Product Operations Intern

Product Marketing emphasis

During my time at Penske Motor Group, Longo Toyota, and Longo Lexus, my perspective was opened up to an entirely new industry I’ve never worked in before: Automotive.

My task as a Product Operations Intern was to analyze all segments of the dealership (Sales, Service, Collision Repair Center, etc.) to assess what areas of operations can be improved upon and what can be implement for more efficiency.

I also had the opportunity to work in product marketing for one week as an elective where I developed full product marketing campaign.

Here are some of the impacts I’ve made:

Streamlined product operations by designing a Tekion Chrome Extension prototype in Figma, informed by consumer insights and competitive analysis of dealership service tools across LA region
Secured executive buy-in by storytelling with data for usability-focused mockups of payment platform and CRM extension
Delivered project milestones on time by leading a 90-day Jira roadmap with a cross-functional team of six
Developed GTM campaign for Toyota Tacoma SR5 Model with 2 digital assets used by dealership, SWOT analysis, target market, and campaign message

Reducing waste…

One value of Toyota that I learned is Kaizen, a Japanese concept of continuous improvement to eliminate waste (or extra steps) in the process of something. During my exploratory internship, I was able to apply the value of Kaizen in developing technological tools and systems that can eliminate extra steps and improve efficiency for their operations. There were three concepts that I developed to reduce waste in dealership tools:

Tekion Chrome Extension
Payment Processing Page
VR Training Transcript
Intern Cohort Pamphlet

1.) Tekion Chrome Extension

Tekion is the main CRM tool that Longo Toyota and Lexus utilizes in order to operate at its most efficient state. But how could I make this even more efficient? I identified an issue where Tekion does not communicate effectively across multiple technology platforms. This means that Assistant Service Managers (ASM) need to manually input information from the Toyota Scheduler into Tekion.

Effects of issue:

60 Seconds for manual input
No input into scheduler
Extra steps, extra waste

Figma Mid-fi and High-fi Prototypes

As seen in the video, I designed a Figma prototype that will allow Tekion to open as a pop-up window in the Toyota Scheduler window (eliminating the extra tab) and autofill any commonly asked information. This will eliminate the back and forth steps across multiple Chrome windows that Assistant Service Managers will need to go through in order to complete a service repair.

Figma Prototype Tekion Chrome Extension Video

2.) Payment Processing Page

3.) VR Training Transcript

4.) Intern Cohort Pamphlet

I decided to model my Chrome Extension after Simplify in the same way that it pulls uploaded information to answer commonly asked questions. In the context of a car dealership, commonly asked questions would be the guest’s Repair Order (RO) number, VIN number, Hat number, Assistant Service Manager (ASM), and vehicle color.

While working in the Service Department, I recognized a simple issue that caused more frustrations than needed. This was identified in the payment processing page where users would misclick the “Undo” button instead of the “Sign” button, causing the user to resign their signature.

Despite this being a minor issue, when working in guest services, every second matters and it should be a priority to ensure the customer has the most smooth process in a transaction.

Another design project I developed was the VR Technician Training Transcript. Penske Motor Group has started to introduce VR Technician Training via Transfr, however, there was many processes to show managers the rate of training completion.

Understanding this issue, I designed a transcript that would aid tracking the training progress to show managers of course grades and completion. The transcript is specifically catered to automotive technician training, with three types of courses: Maintenance, Measure, and Safety.

With this in mind, I designed a new payment processing page that focuses on better UI with highlighted buttons, a clear indication of the order information, and a larger designated signature box.

Product Marketing Campaign…

Toyota Tacoma SR5 Product Marketing Campaign Pitch Deck by Kyle Shih

I then utilized my own photos along with Toyota Motor Corporation assets in Figma and Photoshop to create a mock landing page and mobile ad for dealership use. I also designed organic and paid social media posts and analyzed past campaign data using Google Analytics.

In just one week, I gained so much experience in large-scale product marketing, digital design, and photography. I truly loved seeing how my past experience in photography and design transferred into this fast-paced campaign.

At the end of my internship, I was able to work with the Penske Motor Group Marketing Team to create a full product marketing campaign in under a week.

I began by shadowing each team member to understand their creation workflows. From there, I outlined the campaign strategy by identifying the problem, conducting a SWOT analysis, defining the target market, and crafting key messaging to form a comprehensive GTM strategy.

The hands-on portion began with photographing a modified Tacoma SR5. Using my learnings in product photography, I shot the vehicle on a DSLR and edited the images in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.