Oshkosh x SCADpro

Automotive HMI and Semiotics Research

"Scaling Agile Project Management Across Four Concurrent Teams"

This project is currently under confidentiality agreement. Details have been generalized to respect NDA requirements while demonstrating methodology and learnings.

Project Overview

My Role: Project Manager, Client Liaison, Main Author/Editor

Team: 20+ members across 4 concurrent teams

Timeline: 10 weeks

Context: SCADpro Fortune 500 partnership (currently under NDA)

The Challenge: Coordinate complex automotive interface research project across multiple specialized teams while maintaining client alignment and delivery quality for Oshkosh Corporation.

The Solution: Implemented agile methodology adapted for academic-industry collaboration, managing four concurrent research teams that reorganized into deliverable-focused teams during final two weeks.

The Impact: Successfully delivered 500+ pages of comprehensive documentation across two playbooks, maintained zero missed milestones, and served as prominent speaker during final client presentation to stakeholders.

Project Scope & Challenge

Coordinate complex automotive interface research project across multiple specialized teams while maintaining client alignment and delivery quality.

Project Structure

Four concurrent teams studying different vehicle types to gather insights, followed by reorganization into deliverable-focused teams during final two weeks.

My Responsibilities

  • Client liaison - All correspondence and requirements gathering
  • Project coordination - Stand-ups, check-ins, retrospectives
  • Main author/editor - Semiotics theory playbook
  • Team reorganization - Managed pivot to deliverable-focused structure

Deliverable Impact

Co-authored 500 pages across two comprehensive playbooks for Oshkosh to use in future automotive interface designs, with focus on semiotics theory application.

4

concurrent research teams coordinated

500

pages of documentation delivered

10

weeks from research to delivery

Multi-Team Coordination

Managed complex team structure that evolved from research-focused to deliverable-focused organization.

Research Team A

Vehicle Type 1

Research Team B

Vehicle Type 2

Research Team C

Vehicle Type 3

Synthesis Team

Insight compilation and documentation coordination

Coordination Methodology

Implemented agile practices adapted for academic-industry collaboration:

  • Daily stand-ups with team leads across all four streams
  • Weekly client sync meetings for requirement alignment
  • Sprint retrospectives for continuous process improvement
  • Cross-team collaboration ceremonies for insight sharing

Pivot Management

Successfully managed reorganization from research teams to deliverable-focused teams during final two weeks, maintaining momentum and quality.

Client Relations & Documentation

Enterprise Client Coordination

Served as primary liaison with Oshkosh stakeholders, managing all correspondence and translating requirements between academic teams and enterprise expectations.

Documentation Leadership

Co-author and editor for semiotics theory playbook, contributing to 500 pages of comprehensive documentation for future design applications.

Stakeholder Communication

Managed weekly progress reviews and bi-weekly business updates, ensuring alignment between academic deliverables and business objectives.

Quality Assurance

Established quality metrics and review processes to ensure deliverable standards met Fortune 500 enterprise expectations.

Project Management Process

Project Initiation & Team Setup

Established four research teams with specific vehicle specializations, set up communication protocols, and initiated client relationship management.

Research Coordination & Client Liaison

Managed daily standups, facilitated cross-team knowledge sharing, and maintained regular client communication with requirement clarifications.

Team Reorganization & Pivot

Successfully restructured teams from research-focused to deliverable-focused during final two weeks while maintaining project momentum.

Documentation & Delivery

Led creation of comprehensive playbooks totaling 500 pages, with co-authorship of semiotics theory documentation for client future use.

Project Impact & Outcomes

Delivery Excellence

Successfully delivered integrated solution on time with zero missed milestones across all four concurrent work streams, demonstrating effective portfolio-level project management.

Documentation Impact

Co-authored comprehensive playbooks totaling 500 pages that provide Oshkosh with reusable frameworks for future automotive interface design projects.

Client Relationship Success

Maintained strong stakeholder relationships throughout the engagement, translating between academic capabilities and enterprise requirements effectively.

Presentation Leadership

Served as prominent speaker during final client presentation, delivering the presentation finale to Oshkosh stakeholders and synthesizing project outcomes across all four teams.

