This blog is moving

To provide a wider perspective on the topics of engineering and product development, I’ve started a blog for my company, Root3 Labs. In addition to my own opinion, you’ll see posts from my colleagues, who range from NPD veterans to recent graduates. Unfortunately, I don’t think I could do justice to either blog by continuing to write about the same topic in two places. So, while I’ll continue to keep this blog posted as it is and may revisit it in the future, it’s not likely I’ll be contributing to it further in the short-term. Instead, I’ll be publishing my content through Root3 Labs.

You can visit the blog at www.root3labs.com/blog

I hope you’ll join me. I look forward to sustaining the conversation.

— Chad

The Triangle of Requirements

The Triangle of Requirements - A single star represents your project. You can move a star around the gradients to balance your needs, sacrificing one for the other two.

“You can get something good, cheap, or fast. Pick two.”

I’ve heard it many times, but what is it about? I’ve found that it comes down to planning. I come across this “principal” whenever I’m trying to rush a prototype or speed along a vendor. If I want a fast job done right, I’m either going to have to pay up to get extra resources on the job, or I’m going to have to wait for the assigned resources to do their due diligence for me. I don’t want a machinist to rush through my drawing only to miss a critical dimension or misunderstand a callout. My rushed order then becomes a significant delay.

So what can you do to balance this best? By planning ahead, keeping a constant eye on the critical path items that control the minimum schedule, we can improve our schedule, reduce our costs, and create the best quality. We can have the optimum resources available when we need them most – we can line up inexpensive resources to perform menial tasks and skilled, costly resources do only what they are best at. We can order long lead-time items well ahead so there’s no need to pay extra to rush the order. We can identify any high-risk unknowns and attack those first so later tasks are more predictable, more likely to stay on schedule.

I’ve also seen this quote, on the desk of an overworked secretary, “Your lack of planning does not justify my emergency.” It’s easy to get caught up in the firedrill of the day or the long list of design tweaks that need to be in the next prototype. However, it’s a good idea to lift your head and take a look at the project from the high-level perspective to help prevent rounding a bend only to find another emergency.

MicroManufacturing Conference

Standard machining and injection molding techniques are not adequate for manufacturing parts so small that they are barely visible to the naked eye. An entire industry has formed around the requirements to create very small, very precise parts.

Recent work in microfluidics has focused on new rapid prototyping and manufacturing techniques on the micro-scale. While plenty of techniques exist for fabricating small-channels within multi-layered glass, such as etching or even laser drilling, the material and process costs are high, so I’ve been on the lookout for plastic and alternative materials more suitable for high-quantity production.

In just two weeks, I’m headed to Minneapolis to attend the 2009 MicroManufacturing Conference sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Although I’m not a manufacturing engineer, I have found that it’s extremely difficult and expensive to design good parts without a detailed understanding of the manufacturing methods. By attending, I’m hoping to talk to vendors and learn more about the state of current technology than I can learn with online searches. If you’re going to be at the conference, or just in Minneapolis, feel free to stop me and say hi or even touch base ahead of time to arrange a meeting. I’m looking forward to an interesting few days.

A Simple Product With All the Features

I’ve been writing about keeping products simple. It makes your product easier to use for the majority of users. However, what about the users that don’t want simple? How do you keep them excited about your product?

I want to talk about cameras for a moment, as I’ve found them to be a good example of products that might have a good balance of everything. There’s no question that digital SLR’s (single lens reflex) cameras take better pictures than their point-and-shoot counterparts. They have larger, better quality CCD’s and better lenses. For the advanced users, it’s also easier to quickly adjust such features as shutter speeds and F-stops. Point-and-shoots are meant for convenience; they fit neatly in your pocket so you always have it handy. 

However, if you delve into the manual settings for a point-and-shoot (I have had good experiences with a few of the products in the Canon Powershot lineup) you might find ways to tweak your photos for better results and get more functionality from your camera. I like to play with the depth of field, using focus to highlight my target instead of location within the frame or lighting. I’ve also been experimenting with white-balance. I’ve found those two features alone have dramatically improved my ability to capture the moment. My Canon SD750 even has the ability to setup hotkeys, so I can get into the white-balance menu with one key-press instead of navigating the function-tree. 

