Product Innovation Project – An Interview with Gustav Vahlström
May 23rd, 2018
LOGICDATA is constantly in motion when it comes to innovation and new development. Therefore, we are a partner of the annual Product Innovation Project (PIP) to work on revolutionary ideas. Together with the Technical University Graz and LOGICDATA, the international project team Nova Connect, consisting of seven students, develop future concepts for productinteraction. This year’s project manager, Gustav Vahlström, visited the LOGICDATA headquarters in Deutschlandsberg and provided us unique insights in the project.
Using the theme ‚ Intuitive Interatcion with an ergonomic workplace‘ the team brainstormed many ideas and selected the two best to develop further. The concepts with the background of a customizable and more intuitive hand controls, as well as a beneficial concept will be presented at the Innovation festival, which takes place at the 7th of June 2018 in Graz. We invited the project manager of Nova Connect, Gustav, to an interview to Deutschlandsberg and talked with him about the inspiration and people behind this fascinating project.
LOGICDATA: “Gustav, why did you decide to join the PIP and why did the team choose LOGICDATA?”
Gustav: “I joined the PIP, because of different reasons. Basically, the project provides a good mixture of exciting tasks in an international team, which were developed in an inspiring and challenging surrounding. We were impressed by LOGICDATA and the concrete assignment, right after the first presentation. Finally, Thomas, Innovation manager and our contact person of LOGICDATA convinced us with his passion and motivation for the development of new ideas, to join this project. In my opinion he is a really cool guy and we decided very fast to work with him and LOGICDATA.”
LOGICDATA: “Why did you decide to be the project manager and what are your tasks and challenges within the team?”
Gustav: “The decision that I am the project manager wasn’t clear at the beginning, but the team recognized, that I am talented in organizing events and projects. Furthermore, I wanted to demonstrate my skills and support my team in the best way possible.
Now, I am working with different partners, who expect ideal solutions and outcome. For the university, my team and of course for LOGICDATA, I want to obtain these expectations with a perfect coordination. To summarize I am responsible to keep all people satisfied. Due to a constant quality control and a fundamental positive attitude, it was possible to create a good working foundation. The biggest challenge as a project manager in such an international team are the different cultures. I tried to develop our own team culture, to prevent any potential for conflict. Sometimes this communication misunderstandings lead us to new ways of thinking and a lot of fun. Finally, all these differences enrich our work a lot.”
LOGICDATA: “Please, tell us more about the challenges and biggest successes in the project.”
Gustav: “For me, the time management was mostly the biggest challenge. As a team we wanted to achieve a feasible and innovative output of this fantastic project, therefore, we really worked hard and intensive on all details. Since we are all full time students we had to organize our time resources efficiently. Of course, there were also difficult times where we had to shorten our free time to get forward in our project. Therefore, today I’m extremely proud that I can represent my team and talk with you about our successful findings. Due to the strong relationship within our group it was also possible to overcome it’s lowest points.”
LOGICDATA: “How would you describe your personal and project-related goals?”
Gustav: “As already mentioned before, our highest and most important goal in this project was the possibility to really implement this concept. The team and I wanted that LOGICDATA can use and realize our ideas. The results of the project should give a solid basis for the next steps of implementation.”
LOGICDATA: “Which advice do you have for future PIP teams?”
Gustav: „Just enjoy and learn! The scientific and financial foundation to accelerate and try out new ideas are given by the PIP. Furthermore you often benefit by going one step back to find new and innovative solutions.“
Gustav Vahlström originally came from Sweden and has lived in Austria for four years. He is studying environmental system sciences and business administration at the Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz.