Team Leadership

Demonstrated ability to coordinate complex, multi-team initiatives while adapting organizational structure mid-project to optimize delivery outcomes.

Key Learnings

Agile Methodology at Scale

Learned to adapt agile practices for academic-industry collaboration, managing portfolio-level coordination across multiple concurrent teams while maintaining delivery quality and timeline adherence.

Enterprise Client Relations

Developed skills in Fortune 500 stakeholder management, learning to translate between academic timelines and enterprise expectations while maintaining professional communication standards.

Organizational Adaptability

Successfully managed mid-project team reorganization, demonstrating that flexible project structure can optimize outcomes when managed with clear communication and stakeholder alignment.

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"60 minutes of timekeeping, a lifetime of cuteness."

Oshkosh x SCADpro

Role

Type

Project Managment

Timeline

Tools

Project Overview

"Snow: The Fairest" subverts the classic fairy tale into a visceral horror experience for Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. In this twisted retelling, Snow White is a feral child vampire terrorizing a kingdom, while the Queen becomes the unlikely hero attempting to stop her reign of terror. This comprehensive design portfolio piece—presented to Disney Legend Bob Weis—demonstrates end-to-end attraction development from concept through operational specifications.

Key Achievements

10-scene, 440-foot

walkthrough attraction

Designed

Calculated operational capacity:

840

guests/hour

Created

photoreal

environmental renderings

Developed complete

technical documentation

The Challenge

The Brief: Design an immersive experience based on a fairy tale, myth, or legend—no existing IP.

My Approach

Rather than create an unbounded concept that could never be built, I chose to design within real-world constraints. I gave myself the parameters of a Halloween Horror Nights attraction at Universal Orlando because constraints drive better creative solutions (and because I'm a longtime admirer of the event's storytelling - I want to create a love letter to all the things that make HHN special).

Self-Imposed Design Parameters

  • Work within a standard Universal soundstage envelope (94' × 134', ~8,500 sq ft walkable space) - I found a CAD file online of the soundstage for reference!
  • Achieve an operational capacity of 600-800+ guests/hour
  • Design for seasonal operation with scareactors
  • Subvert the source material rather than adapt it directly—guests need to feel surprised, not nostalgic

The Creative Challenge

How do you take a fairy tale everyone knows by heart and make it genuinely terrifying?

The answer: invert everything. Make the princess the monster. Make the queen the hero. Force guests to confront their assumptions about beauty, goodness, and who deserves to be saved.

Concept Development

The Story Inversion and Central Themes

Traditional fairy tales teach us that beauty equals goodness. "Snow: The Fairest" weaponizes that assumption. Guests encounter a kingdom where the 'fairest' princess has become a bloodthirsty monster, and the 'wicked' queen is desperately trying to save her people from the daughter she once loved. Playing on the central themes of the original narrative from "the hunter vs. the hunted" to beauty and youth, this new retelling takes a dark turn.
‍
This inversion creates cognitive dissonance that amplifies scares—guests want to trust Snow, making her attacks more shocking.

Characters

Snow

A feral child vampire, cursed at birth and turned monstrous, hungry, and with incredible supernatural power.

The Queen

Forced to hunt her own stepdaughter to save the kingdom she has sworn to protect. Armed with magic darker and darker as her desperation grows, she vows to end this forevermore.

The Prince

Enslaved by Snow's supernatural control, he is her puppet - but does that glimmer in his eye mean he's still in there? Or is it just the moonlight of the Black Forest?

The Dwarfs

Complicit companions, defending their vampiric mistress. They come from the deepest caverns of the Black Forest, and have become Snow's thralls, minions, and playthings.

Experience Design

The Guest Journey: 440 Feet of Escalating Terror

The attraction uses environmental storytelling and strategic pacing to build dread before delivering shocking scares.

Pacing Strategy

Using principles from Halloween Horror Nights' most successful mazes, the experience follows a calculated fear curve with three major peaks (Snow Feeding, Glass Casket, Bungee Drop finale) interspersed with atmospheric tension-building moments.

