As the automotive industry accelerates toward a software-defined future, the real challenge is no longer choosing between hardware or software excellence – it is learning how to master both. In this interview, Anya Ernest, People Manager at Polestar Connected Services and President of the Board at Women in Tech Gothenburg, shares her perspective on the leadership, mindset shifts, and cultural evolution required to make that balance possible.
From navigating the tensions between regulation-heavy hardware development and iterative software innovation, to building cross-functional teams rooted in empathy and shared purpose, Anya highlights the importance of what she calls “ambidextrous leadership”. She argues that the future of automotive success lies not in replacing one logic with another, but in creating organizations capable of holding multiple perspectives at once.
With insights on host leadership, deep specialization, and the power of diversity to expand a team’s “design space,” Anya outlines what it truly takes to thrive at the intersection of mechanical engineering, electronics, and software development.
The automotive industry has traditionally been hardware driven. What are the biggest mindset shifts required to truly integrate software-first thinking without losing hardware excellence?
One of the greatest challenges is the need for ambidextrous leadership. Leaders must be able to both understand and respect a more traditional, hardware-driven way of working, while at the same time enabling the organization to explore new, software-led opportunities; and, crucially, know when each approach is needed.
Some parts of automotive development are highly regulated, legislated, and dependent on certification and type approvals. Other parts can, and should, evolve over time through learning and iteration. The mindset shift is not about replacing hardware excellence with software thinking, but about creating an organization that can hold both logics at the same time without forcing one to conform to the other.
From your experience, where do hardware and software teams most often clash – and what practical approaches have proven effective in bridging those gaps?
The clash most often happens when teams lack insight into each other’s constraints and struggles, combined with a lack of time or resources to actually engage and understand them. Hardware and software teams are often under different types of pressure yet expected to align without the conditions to do so.
I strongly believe that the only sustainable way to bridge this gap is through leadership that deliberately builds truly collaborative teams across departments; teams where empathy is encouraged and where there is a shared “get things done” mindset.
Equally important is having a clearly defined common goal. I often use an example from a library project I’ve worked on: are we building a quiet haven or a vibrant hub? When everyone understands what we are aiming to build together, priorities and trade-offs become much easier, regardless of whether the work is hardware or software. Clear strategic direction, communicated early and consistently, accelerates progress toward the vision.
How should leadership and people management evolve to support cross-functional teams working across mechanical engineering, electronics, and software development?
Leadership needs to focus less on directing work and more on enabling teams to succeed. A metaphor I often come back to is one I learned from my friend Chris Fogelklou: leadership is not servant leadership; it is host leadership.
As a host, you orchestrate the party. You define the theme, invite the guests, make sure there is food for all, also those with allergies, decide when to open or close the playlist, and create the conditions for good conversations to happen. Early on, the host might actively introduce people and help break the ice. As things get going, it’s about observing, supporting, and making small adjustments. And sometimes, leadership also means knowing when the party is over.
At its core, leadership is about attentiveness and empathy, creating the conditions where people can collaborate, grow, and reach their full potential across disciplines.
What skills and competencies do you see as most critical for future automotive professionals operating at the intersection of hardware and software?
Curiosity and a genuine willingness to learn are absolutely critical. The pace of change at the intersection of hardware and software means that no one can rely solely on what they already know.
At the same time, while general understanding is important, the real demand is for deep expertise. The need for true specialists far outweighs the need for generalists. The challenge, and opportunity, is to combine deep expertise with openness to collaboration and continuous learning across domains.
As President of Women in Tech Gothenburg, how can diversity, inclusion, and varied career backgrounds actively contribute to better collaboration and innovation in a software-defined automotive world?
One concept I often discuss with my students is the idea of design space. If I work alone, or only with people who are very similar to me, the design space becomes very limited. The more similar the team, the faster problems may be solved, but often within a very narrow range of solutions.
When we bring people together with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, the design space expands. This can initially slow things down, because we need to listen more, explain more, and challenge assumptions. But in the long run, it almost always leads to better, more robust solutions.
Diversity and inclusion not only improve innovation outcomes, they also make us more empathetic and more knowledgeable as professionals. In a software-defined automotive world, that broader understanding is a real competitive advantage.