Before an engineer dives into a new project, It is worth taking the time to familiarize himself with the idea he has for a new product. This is important, because mostly an inventor just discovered a problem: Something is nagging him and the decision is made to find a solution.
Now it is time to find out more about the problem, and especially the solution.
But first a small introduction to influence on cost over time.
Costs and Time
This graphic is essential for understanding why the construction process starts very simple and gets only slowly more concrete. For the average person that finally has an idea to fix a problem, there is no second to waste and everything is directly set into motion to fix it.
For an engineer, the fast solution is not the goal. He wants to build something that solves the problem for a lot of people, but this means also that he has to make a product that works and doesn’t need to be fixed by the customer. To ensure this, every step towards this has to be taken with care.
In the early stages, a correction or complete change of the plan is very cheap, but once you are deep into the construction plans it gets expensive. This increases tenfold when the tools are made or the first prototype is build. You will be in the worst type of trouble if you find out the problem after the customer bought your product.
This is the reason why it is wise to take some time doing small stuff in the beginning. This is the time to do big errors, because all it may costs is a little pencil lead and eraser.
Doodling and note taking
What comes easy is starting with some very rough drawings. A lot of ideas have been known to be scribbled on napkins in a burst of creativity. This is also correct for diagrams, functions and other ideas. Getting them out on a medium helps to get the head free for new ideas and to further refine them. The security of it being available for later in your trusty notepad or even on a napkin gives you the chance to think a few step ahead.
It is definitely recommended to have something to write with you at all times. Write down every small idea you have and make a habit out of putting your mind onto paper. It will condition you into producing new ideas even faster.
It also gives you something nice to read when you are bored.
Drawing
Drawing then goes closer to the idea than simple doodling: You can get more concrete what you want, try out dimensions of the product. It is a chance to put it in its environment and see how the product behaves in its environment.
Feel free to use colors and be creative if you are a visual person. You have to know what you want and be able to see it from all sides, so that you can find out if it is worth going further.
Brainstorming
Besides producing something visual, it is important to get a lot of ideas out to your idea. What other problems might accompany your planned solution? What would be requirements for it? Where could you go after building the product? Just get everything out.
Also try not to focus too much on the positive aspects: how awesome it will be, how many problems it will solve and how it will make you rich. Try to find a balance by finding weaknesses and flaws. Finding them now can save you a lot of time. You should also try to find solutions to these problems and continue with the construction progress.
Creative exploring
A kind of story telling might give you an idea how the product is used. Where are the target customers and how will they interact with it. It builds a possible life cycle of the product and thus gives some information about the requirements, that the future customers might have for it.
What do I want to build?
Doing some, or all these things enables the creator to get a rounded idea about the product. Not rarely it can be that the solution turns out to be really unpractical during this process. It is important to remember that this is a good thing. The timeframe for this process should comfortably fit into a day. Depending on the product it can also easily be a few hours or even weeks. I nice new design for jewelry might not need too much decision making, a new type of complex machinery on the other hands needs a lot of thinking.
The earlier you find out you are wrong, the less energy you put into it. You can turn to new ideas and examine. No need to feel bad about it.
If your solution still makes sense after these discovery steps, you can continue getting more concrete. This will be done in the next article.
To be continued
Did you read the first part already: What does an Engineer do?