Hi Toyota!

If you’re reading this, chances are I cold-messaged you on LinkedIn, and if that’s the case, THANK YOU for taking the time to come visit!

Long story short, I’m Josh, I’m a huge fan of Toyota and it would be a dream come true should the chance ever arise for someone with my skillset to come and work for you.

I’m currently employed as a Principal (digital) Product Designer and Strategist at Dell Technologies and for most of my time at Dell, I’ve been one of the lead strategists in charge of bringing to life visions and strategies for fully-connected, fully-intelligent, concierge-level digital experiences for our customers that connect them with all the products, services, and solutions that they have with Dell.

Whenever I read something about Toyota Conneted, The Woven City, Connected Mobility, and all the other initiatives that Toyota is heavily invested in to realize the future of living for humanity, I’m so inspired by it, and feel like I could both contribute and learn an immense amount toward our collective end goal.

See below for three reasons why!

1. I am and have always been a car guy (and Toyota fan specifically)

So yeah, my husband and I are both car people and we both are fiercely loyal to Toyota. We love everything the brand stands for and the quality of vehicles you all produce. Though we may stray from time to time for things that we can’t get from Toyota (like a Mustang GT or hopefully one day a Porsche 911), I think it’s a pretty safe bet that our daily drivers will always be a Toyota or Lexus product.

In our garage currently we have been so incredibly lucky to be able to get two of your most sought after vehicles — I have a 2020 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro that I intend to keep for the rest of my life, and in January of this year, my husband by some miracle got a 2021 Rav4 Prime that we were able to snag right off the lot. In our past have been Corollas, Rav4s, a Highlander Hybrid, a Camry Hybrid, a Tacoma, an RX350, and an IS350.

2. I love everything that Toyota is doing (not just in your passenger vehicles)

I’ve admired and been a fan of the brand from afar for years, and probably know more than some people that work there about it (kidding, maybe?). But in all seriousness, everything that I care about—not just as someone buying a product but someone who cares about what their employer believes in—seems to align with what Toyota practices.

I believe in Toyota’s philosophy of Kaizen and your years-long process of testing and iterating and retesting to make sure that by the time a product hits the market, it’s as solid and safe as possible. I’ve had my eye on Toyota/Lexus Teammate since you all showed it off on a Lexus GS back in 2012 or thereabouts. There’s a trust that Toyota has from its customers that’s unmatched in the industry and as brands grow evermore human, this is something that I think Toyota is way ahead on.

I’m a huge believer in the future of connected mobility and I love all the ideas that come out of the various research labs that Toyota has that are working toward the vision of democratizing connected and clean mobility for everyone on the planet.

Finally, beyond mobility altogether, it would be a dream come true for me to go and live in the Woven City that Toyota is building. Partly because I’m a huge Bjork Ingels fan but also because I love the idea of humans living within a fully connected and self-aware and self-improving city that’s testing and realizing the future of everything. Sadly, despite holding dual-citizenship with Japan (I was born there but was adopted by Japanese American parents), I don’t speak a word of Japanese so… I think that’s out!

3. I am probably unhealthily obsessed with the future of car tech.

Ever since I can remember, cars and technology and car technology have always been the things I’ve most passionate about. As a kid, I loved auto shows. To go and sit in all the latest cars. I can remember when Brian Cooley and C|Net Car Tech (way, way before it was ever RoadShow) were my most watched videos on YouTube. I remember in the late 90s when Lexuses were first starting to get sat nav. Then sometime not long after that, Acura put Bluetooth A2DP streaming into the RL and it was the most exotic thing. Then, a few years later in 2009 it was Audi putting the first LED headlights in the R8, then again in 2012 when they brought out Matrix Beam headlights in the A8. All of which is to say that I am insane and obsessed with this stuff and could talk for hours about it.

Fast forward to now and we’re on the cusp of widely available 5G which I believe will be the key that unlocks the full potential of IoT and fully connected digital cities and infrastructure and the possibilities for car technology, machine learning, and machine awareness to enable next-gen, fully connected experiences for humans and vehicles are endless. What a time to be a designer.

As the great, late architect Dame Zaha Hadid once said, “There are so many terrains and territories of architecture that are yet to be explored.”

So too, I believe, is the case for mobility technology, and it would be a dream to be on the forefront of it.

Let’s go places—together!

Thank you for your time.

If any of the above is of interest, I invite you to check out my portfolio of experience design work and find out more about me and my current role using these links or the site nav, and thank you again for your time, it is a real privilege. If I can ever provide more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or by phone at +1 (808) 546-9837!

Please note that this page isn’t accessible from the main navigation but it’s easy to get back to, just add the Toyota at the end of the domain: joshleejames.com/toyota

Warm regards from Austin,
Josh Lee James