Queue
Village Square
Black Forest
Queen's Workshop
Poison Apple
Glass Casket
Banquet Hall
The Final Battle

Guests enter a blood-soaked medieval village. Overturned carts and barrels hint at a hasty retreat as half-timbered facades loom overhead. Guests experience the aftermath of Snow's siege - and tension grows as they wind through alleyways and see the carnage for themselves.

The path winds through a twisted forest where Snow and her dwarfs stalk from the shadows. Gnarled trees create natural hiding spots for scare actors while spraying water simulates fresh blood and environmental effects heighten vulnerability during the reveal of snow herself.

In the Queen's candlelit workshop, guests discover she's not the villain—she's the solution. Alchemy tables, magic mirrors, and spell circles reveal her desperate attempts to create a cure. Gothic windows bathe the scene in purple light as guests realize they've been rooting for the wrong character. She whispers feverishly, desperately, as her grief for her daughter becomes clear to guests passing by.

Stepping through the magic mirror, guests watch as Snow bites the cursed apple. Her body convulses—the sound of snapping bones fills the room, and they hear the monster, or perhaps the girl, cry out - "mother, no!". Shrouded in shadows, the huntsmen and the queen warn guests to run, for she will not stay down for long.

Guests enter a gothic chamber where Snow lies in her famous glass casket. Red-lit gothic windows line stone walls and guests are closed in, forced to inch closer and closer. The casket suddenly rattles—she's very much alive, and very hungry. She lunges at guests and shatters the coffin in a flurry of air, sound, water, lighting, and fog effects as they narrowly escape.

Guests then enter a grotesque royal banquet where Snow, her feral dwarves, and a hypnotized prince preside over a horrifying feast—corpses and gore presented as delicacies. Normal children have tea parties, but Snow has this twisted banquet. Eagle-eyed guests will notice torn, bloodstained tapestries of the kingdom's history, showing that time, and Snow, have laid ruin to this kingdom.

Guests are thrust into the climactic confrontation between the Queen's forces and Snow's dwarf defenders. Pine trees provide cover for scare actors as the Queen makes her final stand. A 10/10 intensity bungee drop scare delivers the ultimate shock as Snow attacks from above.

Technical Design and Operational Planning

From Concept to Buildable Reality

Every creative decision was validated against real-world operational requirements—the hallmark of professional themed entertainment design. Elevation drawings show how half-timbered village facades, gothic cathedral walls, and forest scenic elements fit within the 94' × 134' building envelope. Every prop, scare position, and sightline blocker is strategically placed to maintain show quality and operational flow.

Capacity Analysis:
Operational Capacity: 840 Guests/Hour

  • Total path length: 440 feet
  • Walking speed: 2.5 fps (accounting for low light and fear response)
  • Walkthrough time: 5 minutes
  • Dispatch interval: 30 seconds
  • Group size: 7 guests
  • Theoretical maximum: 840 guests/hour

This exceeds Universal's typical 600-800 target for seasonal haunts, ensuring the attraction can handle peak Halloween Horror Nights crowds.

Design Process and Research

Research-Driven Horror Design

The project drew from historical vampire mythology, particularly the 17th-century legend of Jure Grando (the first documented vampire, 1656) and Countess Elizabeth Báthory's alleged blood-bathing rituals. This research grounded the fairy tale subversion in genuine folkloric terror.

Reflection & Impact

What I Learned

This project taught me to balance creative ambition with technical reality—a crucial skill in themed entertainment. Designing solo meant wearing every hat: creative director, technical designer, renderer, and operations planner.

Presentation to Bob Weis

I was beyond lucky to have the opportunity to present to my professor, my classmates, and class mentor Bob Weis, former president of Walt Disney Imagineering. Presenting this project to a Disney Legend provided invaluable industry mentorship and validation that the work met professional standards for attraction development.

Key Takeaways

High-concept storytelling must serve operational requirements.

Every design choice should answer 'Can this be built? Can it be maintained? Will it work at 3 AM on October 31st?'

Horror design is about psychological setup as much as jump scares.

Capacity calculations aren't constraints—they're creative parameters.

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