Katharina Hottelart is a UX Research Manager at Valeo. She studied market and communication research at the Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences. Katharina joined Valeo in 2007 whilst undertaking a part-time MBA program at Steinbeis University Berlin. Since 2010 she has been working with the Innovation and Collaborative Research Team on a wide range of different innovation projects around the connected and automated car and its respective HMI.

She is working with the R&D teams to implement user-centered methodologies. Within her team based in Germany, also methodologies from human sciences like cultural anthropology are used.  Katharina is convinced that a close collaboration between User Experience experts and R&D is the key to develop successful products - simply because people want to use them.

Valeo is an automotive supplier, partner to all automakers worldwide. As a technology company, Valeo proposes innovative products and systems that contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and to the development of intuitive driving. In 2017, the Group generated sales of 18.6 billion euros and invested over 19% of its original equipment sales in Research and Development. Valeo has 184 plants, 55 Research and Development centers and 15 distribution platforms, and employs 111,600 people in 33 countries worldwide. Valeo is listed on the Paris stock exchange and is a member of the CAC 40 index.