Tesla Vet says “reviewing real products, not mockups” is the key to innovative maintenance

GM’s EV has been on the roll recently. After selling only Chevy bolts for years, a wave of new models of up to 17 fully electrified vehicles has pushed the automaker to the second place in the US behind Tesla.

How did you get there? With a bit of help from a Tesla veteran.

GM board member Jon McNeil served as Tesla’s president during the development and implementation of the Model 3. This is a critical period of company growth. One thing he trusts for Tesla’s success is how Elon Musk ran the product conference.

“We didn’t have our first rules,” McNeil told the audience earlier this month at TC All Stage in Boston. “You need to review the actual product.”

Each week, senior leaders sit down with product leaders to check their progress. The practice was inspired by Musk’s encounter with Steve Jobs, McNeill said.

“There was this belief that I think is true. Steve Jobs had no time or patience for Elon in the early days, and Elon tried to chase Steve at Silicon Valley events and parties for advice.

“But one night, Elon got lucky and said, ‘Steve, what if you were giving me advice as a young entrepreneur.” Steve said, “You’re in the hardware business now, but the hardware business is very similar to the software business.

Musk took that to heart, McNeil said, and the concept of a perfect product became central to product development at Tesla.

“The first thing we were looking for was surprise and joy. For example, is someone just doing something amazing, laughing, or having fun?

“A crazy example of that is the fart button,” McNeil said, referring to a software button labeled “emission test mode,” which simulates flatulence through a car’s speaker.

The company also meant that on the software side, it would allow the functionality to be accessed with less than two taps on the screen.

“It has to be a kind of easy thing for the average user. Then you’ll turn the designer back into double. The lead designer was always in the room.

Meetings where actual products were reviewed rather than mockups helped to maintain Tesla’s culture, McNeill said. “You can imagine the culture that’s conveyed when people bring games to CEOs every week, because you’re not going to bring your B-game to CEOs.

“It keeps the company in a rhythm of innovation for a week. Every week, they advance for product reviews.”

McNeill left Tesla in early 2018. In 2022 he was added to the GM board of directors.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is that CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss (Director) 275,000 revenue companies run product reviews every week in a place where there are no slides. You need to see the actual product (it’s) (hardware, software or not).

“That kind of thing is very powerful. And GMS led to the introduction of 17 EVs. It is now the second-best selling EV in the country, because they use the product every week.”