Driving Effective Conversations-Taking the Lead in Working Meetings

As a product designer, you need design inputs. Many of us have communication problems with our cross-functional teams about product ideas which then morph into product development problems later.

What can happen when we are taking the lead in working meetings, to get the information we need for design?

In this episode, we unravel the importance of communication and self-advocacy in the realm of product design. In our chat, we share how to take the lead in working meetings with cross-functional teams to get design inputs. Learn the art of preparation, involvement, maintaining an open mind, and making the most of the knowledge gained.

Let’s dig into the power of active communication and how it can not only resolve issues but also enhance outcomes for all parties involved. This episode is a unique blend of design engineering, self-advocacy, and quality during the design process. Tune in, absorb, and apply these insights to your professional journey.

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Supply Chain Management during Design, with Kevin Bailey (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

Dianna Deeney interviews Kevin Bailey, from Design 1st, about supply chain management during design: how product design engineers and product development leadership can be affected by and affect the supply chain for their products.

This interview is part of our series, “A Chat with Cross Functional Experts”. Our focus is speaking with people that are typically part of a cross-functional team within engineering projects. We discuss their viewpoints and perspectives regarding new products, the values they bring to new product development, and how they’re involved and work with product design engineering teammates.

About Kevin

Kevin Bailey is the Founder and CEO of Design 1st, a leading product development consultancy. With a dedicated team specializing in various aspects of product development, including industrial design, user experience, mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, Design 1st is at the forefront of delivering top-quality product designs. Kevin is known for his expertise in integrating cost considerations early in the design process and helping clients navigate supply chain solutions, ensuring a seamless development journey for their projects.

Kevin and Dianna talk about:

• How to approach supply chain management from a risk point-of-view, including balancing risk and opportunity.
• Kevin’s framework for successful supply chain management: FACT. Feasible, Available, Constraints, and Test.
• Engineers’ responsibilities toward supply chain management, and Leaderships responsibilities toward enabling those activities.
• His views of the current state of supply chain management challenges.

Hear Kevin’s take on why engineers need to factor in supply chain management while designing products and how crucial it is for leadership and other teammates to lend support to engineers when liaising with suppliers. We’ll also talk about how the size of the project and the roles within it should influence the product engineer’s approach.

Don’t miss out on Kevin’s thoughts on the intersection of AI and product development and a sneak peek into his company’s upcoming project. Join us for this insightful episode, packed with actionable advice for product development leaders, designers, and engineers.

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The Strategic Gamechanger: Quality during (Product) Design

Ever wished you could ace the art of product design using quality frameworks? Your wish is just about to come true!

We unravel the ADEPT framework, your magic wand for creating products that are not just satisfactory,  but loved by users. We’ll also be discussing how to lead a team effectively, conduct hands-on meetings, and choose the right participants. These handy tips will enable you to develop top-notch products using cross-functional collaboration.

We’re also unveiling how quality itself can be a strategic gamechanger in product design. The ADEPT framework, applicable to any quality tool, will bring alignment, discovery, examination, prioritization, and teamwork to your concept development process.

With Quality during Design’s unique approach and with these resources at your fingertips, you’re ready to step up your product design game.

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Leveraging Proven Frameworks for Concept Development

Ready to sharpen your toolset with the wisdom of ancient warriors?

Today’s episode includes knowledge to guide your journey into the world of quality tools and reliability frameworks. Drawing inspiration from the seven weapons of warrior monk Benkei, we introduce the first seven quality tools collected by industry quality professional, Ishikawa. Discover how these types of tools, more typically used for monitoring and continuous improvement, can also be leveraged for early concept development, thus leading to successful product designs.

For those seeking to put theory into practice, we delve into a strategic system model that centers on customer inputs, intended and unintended outputs, and the use process, demonstrating how these tools can be applied to concept development. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how quality thinking can revolutionize your product design and development process.

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Understanding Cross-Functional Collaboration

Are you prepared to untap the potential of cross-functional collaboration in product design?

On this episode of Quality during Design, we pull back the curtains on the dynamics of cross-functional teams in product design. Dianna Deeney, your host and seasoned quality professional, shares her insights on navigating the complex world of cross-functional teams, addressing common misconceptions, and maximizing brainstorming through structure.

We’re about to take a deep dive into the power of diverse perspectives in shaping a holistic vision for a product. Hear about the concept of internal customers in product design, the process of gathering design inputs, and unlocking the potential of directed co-work. This episode is a must-listen for anyone aiming for cross-functional co-work for design inputs.

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Exploring the Problem Space: A Key Principle for Robust Product Design and Project Success

Ever wonder why many product designs fail or why projects don’t always come out as planned? The answer might lie in how we approach the ‘problem space’ versus the ‘solution space’.

We’re celebrating two and a half years of Quality During Design podcast by revisiting the fundamental principles that guide our product design processes, and exploring how we can apply these principles to avoid common pitfalls.

We talk about the importance of staying longer in the problem space, using quality tools for teamwork, and understanding the power of pre-work in meetings.  Listen-in to challenge our thinking and push us to rethink how we engage with new projects. Plus, gain insights on how questioning, investigating, and experimental approaches during project planning will empower you to refine your design processes.

We’re inviting you to consider how the Quality During Design methodology can streamline your design process, reduce product failures, and create more meaningful customer experiences. This isn’t just about designing products; it’s about redefining how we perceive and approach the entire design process.