Even though I’ve been stressing the importance of keeping products simple, they should only be as simple as they need to be. In the case of my camera, sometimes I want to just grab a quick picture of my kids doing something goofy, and I don’t want to worry about setting up a shot. Other times, I’d really like to get an image with more character, and I’m glad I have a camera that has a multitude of manual features. 

What products are you using that work well for both the novice user and the advanced hobbiest?

An appetizer: Figs topped with chevre and wrapped in prosciutto. Photo taken with the Automatic settings - auto focus, flash, 77mm focal length (35mm equiv.), f-stop (f/4.0) and exposure (1/60).

The same appetizer taken with Manual settings. No flash, f/2.8, exposure (1/40), 37mm focal length (35mm equiv.).

Unknown Stakeholders

Are you overlooking someone in your user research?

It may not have the romance of flowers or diamonds, but a good universal remote control can do good things for a gadget-lover’s marriage. Before we got a high quality universal remote, there were remotes all over and a page of instructions for guests. My wife grew to understand it, but she hated that I’d complicated such a simple task as watching a movie. More often than not, she’d just turn the TV on by hand and listen to it through the native speakers. Now, she just hits the DVD button on the remote and everything turns on (well, most of the time!) so she can watch a show in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround even if she doesn’t care much about it.

So, if you were writing the product specification for a universal remote control, would you have thought to include your user’s significant others, house guests, and friends? You would surely have included the owners of home theater systems as a significant stakeholder in the design. They want equipment with a ton of features, high performance, and customization. Unfortunately, those requirements might not be as well accepted by the rest of the household if the system is difficult to use. Could you have unknown stakeholders that are preventing a purchase? Should they even be your primary target for the user interface?

Are there stakeholders that have been ignored during the design of your product? Are they holding back the success of your product? How do you find them?

Creating simple, intuitive products

My kids’ grandparents all live out-of-town, so they wanted to set up webcams instead of just using the phone. So, I setup GTalk video on my PC right in Gmail.  Then I sent my mother-in-law instructions to setup iChat on her Mac to work with GTalk. Of course, it doesn’t work. She’s not computer savvy enough to troubleshoot the problem and I don’t know enough about Macs to know what to tell her. After an hour of searching forums and trying to talk her through it, we gave up for another day. But once my mother-in-law shut down iChat, we were immediately able to use video through Gmail. What? Is this a missing step in the instructions? I don’t think we were alone in our frustration since the forum was full of posts about having trouble getting them to talk to each other. 

Was the process intuitive? To some engineers at Google and Apple, it must have been. I’m sure they configured the software and were mooning each other over video in no time. Ideally, they would have also consulted my mother-in-law, or at least other users with her level of experience and understanding, to see if she had any trouble understanding the instructions.

What does it mean to create a simple, intuitive product? Certainly, there are technical challenges to making something simple. But, shouldn’t it be easy to create something that’s intuitive? I think it can be, but it involves a bit of work by the designers.

One challenge is that “intuitive” is a subjective term. Product users don’t all use the same vocabularly or may not understand the subtle intricacies between two options, and they may not have the need, desire, or patience to learn. It doesn’t help them complete their task, which is all they’re trying to do. Therefore, what I may think is clear and obvious in a user interface is anything but. The good news is that understanding your user is not a mystic art. You could just ask them.

If it’s possible to consult with your end-users, get their feedback early and often. Talk to tech wizards, grandmas, and anyone else that might use your product. Can you use the misunderstandings of a few early users to overcome the confusion, apprehension, and fear that will keep your most un-savvy users from loving your product?

Photo credit: John De Boer

You don’t need to buy a Hybrid car for better mileage

 I’ve been driving a Toyota Prius for over a year now.  Gas prices have been jumping up and down, but I’ve definitely been pleased with the car overall. However, if you’re not already in the market for a new car, maybe you can get better mileage with the car you have. 

