The one who orchestrates machines
Hi, I am Sophie!
Sophie Schwandt is Product Owner in the Industry Solutions team at Porsche Digital in Berlin. She tells the story of how her upbringing in a family of musicians and the passion for cars led her to a career in tech at Porsche Digital.
The love for music was literally put into my cradle: My father is a theatre director, my mother a conductor, I play the violin, viola, and piano. As the scion of a family of musicians from Lübeck, it would not have been surprising for anyone if I had aspired to a career in the art and music scene. But things didn’t turn out as expected. Hi, I am Sophie Schwandt, Product Owner at Porsche Digital.
At the heart of Porsche: striving for perfection
Growing up, I was not only fascinated by music, but also by automobiles. As a kid, I loved to watch those sophisticated, powerful vehicles roam the streets. So, I began my studies in industrial and mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. Here, I worked at the intersection of business, the automotive industry and data science: What will tomorrow’s technologies and mobility look like? What role will the factory of the future play? Questions I wanted to pursue in practice.
Two years ago, my journey at Porsche began with an internship in production quality at the main plant in Zuffenhausen. Despite innovative technologies and increasing product complexity, at Porsche, quality means further increasing the quality level of every vehicle — not only in terms of technology, performance, and manufacturing quality but also in terms of design, feel, and attention to detail. Every new vehicle model is the result of this comprehensive understanding of quality and in many cases, a long-lasting result: more than two-thirds of all Porsche ever built are still on the road today.
Porsche Digital: where innovation meets production complexity
This experience really hit a nerve — I wanted to shape the production of the future, to contribute to Porsche’s sophisticated aspirations by working at the intersection of innovation and production requirements. And which place would be more suitable for this than the digital forge of Porsche AG? At Porsche Digital in Berlin, a team of technology and software experts as well as scientists identifies, develops and tests new technological concepts — from idea finding and the construction of a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) through to a product in productive use. Thereby the focus remains on the applicability for the specialist departments.
After more than a year as a working student in the former Porsche Digital Lab, I have become one of the youngest members of Porsche Digital in August 2019. As a Data Scientist, I worked on advancing digital product development at Porsche. In October 2019, I joined the Industry Solutions team, which is led by my colleague Patricia, as a Product Owner and am now working on making industrial processes better and more efficient by using technologies such as AI.
We try to use innovations from the areas of AI, IoT, Blockchain and Quantum Computing in order to shape tomorrow’s production. To bring digital solutions together with the current challenges of the automotive industry, we need to closely exchange with the specialist departments and production areas of the Porsche plants. Therefore, I often work together with my colleagues in Leipzig and Stuttgart to test, configure and ultimately get the digital products in the factory.
The Porsche Digital family
As a Data Scientist, Porsche Digital offers me a playing field to pursue my fascination and curiosity for the innovations of the automotive industry, to refine and challenge my ideas. At the same time, I’m working with an international team of experts from whom I can learn much more than just on a professional level. Both in my family of musicians and during my stay abroad in Canada and New York, I learned one important lesson: To me, nothing is as valuable as the intercultural exchange between people, cultures, and countries. In this spirit, I am very looking forward to my future at Porsche Digital with this great team, learning how to orchestrate machines with technology, shaping the production of tomorrow.
Sophie Schwandt is Product Owner in the Industry Solutions team at Porsche Digital in Berlin.
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