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Exploring Product Development and AI Through Literature:

Insights from ‘Loonshots’, ‘AI 2041’, ‘Quit’, and “How Big Things Get Done’ (QDD Book Cast)

Ever wondered how the world of product development can be viewed through the lens of a physicist? How the future of AI will impact our existence? What a champion poker player has to say about quitting, and what we can learn about product development from an architect?

This week, we dive headfirst into those questions with four fascinating reads: ‘Loonshots’ by Safi Bahcall,  ‘AI 2041’ by Kai Fu Lee and Chen Quifan, ‘Quit’ by Annie Duke, and ‘How Big Things Get Done’ by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner.

These books have reshaped my perspective and I believe they hold interesting insights for you too. We’ll explore how these books apply to new product development projects and how they can help us do it better. I also share why I thought some were better together, read in pairs.

For those of you who love a good discussion, I’m inviting you to join my virtual book club where we can further unravel these intriguing books. Let me know if you’re interested!

So, tune in for a conversation that promises to be as enlightening as it is engaging!

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Design for User Tasks using an Urgent/Important Matrix

We’ve collected all sorts of preliminary information about our users that we’re using for a new product design. We may be faced with so much data we’re not sure where to turn first, or what design feature is a priority. There’s a simple, 2-way matrix we can use to help us sort it all out: an urgent/important matrix. We may have used it to prioritize tasks for ourselves or as a management strategy for our team. But, we can also use it to evaluate the tasks our users take when using our product.

We talk more about this matrix in the podcast, and we talk through an example of how to use it to evaluate user tasks.

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Information Development in Design, with Scott Abel – Part 2 (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

Dianna Deeney interviews Scott Abel about why members of the technical documentation team should be brought into product design process earlier rather than later. And to encourage product design teams to incorporate the insights available from technical documentation professionals into their design decisions.

This episode is Part 2 of our interview. Part 1 (published earlier) was a discussion involving information development management. This Part 2 focuses on technical communication in design.

This interview is part of our series, “A Chat with Cross Functional Experts”. Our focus is speaking with people that are typically part of a cross-functional team within engineering projects. We discuss their viewpoints and perspectives regarding new products, the values they bring to new product development, and how they’re involved and work with product design engineering teammates.

About Scott

Scott Abel serves as Content Strategy Evangelist at Heretto. He also runs a consultancy called The Content Wrangler, which helps companies improve how they author, maintain, manage, and deliver technical product information to those who need it, when, where, and how they prefer it. He writes regularly for content industry publications, produces a series of content strategy-focused books for XML Press, and is a dynamic presenter often featured at content industry events worldwide.

Scott and Dianna talk about:

• Today’s approaches of information developers and how they work in project teams.
• Today’s challenges with content and why it’s not just an instruction manual. We talk about limits to the ability to scale, deliverability, personalization, and relationships with customer service call centers.
• Regulations, standards, and awards within the information developer’s world.
• How to approach, engage, and incorporate technical communication people and information developers into an engineering project.

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Information Development in Design, with Scott Abel – Part 1 (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

Dianna Deeney interviews Scott Abel about information development management, a discipline concerned with best practices for managing and coordinating all activities related to the development, production, and distribution of information. He shares ideas, strategies, and best practices for unifying all product information – technical documentation, product specifications, customer support, training, and on-boarding – in a single online knowledge center.

This is Part 1 of 2 episodes with Scott. In Part 1 (this episode) we talk about information development management. In Part 2 (next episode), we talk about technical communication as part of product design success.

This interview is part of our series, “A Chat with Cross Functional Experts”. Our focus is speaking with people that are typically part of a cross-functional team within engineering projects. We discuss their viewpoints and perspectives regarding new products, the values they bring to new product development, and how they’re involved and work with product design engineering teammates.

About Scott

Scott Abel serves as Content Strategy Evangelist at Heretto. He also runs a consultancy called The Content Wrangler, which helps companies improve how they author, maintain, manage, and deliver technical product information to those who need it, when, where, and how they prefer it. He writes regularly for content industry publications, produces a series of content strategy-focused books for XML Press, and is a dynamic presenter often featured at content industry events worldwide.

In Part 1, Scott and Dianna talk about:

• Why technical documentation is more important than it’s generally treated: it relates to the success of existing customers, the loyalty of customers to a brand, attracts new customers, and provides confidence to perspective customers.
• How technical documentation affects regulated products, and why “future fear of noncompliance” is a trap that leads to a loss of information management advancements and their benefits.
• What object-oriented technical communication management is and COPE (create once, publish everywhere).

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Crafting Effective Technical Documents for the Engineering Field

Ready to hone your technical writing skills as an engineer? This episode of the Quality During Design podcast is a must-listen! We delve into the critical role of technical communication in engineering, and why written communication skills are non-negotiable for engineers. Join me, Dianna Deeney, as we consider different perspectives to make your technical writing the best it can be.

Our chat takes us on a journey through the past, present, and future of technical writing, as we root ourselves in the realities of presenting findings, interpreting data, and making actionable decisions. In the spirit of past, present, and future, we discuss techniques to ensure that your writing is effective and reaches your audience – be it your project team, auditors, or a future engineer referencing your work. Grab your pen and paper or open your word document as we together make strides in improving our technical communication skills.

This Quality during Design Redux episode was originally “The Spirits of Technical Writing Past, Present, and Future”. Visit the podcast blog, here.

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