Yes, the Prius gets great mileage. I generally get between 44mpg and 54mpg depending on the time of year and the type of driving. However, when I first bought the car, it was closer to 38mpg to 42mpg. The improvement came because the car has an on-board smart-meter that provides immediate feedback about the relationship between your driving behavior and gas mileage. By the way, that’s an improvement of 10% – 20% just based on my driving habits. 

So, what would happen if you could tame the jack-rabbit starts, go easy on the gas-pedal, and keep it under 70mph? Could you effectively knock $0.20 to $0.40 off each gallon of gas you buy this month? In combination with other common practices (properly inflated tires, a clean air filter, and a tune up), maybe.

Have other Prius drivers found the same to be true? Do other hybrid vehicles have similar smart-meters? What’s your take?

Photo credit: Futureatlas.com

What makes a great teacher?

Is there a message in there?

Who are your teachers? Whom do you learn from?

Whenever I talk to someone, or read an article, or finish a project, isn’t the goal that I come away having learned something? Isn’t that what makes Seth Godin’s stream of content so interesting?  He seems to find insight where others walk on by. Is that because he is a great teacher? He clearly has a lot to teach us. But, perhaps it’s that he is a great student. He’s more receptive to learning something new. Can we be as receptive?

My list of “teachers” is pretty long, but I’d guess none of them are aware of it. I don’t pay tuition, I don’t have tests, but if I don’t pay attention, I may get left behind. 

Are you looking for a teacher, or perhaps you have experience to offer someone else? The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has an eMentoring program that pairs young engineers with experienced ones. Do other societies have similar programs?

You don’t have to be in a classroom to have teachers. These are simply people you learn from, and they can be everywhere, if you’re listening.

Photo Credit: Rodolfo Clix

Notes from “Plug into the SmartGrid”

Andy Karsner - Policy Panel

Washington, DC Feb 17, 2009 –  Every seat in the auditorium at Google’s DC office was filled with people passionate about bringing about change in the way power is distributed. People even lined the back wall and the overflow room. A total of 500 people in attendance. The event format was split into two industry panels, the first discussing the technology requirements for a SmartGrid and the second focused more on the Federal and State policy initiatives required to properly implement such a sweeping technological plan.

Tomorrow afternoon, the ~2-1/2 hour video footage of the panels will be available on both Google’s DotOrg channel as well as GE’s YouTube channel. If you don’t have time to watch, here are my notes from the event. I’m sure I missed some details, so please correct me or submit your comments.

Google To Give The Energy Sector A Jumpstart

This week, Google announced they’re Beta testing a new application that you can use to track your household (or business) energy use by device in an effort to cut energy usage. Google PowerMeter will break down your energy usage almost in real-time. According to their data, the clothes-line may be due for a comeback. As the old adage goes,

“If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.” – Lord Kelvin

They’ve built the application, but now they’re looking to develop some hardware to go with it. Google is not the only player in the game, though. Pepco is also looking to develop Smart Meters in the DC suburbs, and Agilewaves, comprised of a trio of NASA engineers, developed similar technology after the wave of California’s rolling blackouts in 2006. Even with a decent head-start, it might be hard to beat the raw initiative, seemingly unlimited cash reserves, and amazing grasp of user interfaces that Google has shown time after time. 

Last fall, Google and GE announced a partnership aimed at pushing technology and policy in the energy sector. To kick off the initiative, they’ll both be hosting Plug Into The Smart Grid next Tuesday at 2pm EST. The event appears to be open to the public, but plan for attendance to be maxed. Instead of making you fight the crowds, though, they’ll be posting the  content within 24 hours of the presentations on both Google’s DotOrg channel as well as GE’s YouTube channel. Google has also invited everyone to submit and vote on questions in advance via Google Moderator. This event appears to have some big players, so it’s not exactly a grass-roots effort. But, everyone is going to be called upon to act eventually. Now is a good time to start paying attention. 

