Getting to Great Designs

What makes a great design?

It depends.

We talk about the spectrum of designs (from great to spam), the various customers engineers need to design for, and how engineers can work with their team toward defining what a great design should be.

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Get Clarity on Goals with a Continuum

We worked on a project with our team and met our goal!
Except, management isn’t happy – they expected something else.

Seeing if we have alignment on goals is easy if we gather the team and stakeholders for 10 minutes and use a continuum.

There are certain categories that goals will fall within. A continuum is a way we can list those categories, get alignment, and gain an understanding of how ‘big’ of a project this is going to be. We get clarity on our goals.

Is it hard? Not at all. Is it eye-opening? Sometimes. It can help us move forward with a discussion to help ensure we’re all successful.

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Variable Relationships: Correlation and Causation

Relationships matter! And they can be difficult to understand.

We’re taking relationships between variables. Does one variable affect another? Or do they just correlate? Understanding which matters to the values of our decisions.

We talk about the saying “Correlation does not imply causation”, how to find a confounding variable, and ways to check that we’ve got the triggering cause that’s going to affect our outcome.

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Use Meetings to Add Productivity

Meetings to ADD productivity to our day? Yes!

We need our time to be productive, individually.
We also need input from our team. We can use meetings to add productivity to our day, if done right.

We break it down: hours in a day, limits of humans, and the minimum requirements of a good meeting.

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Ways to Partner with Test Engineers

We have test results but realize that testing didn’t go as planned.

What can we do to help prevent this scenario?

We talk about ways to partner with test engineers and test technicians and the importance of still maintaining their independence.

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What do We do with FMEA Early in Design Concept?

I’ve mentioned in previous episodes that it’s best to do FMEA early in the design concept phases of development.

Well, if we do FMEA early, then what can with do with it?

We explore a bit how to study any risk analyses (system risks, FMEA, hazard analysis) to help design-out problems, set-up design inputs, and help us figure out test methods. We also talk a bit about why a team is a necessary part of risk analyses.

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A Severity Scale based on Quality Dimensions

We can develop a severity rating scale based on us: our company, our customer, our product… And we can relate the categories that we use to the quality dimensions that matter to us.

We talk about the 7 principal quality dimensions of goods and services, the 5 principal dimensions of quality in customer service, and how we might customize our severity scale based on these dimensions.

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Use Force Field Analysis to Understand Nuances

A force field analysis is a tool in the quality toolbox. Its typical use case is to help a team analyze a change by understanding the forces involved. We can also use it to help us solve a problem.

We can use a force field analysis to understand nuances or to get a handle on a change that involves many different people or departments.

We envision a force field analysis as a football field during a game. Listen-in and then gather your team and try it out for your next change!

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Getting Use Information without a Prototype

There is a lot of use information about a new product concept that we can develop, even if we don’t have an engineering prototype. We want this information especiallybefore we start prototyping!

We talk about what type of information we can gather and a stepwise approach to get it with our cross-functional team.

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Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Supplements Test

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is not a substitute for product test.

It can be used as a supplement to design and test.

There are lots of ways to use it during design: to evaluate differences in prototype options, as test inputs, and even to help with root cause analysis.

We talk about FEA and when to work with Quality Engineers and Reliability Engineers for next steps.

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2 Lessons about Remote Work for Design Engineers

Cross-functional teamwork is so important for product design. Our team is integral in understanding all of our customer’s needs: internal and external customers.

Remote work and social distancing have affected how we do our work, and how we communicate with our cross-functional team. Now, we’re starting to get back into “normal’ routines.

There are important lessons learned about the way we work. We talk about just a couple of perspectives that could affect how design engineers work.

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Always Plot the Data

We don’t just rely on the numbers – we always plot the data!

We review how we use plots to look past the numbers, and to be aware of common gotchas!

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