Playing Nice: The Power of an Integrated ID and Engineering Team
Fall is not pumpkin spice latte time, it’s college football season with its wonderful rivalries. As much as Buckeyes despise Wolverines, we have to admit the game would not be as rich without worthy adversaries. Great design teams have rivalries too, although they have a lot more mutual respect and
Connectors in Rugged Design
High-quality rugged connectors are complex and expensive. Connectors can be 1/3rd or more of the total BOM cost on some rugged products. Selecting a connector wisely is a crucial step in rugged design. Even when the connector type is predetermined by legacy or mating equipment, there are usually trade-offs.
Effective Use of Physical Models In Product Development
The surprise… It was about 10 minutes through a design review. All eyes were fixed on the projector screen evaluating the newly presented concepts. My voice was the only sound in the room and everyone was still. Going into the review I was excited to share these new concepts
Rugged Design for Public Property
An eighth-grade sewing class can do an amazing amount of damage. One of my childhood summer jobs was repairing sewing machines at the local middle schools and high schools. I saw more broken plastic covers than I can remember. Gum was shoved in places that should only contain a
If You Can’t Solve It, Draw It Bigger
Don’t all kids love trig? I was always pretty good at math. The first math class that really got me excited was trigonometry. To me it seemed really useful. Ok, so that’s not normal – but there were plenty of times in my young life that I wanted to calculate
Lessons from the Battlefield Applied to Civilian Gear
“He didn’t like that the buttons were sticking.” “What specifically did he say?” “He said ‘It sucks’ and threw it on the ground and crushed it with his boot.” Special operators, especially Navy SEALs, will not sugar coat feedback. Lives are at stake so a brutally direct approach is normal.