Program

• Introduction and welcome 
  • Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, Google.org
  • Bob Gilligan, Vice President, GE Energy
     
• Part I: Envisioning smart power
  Energy tools and technologies to empower people with information and choice    
  • Moderator: Bob Gilligan, GE
  • Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril
  • Ron Binz, Chairman, Colorado Public Utilities Commission
  • Jeff Renaud, Director, Ecomagination, GE
  • Ed Lu, Advanced Projects, Google
  • Kelly Speakes-Backman, Principal, RE+GENeration Consultants LLC
  • George Bjelovuk, Managing Director, American Electric Power
     
• Break
   

Part II: Accelerating the energy revolution
State and federal policies to drive smart power
Opening remarks: The Honorable Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change (invited)  

• Moderator: Dan Reicher, Google
• Fred Butler, President, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
• John Podesta, President, Center for American Progress (invited)
• Andy Karsner, Former Ass. Sec. for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
• Chris Miller, Office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Photo Credit: John Nyberg

Preparing for the Digital TV Transition

I get most of my news and entertainment online instead of through the television. But, we still turn on the weather or PBS cartoons in the morning, so we needed to prepare for the upcoming “digital transition”. Here’s a summary of how I chose a converter box and built an antenna. Did I miss anything? What did you do?

As you’ve probably heard, Congress and the FCC are requiring full-power television broadcasters to drop their analog signal and go completely digital. The date for this transition was originally scheduled to be February 17, 2009, but it was postponed recently to June 12, 2009. According to the FCC, they plan to use the “discarded” analog spectrum for public safety communications (fire, police, rescue squads, etc.) as well as auction off portions to private companies for the expansion of more advanced wireless programs such as wireless broadband. Regardless of why Congress has federally mandated a technological shift for television broadcasting, it appears to be happening. Even with the postponement, there is no reason for you to wait.

Note: If you’re a cable/FIOS/Satellite subscriber, you don’t need to worry. The digital transition is only for over-the-air (OTA), broadcast television that you’d pick up with an antenna. 

Winter backpacking and product design

Photo Credit: Josh Keller

I went on a winter backpacking trip last weekend with an old friend. I’d been looking forward to some snow camping most of the year. It’s a great way to get away from the electronic ties I can’t seem to shed on my own. It’s also a great way to get away from the crowds, as not many other people are out camping when the weather is well below freezing, even in Colorado.

Backpacking in the winter involves a lot of extra gear, much of it heavy. So, I’d been training by running and lifting weights. I thought I’d be ready for the mountains, but I live at sea level, and I’d never camped above 4,000′ or so. I wasn’t prepared for the effect 10,400′ of elevation would have on my body even though I’d expected some weakness. I was moving at a very slow pace and fighting the symptoms of minor altitude sickness – headaches and slight nausea. There was just more factors to this adventure than I could consider without actually getting out there. With each trip, I learn something (many things) about staying comfortable in adverse conditions that no matter how long I plan, I just won’t anticipate them from home.

How many times have you (as a consumer) had trouble with a product and thought it seemed like the designers never used it themselves? They thought they had all the angles covered, but maybe they never took it “up to altitude” to really examine how it might behave under real-world conditions with real users. Sometimes it’s not easy to predict all conditions, especially when you don’t have the right perspective. As the design engineer, you understand what this button does and what that double-beep means, and you might even think it’s intuitive. However, you can’t be completely objective, but it’s not your fault. It IS your fault if you just stop there and don’t consider your options.

Give your prototype to user focus groups. Give it your coworkers. Give it to your family. Watch people interact with it and try to figure out how it works. If it’s an avalanche beacon, users will interact with it while wearing winter gloves and shaking from the fear that they have 15 minutes to find their friend or HE WILL DIE! Can they remember your 10 minute training session to follow the prescribed scanning procedure along the lines of magnetic flux? Can they hear the indicator beeps over the howling wind or their own heartbeat? Can they even get the device into Search Mode? A good designer must consider every possible use case. Don’t give up, yet. Even a highly specialized device can be intuitive when designed well.

I can understand if you don’t want to test drive your product on a winter camping trip, but you can find real users to provide perspective for almost any situation. (astronauts rarely design the spacecraft that they travel in, but they’re likely consulted on the design) No matter how much you ponder your users from behind a desk, there will always be something you forgot to consider. Get out there. Experience the world of your customers. You might just make a better product.

