Why Your Cross-Functional Team Isn’t Communicating Effectively (And How to Fix It)

Have you ever watched a promising product idea slowly die in the fuzzy space between “great concept” and “actual development”? You’re not alone.

The journey from product idea to market-ready solution contains a critical yet often overlooked phase: concept development. This is where cross-functional teams must align their diverse perspectives to create a solid foundation for design. But as many product developers discover, this is precisely where communication frequently breaks down.

In this episode, we dive deep into why cross-functional teams struggle to communicate effectively during early concept development and how to fix it.

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The Hidden Costs of Poor Concept Development in Product Design

The hidden costs of poor product development can devastate your project timeline, budget, and ultimate market success. Drawing from Dr. Robert Cooper’s research, this episode reveals how skipping proper concept development—the critical “fuzzy front end” of product design—leads many teams into a costly “ready-fire-aim” approach.

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Brighten Your Creative Spark

Ever hit that wall where your creative tank feels bone dry? That moment when you’ve been grinding away at your projects, head down for so long that when someone asks for innovation, you come up empty? You’re not alone.

Creative slumps happen when we get too immersed in our specialized domains. As engineers and designers, we develop expertise through consistent application of familiar tools and techniques. But that same specialization creates mental echo chambers where we recycle the same ideas and follow habitual thought patterns. The result? When innovation is needed most, we feel frustratingly blocked.

The solution lies in cross-pollination – deliberately exposing ourselves to diverse inputs that spark unexpected connections.

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Choosing a Confidence Level for Test using FMEA

We’re developing requirements for our product, including setting reliability requirements. Or we’re setting acceptance criteria for our test plans.

What confidence levels do we choose? We don’t have to blindly set them – we can base it off the risks of failure, using our FMEA (failure mode effects analysis).

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AI in Design: Coming Full Circle

As a Generation X engineer, I’ve witnessed remarkable shifts in how we approach design engineering.

Recently, I saw an article suggesting Gen X is frustrated because the skills we learned early in our careers no longer apply in today’s technological landscape. This characterization made me pause and reflect. While our tools have certainly evolved dramatically, I believe we’re experiencing something more nuanced than obsolescence.

With AI in design, we’re coming full circle, with artificial intelligence and machine learning enhancing rather than replacing the fundamental skills we developed.

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5 Aspects of Good Reliability Goals and Requirements

Good reliability requirements are going to drive our design decisions relating to the concept, the components, the materials, and other stuff. So, the moment to start defining reliability requirements is early in the design process. But, what makes a well-defined reliability requirement? There are five aspects it should cover: do you know what they are? 

We’ll describe what makes a good reliability requirement and examples of common (but not good) requirements.

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Supplier Agreements: The Good, The Bad, and The Quality

In today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape, the link between product quality and supplier agreements is more critical than ever.

Custom product development can be complex, and regarding suppliers, we can uncover hidden challenges. These come up when suppliers are not aligned with the quality standards necessary for our products to be successful.

Join us as we discuss various types of supplier agreements commonly encountered in new product launches. They are important, but do they have what you need to ensure quality?

Tune in to learn how to transform your supplier partnerships into an invaluable asset in your quest for quality excellence.

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Practice Makes Improvement in Subjective Probability Estimations

Does the phrase “Subjective Probability Estimation” make you feel uncomfortable? If you’re a data-driven professional, you’re likely wary of each of those terms on their own, let alone combining them into one thing.

But we sometimes need to do it. And we can practice to get better at it.

In this episode, we emphasize the importance of subjective probability estimations in decision-making, especially in situations where concrete data may be unavailable or impractical.

We talk about:

• Exploring the discomfort of subjective probability estimations
• Utilizing Monte Carlo simulations for complex systems analysis
• Addressing bias and improving estimation accuracy

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Quality Tools are Legos of Development (and Their 7 Uses)

How are quality tools Legos of development?

We talk about two philosophies of brick building and our use of the family of quality tools.

We also talk about seven uses of quality tools in product development.

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Cultivating a Culture of Craftsmanship within Quality Systems

Tradespeople bring expertise, innovation, high quality, and leadership to product development. If we’re lucky enough to be able to work with them, they’re an invaluable part of the engineering team.

What about when we’re working without them? How can we create a culture of craftsmanship in a company that uses a quality system?

