Saab

Path makers: Jani Pelkonen, Tero Kiuru, Juha Vuorenalho & Sampo Mäkelä

Drawing on experience from Nokia and Microsoft, the Saab Sensors Technology Center team adopted a “fail fast” mindset, emphasizing rapid prototyping, early customer feedback, and building products independently – before any formal customer project existed. Instead of waiting for requirements and funding from clients as typical in the defense sector, the team began creating mature, market-ready products that could later be offered to multiple customers worldwide. This shift represented a fundamental shift in both business models and in innovation culture, creating a more proactive and entrepreneurial environment for engineers.

The initiative emerged during the HX Fighter Jet campaign in Finland, when Saab invested in strengthening its Finnish operations. The team recognized an opportunity to build global product development capabilities in Finland by combining existing, proven technologies in new configurations. The Sirius Compact product family of electronic warfare sensors has already provided a tangible demonstration of the value in such an approach. Alongside this work, a master’s thesis at Aalto University compared product-driven and project-driven development in defense, validating Saab Finland’s new approach and gaining attention across the company.

The results of these efforts have been tangible. Saab Finland has established its own hardware and software platforms, where 80-90% of the core technology is reusable across product families. This allows faster scaling, more efficient engineering, and the ability to bring new products to market with smaller teams. The approach has also proven to be highly motivating for engineers, fostering creativity and helping to attract top talent.

The success of this transformation relies on culture and people. It has required the right mix of experience, mindset, and timing – a blend of startup energy and corporate expertise that cannot easily be replicated. Yet, it demonstrates that even large, traditional organizations can become agile and innovative when the right conditions are created. Saab Finland’s initiative shows how an established defense company can scale more agile development, increasing innovation, efficiency, and purpose within one of the world’s most demanding industries.

Read more about Saab Technology Center on their website here.