Strive for a simple design

There are a lot of ways to solve a problem, but it seems like many of them are more complicated than they need to be. You start by satisfying one design criteria. Then you tackle the rest of them, one-by-one, until the problem is completed. Unfortunately, you may end up with a Frankenstein product that’s difficult to use and ugly.

The best design, the one to strive for, is the simplest one. This is the one where everything fits together and works. It’s easy to use and elegant. It makes you hit your head and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” As an engineer, I’m impressed by simplicity just because it is so hard to achieve. I’m always considering it as the ideal solution, something to aspire to.

Homegrown outriggers - CAD rendering

“Good design is as little design as possible.
Less but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with inessentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity!”
– Dieter Rams

“Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler!”
– Albert Einstein

I am usually found within the electro-mechanical device sphere, but I can appreciate good design principles wherever they happen to show up. I keep thinking about something I saw while fishing for Rockfish on the Chesapeake Bay last Spring. I can’t find anything online about it, so I thought I’d share. I’m not a fisherman, so you’ll have to excuse any incorrect terminology. I had seen fishing outriggers that were long rigid poles that stick out from the boat sides and the fishing line attached along the length, like these. They keep the lines wider apart so you can have more lines in the water without tangling.

On this boat, though, they had outriggers that were a couple of wood planks mounted together with threaded rod. A line is attached to the eye-bolt at the front and it’s dropped off the boat. As the boat drags it, the water rushes past the planks and forces the outrigger away from the boat until the angle, rushing water, and mainline reach an equilibrium. Attach your fishing lines to the mainline using shower-curtain hoops. When a fish bites and drags the line, it breaks free of the hoop. It’s as simple as can be, and you can build a pair for around $50, I’d guess. After-market outriggers go for $500 and up, plus there’s professional installation and maintenance.

I’m not all that impressed by “cheap and dirty” solutions, even when I use them myself. For the most part, they’re just enough to get by when you can’t come up with the right solution. However, even though these are inexpensive outriggers, they’re also easy to install, can reach out 50′ to 100′ off the boat without any modifications, and don’t raise your height into the local bridges. They might be better than the “real thing”!

Photo credit: Alex Flamm

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to get a picture of the setup, so I created a CAD model from memory. It may need a bit of tweaking to work properly. I’m guessing the 2″ x 12″ boards are 36″ long, and it’s about as wide assembled. Remember to use stainless hardware and boards that float.

I’m interested to hear if anyone knows the origin of these things or how well they really stack-up against mounted outriggers. All of the other boats in the marina seemed to have them, but maybe it’s just a local thing.

Can you feel me now?

In graduate school, I studied haptics. But what is “haptics”, and why does it matter?

Haptics is the study of the sense of touch. Unlike our other senses – sight, smell, hearing, and taste – we can feel the world throughout our entire body. It’s a very complex system. We use our sense of touch to perceive temperature, texture, vibration, density, and more. But what if you couldn’t touch anything? How would you be affected?

Haptics and technology
Not everyone is taking to the digital revolution. People like the feel of a newspaper or of gliding pen across paper and do not like to work on a computer. Now that digital technology has progressed and grown into more corners of our lives, people are less accepting of the fact that it lacks the sense of touch.

The rumble pack in game controllers was one of the early attempts at integrating a sense of touch into the gaming experience. When you blow something up or drive off the track, an eccentric mass rotates (similar to a cell phone) and causes vibration. The sense isn’t overwhelming, submersive, or even accurate, but you can perceive meaning from that vibration, and it’s better than nothing.

For a class project, I developed a magnetically actuated force-feedback mouse. I added an electro-magnet to a common computer mouse and placed it on a steel mouse pad. When energized, the frictional force increased from almost nothing to 2N (.44lbf). Quite substantial. I devised several experiments to showcase how the feedback could be utilized and to explore how haptic feedback might improve a user’s ability to click on-screen items faster and more accurately. I created virtual textures and a target that slowed the mouse for you when you entered it. You can download a PDF of my paper detailing my project and the experimental results.