In this episode, we talk about the crafts’ and trades’ relationship with quality systems, and steps toward creating a culture of craftsmanship.

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The Mighty Power of Mini Reports

When you perform analysis and share it with others to make a decision, do you sometimes just send the file with a blurb in an email? Only to not quite remember what you did later, when you need it most.

There’s a simple, relatively fast thing to do: a Mini Report. And it provides so much more than just jogging a memory.

Mini reports are a valuable tool for communication in engineering. By using them, engineers can enhance team collaboration, streamline decision-making, and provide mentorship opportunities to junior colleagues.

We talk about:

• Importance of maintaining records for future reference
• How mini reports improve team communication
• Elements every mini report should contain
• Benefits of organized documentation for teams
• Role of mini reports in mentoring junior engineers
• Potential for using mini reports in professional presentations

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Celebrating a Year of Insights

Celebrating a year of insights and community growth, this episode reflects on key moments, popular episodes, and the future direction of the Quality During Design podcast.

2024 included episodes focused on actionable insights, deep-dive series, expert interviews, and insightful book reviews.

With gratitude for listeners and a commitment to quality, we look ahead to new topics and collaborations for 2025.

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Social Dynamics with Yakira Mirabito (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

Dianna Deeney interviews Yakira Mirabito about social dynamics within engineering and how it affects decision making. The episode focuses on improving design reviews and making them more inclusive.

Yakira explains how things like personalities and power dynamics can really affect decisions made by design teams. She gives advice to engineers on how to prepare for these reviews, such as how to give presentations effectively and encourage helpful feedback from team members. She also highlights useful tools, like the “Identity Wheel,” to help people understand each other’s backgrounds and avoid biases when making decisions. The episode is a great resource for anyone who wants to improve teamwork and create better 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 Yakira

Yakira Mirabito is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT whose work falls within design theory and engineering management. Her research examines how sociotechnical factors influence design decisions using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Her research interests include design behavior, cognitive biases, and social dynamics within engineering contexts. Yakira’s work enhances current design methods and tools, empowering engineers to build more innovative and equitable systems. She received her BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University and her MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Yakira and Dianna talk about

• how social dynamics, cognitive biases, and power structures can influence engineering design reviews and decision-making processes.
• recommendations for improving design review meetings through clear communication, inclusive facilitation techniques, and a focus on giving and receiving constructive feedback.
• the need for engineers to develop self-awareness, particularly regarding their own biases and how their identities shape their interactions within teams.
• how to effectively navigate feedback, especially from superiors, and the importance of justifying design decisions using evidence, requirements, and user needs.
• the importance of democratic and inclusive design processes that value the diverse perspectives of all team members, including end users, and recognize the influence of power dynamics.

Yakira’s suggestions involve awareness and evaluating our decision making, including stopping to consider if the feedback we want to accept really links back to the objective results of our projects.

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How Engineers Changed Thanksgiving

Have you ever stopped to consider the engineering marvels that make festive meals like Thanksgiving possible? Engineering has played a crucial role in ensuring we can enjoy fresh-tasting vegetables and perfectly preserved foods all year round.

Beyond the realm of food preservation, this episode serves as a tribute to the unsung heroes of our holiday tables: engineers. These individuals are responsible for the seamless functioning of everyday items that enhance our lives. By shedding light on these engineering feats, we hope to inspire a greater appreciation for the engineering community’s contributions to making life safer, easier, and more enjoyable.

As a fellow engineer, I am proud to be part of a profession that has such a profound impact on the world. By sharing stories of innovation and success, we can foster a deeper understanding of the vital role engineers play in shaping our daily experiences. Whether it’s through the development of new technologies or the improvement of existing processes, engineers continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, ensuring that our holiday feasts are as delicious, healthy, and convenient as ever.

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Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, and VR in Design Engineering

Discover how predictive analytics, machine learning, AI (artificial intelligence), and VR (virtual reality) reshape some of the ways we approach design. In this episode, we journey from the origins of predictive analytics to the convergence of big data, IoT, digital twins and more, paving the way for innovative product development. We’ll also discuss the potential of virtual reality to enhance collaboration and communication within design processes.

This episode isn’t just about embracing the latest tech trends; it’s about knowing when simpler solutions will suffice and the critical role of data stewardship. This overview will help you to understand the big picture of where these tools fit into your design process. Listen-in so you can better choose when to use them to optimize your design engineering endeavors, or not.

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