Tell us about your role at your company and your company’s focus?
My name is Kevin Kraus and I am the Vice President of Technology Alliances and IoT Business Development for Yale, part of Fortune Brands Innovations. I have been with Yale since 2009, and in my role, I lead our smart lock technology strategy, partnerships, and ecosystem integrations, ensuring Yale products work seamlessly with leading platforms and connectivity standards.
At Yale, our focus is on delivering secure, reliable, and easy-to-use smart lock solutions that fit seamlessly into people’s lives. We’re committed to giving consumers choice and flexibility, whether that’s through compatibility with leading smart home platforms, support for emerging standards like Thread, or offering a range of products that meet different styles, budgets, and security needs.
What inspired your team to get involved with Thread Group?
Our journey with Thread began at the start– we’ve been involved since 2014 as a founding member of the Thread Group. In 2017, we developed an exclusive Nest x Yale Lock with Thread technology, and most recently, again in partnership with Google, we released the Yale Smart Lock with Matter that continues to set the standard in smart home security.
We aimed to address connectivity issues that many existing technologiesstruggled with, including eliminating single points of failure, improvingproduct battery life, and enhancing overall quality and user experience.
What are some ways your organization is using Thread today?
Today, Yale is using Thread to make our smart locks high-performance,secure, reliable, and ready for the future of the smart home. Yale’s Threadbased smart locks deliver secure, low-latency performance, and cross-platform compatibility.
What is one thing you’ve learned from other Thread Groupmembers that has influenced your work?
One thing I’ve learned from other Thread Group members is thepower of true collaboration in creating innovative and universallyaccessible solutions. Working alongside other companies across thesmart home ecosystem has reinforced the importance of designingproducts with interoperability in mind. That shared mindset hasinfluenced how we approach Yale’s product development. We focuson building secure, reliable locks that work seamlessly with otherdevices and platforms.
Do you have any advice/ insights for companies or developerslooking to get started with Thread?
Join the Thread Group and get actively involved. Members gain access to extensive resources designed to support companies through every stage of product development, marketing, and certification.