Companies and universities are studying the integration of haptic feedback into products of far greater importance than my class project. Intuitive Surgical leads the commercial medical robotics field with the da Vinci minimally invasive surgical system. Force feedback allows surgeons to have the tactile sensation similar to a standard minimally invasive procedure, except with the additional benefits of an intuitive control system, virtual boundaries, and motion scaling. Sensable Technologies has developed a haptic Dental Lab to digitally scan and interact with the details of a patient’s mouth to fabricate better crowns or bridgework. Immersion Medical manufactures a suite of surgical simulation products to provide doctors with lifelike training and planning tools. And, of course, Dr. Allison Okamura’s Haptics Lab (my alma mater) and other university programs are also on the cutting edge of haptics research, exploring new ways to interact with the tools of the next century.

The future of digital
As our interaction with the world around us becomes more digitized, we can expect great innovation in the use of haptic feedback. Logitech has improved on the vibrating game controller with some exciting racing wheels, and even the Blackberry Storm offers feedback in its touchscreen. We enjoy and need the sense of touch. It’s a large part of how we interact with the world and it improves our experience.

Dont’ worry, you will feel a thing.

Photo credit: Rodolfo Clix

The Dreaded Product Recall

Today, peanut butter manufacturers have a problem: salmonella contaminated a huge batch, and hundreds of people have gotten really sick, six have even died. The tainted peanut butter was packaged for industry, not retail, and distributed around the country. Since it was sold to industry to be added to other products, the outbreak was stalled while the product was processed into everything from crackers to dog treats. The FDA and food industry can’t identify everywhere it went, so it could be virtually anywhere. That effectively makes everyone responsible and every candy bar and plate of Pad Thai a potential outbreak. The FDA appears to have tracked the salmonella to its source, but containing the problem is slow-going and far-reaching. The real question is why wasn’t this problem caught by the manufacturers or even via one of the distribution chains? Are food safety precautions not stringent enough or too slow, or was somebody trying to avoid consequences for something they hoped wouldn’t become serious.

I went through a product recall once in a past job many years ago. It was a small-batch production, but enough products had the same problem that a recall was issued. At the time, I was preoccupied with other projects, and my responsibility to adequately supervise assembly was sacrificed. The hardest part was accepting and admitting the mistake both with my colleagues and with my customers. Luckily, this was a low-quantity product, the problem was caught early, we had a personal relationship with every customer, and the potential consequences were minimal (aside from the damage to my ego). Our actions seemed straightforward, but customers appeared to really appreciate our proactive approach to retrieving the items, inspecting and fixing them, and returning them quickly. It certainly wasn’t the easiest thing to initiate, but it was the right thing to do and our customers were happy we did it. As a result of this experience, I still strive to remember that the delicate balance of properly supervising someone – somewhere between micro-managing and saying hello at the annual review – should be based on the needs of the employee, not my availability.

Kryptonite Locks once conducted an excellent example of what every customer hopes would happen when bad products make it onto the shelves. Kryptonite makes super strong locks for bikes and motorcycles. The locks are well known for their ability to stifle a thief. In 2004, after being the market leader for years, a video surfaced on YouTube showing a guy breaking into a tubular-cylinder lock in seconds with just the end of a $0.10 BIC pen. Not good for the lock business. Kryptonite initially offered a qualified recall for locks under 2 years old, but then they did the unthinkable – they issued a full and free recall of ANY of their locks using tubular cylinders and ran their manufacturing line around the clock to meet demand. “ANY lock” meant every over-used, 10-year-old, clunker well past its warranty. The Voluntary Lock Exchange Program ran for more than a year and freely replaced over 400,000 Kryptonite locks worldwide. They weren’t the only locks affected, but they were the only company to react so swiftly. It was a brilliant move that kept their reputation intact, although they might still be paying off the free locks and manufacturing overtime for years to come.

Bad things happen to the best companies. How long have you remembered the companies that got it right? How about those that got it wrong?

Photo credit: Enrico Corno

Visualize and win

Stay focused on success to avoid a crash

Whether you’re making a presentation or sitting in an interview, there’s no substitute for preparation. I’ve written before about the anxiety many feel while just preparing to do something. It can be debilitating thinking of all the things that can go wrong. However, once you’re committed, you have to push those thoughts out of your mind or they’ll eat you up.

