Diversity of thought helps make better products

Cristi Landy always loved math. She took a counselor’s recommendation to study engineering at the University of Michigan and says she was one of very few female graduates when she received her electrical engineering degree in the late 1980s.
 
Fast-forward to 2017. Landy accompanied her twin sons to her alma mater for an orientation session for Michigan’s engineering program — like mother, like sons. She found herself surprised and disappointed. "I honestly expected there to be more women in the room," she says. 
 
Four years ago, Landy joined Waymo as a senior product manager on its self-driving vehicle technology, after a 27-year career at General Motors. Of her years as a woman in the industry, and a female engineer, she says, "Things have changed for the better, but not as much as I hoped."
 
Although she didn’t plan on an auto career, Landy says, "The car industry has always been around me." Her Italian immigrant great-grandfather founded a dealership in the New York City area, and her father worked in sales for GM for 40 years.
 
After graduating from Michigan, Landy joined GM’s Saturn division in product engineering. "At the time, there were a lot of young engineers at Saturn getting their MBAs at night," she says. "It was a lot of work, but also sort of a social thing for the group." 
 
After obtaining her MBA, Landy applied for a job in Saturn’s product marketing group. With her background, she expected to be "the electric person" on the team. "The opening they had, and what they wanted me to do, was a job in color and trim, body design. It was a complete 180 from what I was working on," she says. "And that turned out to be such a good thing for me. It gave me exposure to design centers, to more of the customer-facing features of the business. Had you let me pick, I would have stayed in what I knew."
 
Her career path took her from Saturn’s unique culture to the Chevrolet Volt and now to Waymo. "I’ve been very fortunate; I have gotten to work on a lot of firsts, on new and different things in the industry," Landy says. "Waymo offers that same excitement and newness. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on the next phase in automotive."
 
She appreciates the role of diversity and inclusion in the auto industry. She recalls being at a meeting about an upcoming GM product. "I had young twin boys at the time, and I felt like I was the only one who spent time every week loading up the car with groceries. I had a different experience from everyone else, and it was important to bring that to the table," she says.
 
"Diversity is so important: diversity of thought, not just diversity of gender, age or culture. It helps make better products. What I’ve seen in my career is that on the most successful teams, people were comfortable throwing a rough idea on the table, and others were comfortable saying it was a terrible idea. Most all of the time, after that heated discussion, each of those teams was in a better place. For me, the lesson was: Don’t marginalize voices. And don’t sit there quietly." Landy is part of a women’s community within Waymo that helps build relationships for women still often excluded — often unintentionally — from informal networking and social opportunities.
 
She says the most important thing she’s learned, something she tries to share with others, is: "Don’t try to plan your entire career out. Sometimes opportunities that seem a little off your perfect path might be the best learning experiences. Don’t overthink it, but definitely pursue it."
 
In any case, Landy thinks an auto industry career can offer a range of opportunities for all young people — women and men. "There are so many different opportunities in this business — it would be hard to say, ‘There’s nothing for me here,’" she says. "At a big OEM, you can work in manufacturing, computer programming, design, marketing, logistics. That variety provides options moving forward; if you pick the wrong area, you can move."
 
Her own career is testimony to that. "When I look back at everything, I’ve been able to do, it’s been pretty amazing," Landy says.