Ashton Kutcher has just been hired as a product engineer at Lenovo. Hold on a second. Ahahaha! I’m sure real product engineers love this. It makes their job look much more exciting.
In a press release from the company, they say Kutcher will work with Lenovo engineering teams to “develop and market the Yoga line of tablets by providing input and decision-making into design, specifications, software and usage scenarios. ” Translation: He’ll sit in front of a camera for an hour while collecting six figure paychecks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7a9K59G0Z0g
Says Ashton, “This partnership with Lenovo brings together my love of technology and design that makes your life better. I can’t wait to dig in and help Lenovo develop future mobile computing products, starting with the Yoga Tablet.”
What does Kutcher bring to the table? A lot. According to Lenovo, Kutcher has “keen consumer insight.” Don’t you remember that Blah Girls website he launched? It really took off. That insight combined with Kutcher’s qualifications which include once studying biochem engineering at the University of Iowa and being famous will surely put Lenovo at the front of the pack.
Though to his credit he did invest in Skype, Airbnb and Path so maybe he isn’t always talking out of his ass. But what insight can this dude possibly give that a guy with a masters and 10+ years of experience in consumer design can’t? “Make it look more like an iPad.” Oh, okay. Thanks, Ashton!
It seems like I’ve read elsewhere that he’s actually really smart.