Instead, think of exactly how you want things to go. Practice your witty joke to break the ice. Practice your response to a few tough questions. Imagine the best possible scenarios and think of all the ways you can get there.

That’s where you want to be.

Photo credit: Chad Schneider

The economics of energy conservation

Do you know how much energy the electronics in your life use when you’re away?

Recently, I ran a rough calculation to determine the extra cost of leaving my computer and monitors on overnight and over the weekend. Based on the manufacturer datasheets, my computer draws 189W, and my two 20″ widescreen LCD monitors 55W each. Using electricity rates for November 2008, if I just put that single computer into standby/hibernate or turn it off when I leave the office, I could save about $21 per month. That’s $250 per year per computer.

Also, based on this number, I estimated the carbon footprint of that energy usage (assuming it was produced by a coal-powered plant), and it comes to about 142kg of CO2 per month. For perspective, my Toyota Prius expels about 470 kg of CO2 per month going 15k miles per year, according to this Carbon Footprint Calculator.

Check out this page at WeCanSolveIt.org for instructions on how to setup your PC or Mac computer to standby and hibernate. They also have a list of more ways to minimize your energy use and affect climate change.

Photo credit: Chad Schneider

Cross-train your brain

If you’re going to run a marathon, or participate in any sporting activity, most experts agree that cross-training is important to improve your overall fitness. Focusing too hard on one set of muscles leaves other muscles weak and prime candidates for injury. As an engineer, focusing too hard on a small skill-set may leave other parts of your brain starving for stimulation.

The internet is FULL of great content. Let your brain do some cross-training by expanding your input stream. Instead of listening to another webinar on the features of the next Solidworks release, maybe you want to stretch out and listen to an interview with Seth Godin on marketing your small business or check up on the state of innovation in the medical device industry for 2009. Not only will you have new things to talk about at dinner parties, but you might learn something related to your everyday.

Who/what are you paying attention to? Please share in the comments.

Photo credit: Rodolfo Clix

The Imposter Syndrome

Now that you’re in, are you qualified? Are they going to find out you’re really an imposter?

Maybe you just got into grad school, started a new job, or landed a new project. A case of the “Imposter Syndrome” can grab you no matter your experience or accomplishments. It’s the feeling that you don’t really belong, that you’re a fake or a fraud.

Actually, it’s a feeling that’s not uncommon, as I found out when I entered grad school. I’d gone back to school after a few years of working, so some of my technical skills were a bit rusty. I was hitting the books hard and putting in hours at the lab, but I was feeling overwhelmed and not sure of myself. Everyone else seemed to have it together.

Then I found out about the “Imposter Syndrome”. Apparently, it is well-known in grad-school circles, although not recognized among psychology professionals as a real disorder. For me, just knowing that people much smarter than me were having the same feelings helped. Hmm, I guess it didn’t occur to me at the time that this could have made me feel worse.

Confidence is often a fine line. Don’t dwell on your failures OR your successes. Be honest with yourself. Recognize your accomplishments, learn from your mistakes, and move on.

A few relevant links:
Wikipedia
Cal Tech Counseling
Chronicle of Higher Education
Overcoming the Imposter Syndrom

Photo credit: Meliha Gojak

Brainstorming technique

Brainstorming is a great way to identify new concepts and “unstick” a design. There are a variety of techniques, but the secret to any good session is organization. A well-organized brainstorming session can generate lots of great ideas – more than you often need – reducing your need to slip in the shower and hit your head to have a lightning-strike epiphany. Here is a general guideline to brainstorming that should help you avoid unnecessary head trauma.

Step 0 – Understand the ground rules

1. Turn off the filters. No ideas are stupid. Voting indicates popularity but not how well an idea will work in the product.
2. Release idea ownership. Once you’ve announced an idea, the group owns it. This goes for everyone. It may be brilliant, it may be stupid, but it’s not yours. Don’t consider it as a solution unless it has value.
3. As the designer and host, you’re collecting ideas. You’re not beholden to use ANY of the ideas generated at this session. You might use an amalgamation of 5 ideas in the end. Don’t try to work out the solution during the brainstorming session.
4. If participants don’t follow the rules, you need to moderate the session. Reiterate the rules. Keep the session on track to get the most out of it.

