Interview with former Tesla Senior Technical Program Manager, Nicole Cook
In the race to produce the world’s most popular electric vehicle, Tesla shook the automotive industry to its core by bringing a Silicon Valley approach to car manufacturing.
But to get to heaven, sometimes you have to walk through hell, and in the case of Tesla, that was “production hell.” According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, there was a “tiny” number of people who believed they would succeed. With the credibility (and future) of the whole company at stake, the Tesla team put in 16-hour days to hit the goal of making 5,000 Model 3’s per week.
In the midst of all this insanity, Nicole Cook accepts a role at Tesla as a Senior Technical Program Manager, moving across the country on a Sunday night and starting work that Monday morning in one of the most challenging ramp ups in the history of the automotive industry. How did Nicole handle the transition and the constant challenges she had to overcome? Find out all of this and more in today’s interview.
Highlights are outlined below, but I recommend listening to the full audio version for maximum insight.
Starting at Tesla in the middle of the Model 3 ‘production hell’
When Nicole relocated to Nevada to work at Tesla, it was right in the middle of the production ramp up for the Model 3—a crazy time to start a new role to say the least.
“I started on a Monday in the middle of the desert,” she says. “I arrived in Reno on a Sunday flight from New Orleans and didn’t have time to really do anything. And my only weekend off was my first weekend after working five days. Then I worked 53 days straight—15 to 16- hour days sometimes—before I had another day off. It was pretty wild. Production hell describes it, but then it doesn’t.”
Apart from the physically and mentally exhausting work hours, Nicole also had the challenge of adapting to Tesla’s fast and furious highway to the finish line. With 10 years in the oil and gas industry, this kind of approach to getting things done just doesn’t happen. But Nicole rose to the occasion and embraced her “scrappy” side.
“Tesla with their manufacturing program, they use this term ‘Tesla fit’ and it’s about being scrappy as an engineer and what you do. It doesn’t have to be perfect but it has to be now, and that’s really difficult for Type A people, which is what project managers tend to be.”
But despite how intense the ramp up for the Model 3 was, it brought out the best in Nicole and teammates and helped Nicole grow exponentially as a leader:
“There was a solid four to six months where it was really crazy. But there were a lot of us, and the energy was just there. We supported one another, we had a goal in mind, management was on the front lines with us —we were in those trenches together. It was scary at times. You didn’t want to mess anything up. I saw friends get fired—it was emotional and difficult. But the end goal was still there, and even they wanted us to push on. People had so much trust, faith and respect in the agenda of what we were trying to do.”
The ‘scrappy’ project management strategies in place at Tesla
Since I’m a project management nerd, any bit of information on the processes Tesla used to achieve the impossible is fascinating. How on earth did they do it?
In the interview, Nicole talks about using Agile as a check in process, but it seems like in the middle of the madness, with survival being the strategy at first, they were figuring out what worked and what didn’t.
“Tesla, when it launched, it was all strategy out the window,” Nicole says. “It was just getting by with what you could do—that scrappy nature really came into play.
She reveals that agile was adopted more on the software side with controls, development, doing sprints and having checkpoints in place to guard against mistakes. But if you come from a more traditional industry like oil and gas, the process always comes first. This rapid manufacturing approach is completely new territory, which is what makes it so interesting.
On the subject of standups, they were a way to baseline the day.
“The ones that worked for us were really quick,” Nicole says. “We had everyone’s cell phone numbers and were getting updates regularly on critical tasks. Ultimately, I was responsible at the end of the day for sending out progress, making sure management was aligned with where we were at, and understanding what next steps were for the next day. Whatever way you have to keep organized, especially in a chaotic situation, you have to work it out for yourself and figure out how things go.”
The key element to a great company culture
With the Model 3 becoming the most successful electric vehicle ever (and blowing all the other electric vehicles out of the water), Nicole is now able to take all of the lessons she’s learned and apply them in her new role at Panasonic Energy of North America (PENA).
In 2019, she became Director of Program Management, building their Program Management Office from the ground up.
According to Nicole, servant leadership is one of the key takeaways in her career journey so far, and a crucial element in developing a great company culture.
“The thing that I have recognized that has such a huge impact, especially as I’ve moved up in my career and now I’m managing people who are leaders in the company, too—is to really display that act of servant leadership. Even in a critical role, you’re carrying out somebody else’s plan. The whole idea is that whatever the focus is for your project or program, the agenda is coming from the business.”
Even as a project manager, it is crucial to embrace the servant leadership mentality.
“It’s a very critical structural piece to what a project manager does and it applies to any manager. You’re working for your people. If this culture is not in place, you tend to see cracks in your people individually or in your programs. If you’re going to get people to work for you and have that passion, you have to be there for them. You have to be aligned to the same goal.”
The full interview, organized by discussion topic:
1:05 - Nicole Bio
2:24 - The transition from oil and gas to tech car manufacturing
6:23 - Jumping into Model 3 ramp up
11:57 - What skills she had to pick up to be successful
15:00 - Her secret to prevent burn out
24:00 - The Lean culture
27:80 - Working with different cultures
29:30 - What makes a great culture
34:30 - Servant leadership
References:
Hell for Elon Musk is a Midsize Sedan
‘The Last Bet-the-Company Situation’: Q+A with Elon Musk
Jonathan Raymond - The Good Authority
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