Data-Driven Transformation in the Automotive Industry: The Role of Customer Usage Data in Product Development Full research paper

Automotive manufacturers are pressured to integrate customers into product development effectively to foster innovation and remain competitive. While traditional approaches to customer integration have relied on market research and the customer’s intention to use, the digital transformation of the automotive industry increasingly enables manufacturers to leverage customer usage data for product development. However, we lack insights into how customer data influences automotive productive development. To close this gap, we investigated the role of customer usage data for product development at a leading car manufacturer. Drawing on 20 expert interviews, we derived three key dimensions that explain how customer usage data influence product development in automotive: “data-driven product evaluation,” “data-driven product development,” and “data-driven product innovations.” Our findings shed light on the transformative role of customer usage data for product development and provide valuable guidance for practitioners to effectively leverage customer usage data as part of the automotive digital transformation.