awesome. Thank you.

Colin Uthe:

Thank you for listening. Tune in next month to hear more stories of how all of us at Chamberlain Group are connected. This episode was written, recorded, and edited by me, Colin Uthe. Our producer is Megan McClendon. Our music was supplied by Pixabay and envato.com.