Step 1 – Create the guest list

The act of brainstorming can involve a group of people or just yourself.  Having more people often provides MORE ideas, but not necessarily better ideas, and not necessarily better value. Remember, people are being paid to be at your session and not performing other work. Consider the value of each member of the group when creating the list of attendees.

Ideally, you want a group diverse in experience and expertise. If you’re really limited to yourself, some of these techniques can be helpful, but a small group of about 4-6 people is preferable. You want to have 1-3 people that have been involved in the project, either intimately or peripherally, but you also want to bring a few people that don’t know much, if anything, about it – sometimes called “fresh faces” or “cold bodies”. These people often bring the most value because they have the broadest starting point. However, they need to have expertise you can use.

Step 2 – Break down the problem

The most common error when holding a brainstorming session is that everyone sits down and tries to solve the whole problem. Don’t tackle it all at once. The primary problem needs to be broken down into sub-components. For example, instead of asking the question, “What is the best paper clip design?” focus on smaller components of the problem and integrate the results later.

1. “What are different ways to attach any two items together?”
2. “What are some reasons papers need to be attached?”
3. “What are some current ways to attach paper?”
4. “What are the problems with these current paper-attaching techniques?

As the host, develop these questions ahead of time, but do not reveal them to the participants. You need a plan to guide the session. Plan to spend about 15 minutes per question, so consider how long the session should last. Remain flexible. Feel free to change or replace questions during the session based on ideas from the group. Impromptu questions may turn out to be more useful.

Step 3 – Get the party started

Give participants the minimum amount of background to be useful. You want to avoid tainting them with everything you know because you might get them stuck, too. You’ll reveal a question, and each participant will spend three minutes individually thinking of all possible answers. This is the time when no answer is shot down. Absolutely none. Seriously. Turn off the filters.

We usually write down each answer on its own post-it note to be stuck on the wall to compile answers. To make everything legible, you’ll want thick markers and large post-it notes, maybe 4″x 4″. Finally, you’ll need stickers as a voting means – approximately 5 stickers per person per question.

Go around the table. Each person offers only one note at a time. Others can turn in similar notes at the same time and discuss clarification or expansion of the thought. Limit discussion if necessary. As the host, you’re only collecting ideas. Don’t try to design the solution now. Participants can continue to write down ideas if anything strikes them, particularly as other thoughts are proffered. The filters are still off. Don’t allow anyone to shoot down an idea.

Once all of the notes are collected, organize the notes into whatever groups might be applicable. Have everyone come up and vote on their favorite ideas. Now the filters come back on. Ideas will be inappropriate or just plain fantastic. Release ownership! People often think their ideas are the best. They’re not. Encourage participants to be objective. Everyone gets 5 votes to put anywhere they want. They can put all 5 votes on one idea if they want.

Move on to the next question. Create new questions if it’s appropriate. Mind the time. This is a high-stress activity. One hour is a decent length session. Bring snacks if it’s going to be longer, and allow for breaks.

Step 4 – Tally the results

Use the voted ranking as a guide. As the designer, you did not reveal everything about the project to the group. They won’t know all the constraints. You might find the top 3 ideas don’t fit into your budget or projected manufacturing technique or recycling plan. That’s okay. Keep all of the ideas. In the end, you’re only looking for one.

Step 5 – Go back to your desk

Now is the time to sift through the ideas. Sit back and see what comes. Hopefully, you can look at things differently. You might even have a possible solution to work out. Feel free to congeal a few ideas into one. Feel free to throw it all away and host another session with different people and different questions.

Organized brainstorming can be a powerful design tool. Practice the technique. It works, but it may not work for you as stated. Tweak it as necessary. At Key Tech, we often call on brainstorming even before we’re stuck. It’s a great way to kickoff a project.

What are your favorite brainstorming techniques? What are the best ideas you’ve had as a result of brainstorming?

Photo credit: Willi Heidelbach