Defining Innovation
2021 • Cox Automotive - Xtime • Facilitator
“Structured, customer-informed innovation can deliver rapid value - even under time and resource constraints”
Info
The Client: Cox Automotive - Xtime
My Role: Facilitator
Timeframe: Four weeks
The Challenge
Xtime, the service and repair SaaS division at Cox Automotive, was challenged by executives to re-ignite innovation. Leadership had noticed that the team had grown stagnant, and they encouraged the department to ideate around fresh opportunities. After holding an idea pitch and vote, the leadership team selected a priority: exploring how Xtime’s rich service data could be leveraged to intelligently assist product users.
Because of my background in design workshops and facilitation, I was asked to lead the department’s first remote “innovation” workshop.
Mandate: Identify meaningful, data-driven opportunities to enhance user workflows within xtime. Specifically, the focus was on how intelligent prompts could provide actionable, real-time recommendations to improve both the service experience and the bottom line.
Constraints included:
Availability: team members were only available for 2-hour sessions once or twice weekly.
Format: the entire sprint had to be facilitated remotely, a first for the group.
Approach & Workflow
Workshop Planning
I structured the engagement as a modified design sprint with cycles of:
Shared Understanding
Idea Generation
Testing & Iteration
Prototyping
Customer Validation
I assembled a cross-functional team (product, UX, engineering, sales, support, and operations) to ensure balanced perspectives. Each participant operated as an equal innovation partner.
Shared Understanding
Introduced personas, journey maps, and research.
Established a single collaboration hub for notes, data, and findings.
Brainstorming & Voting
Identified areas in the service journey where curated data could add value.
Initial hypothesis: provide intelligent prompts for technicians during inspections.
Customer Interviews (Round 1)
Revealed critical insight: technicians would reject automated prompts.
Customers highlighted service advisers—particularly in express service lanes—as the true audience for intelligent recommendations.
Brainstorming, Charrettes & Voting
Participants drew, pitched, and refined scenarios.
Iterative voting elevated the strongest ideas.
Prototyping
The cross-functional team collaborated on a flow and prototype focused on adviser support.
Customer Interviews (Round 2)
Validated concept with enthusiastic feedback.
Customers confirmed they would pay to integrate the feature into their workflow.
Results & Impact
Innovation at Speed & Scale
Delivered a working concept in four weeks without heavy investment.
Demonstrated that innovation can be lean, remote-friendly, and cost-efficient.
Customer-Centric Mindset
Shifted assumptions: the team discovered that customer validation was more valuable than internal consensus.
Broke the “we know the customer best” mindset.
Elevated UX Leadership
UX was invited to facilitate all future innovation workshops.
Secured UX’s seat at strategic planning sessions.
Cultural Shift
Initially reserved, engineers became active contributors and strong advocates for continued involvement.
The process energized the department and gave each function ownership in shaping innovation.
Key Takeaways
This initiative proved that structured, customer-informed innovation can deliver rapid value—even under time and resource constraints. By leveraging cross-functional collaboration and real customer input, Xtime unlocked a viable product direction while simultaneously strengthening team culture and positioning UX as a key driver of future innovation.